On Fri, 5 Mar 1999, Frankie wrote:
> ) Obviously recommending debian to colleagues/associates/friends
> ) sticking a debian logo on your website
> ) pestering major sites to display a debian logo
> ) Making sure that articles are written for stuff like
> slashdot/32bitsonline etc that mention debian.
This is reasonable.
> > When potential customers discover Debian is purely a volunteer
> > effort, they will assume that Debian is some kind of slap-dash,
> > low quality product. Most of these companies will want a
> > distribution that has corporate support available for it.
> > Unfortunately, I don't see any improvement of the situation,
> > unless such a commercial company actually gets established.
>
> Valid point - couldn't the volunteer nature be made into a positive
> thing? Like that the people who work on debian are every bit as
> qualified, but WANT TO.
This isn't. Why should we agonize over explaining to
coroporations that Debian is a volunteer effort "but
really it's all right and doesn't hurt anything", when
GNU, Gnome, X, etc. are also largely volunteer programs?
And for that matter, DJGPP, Nethack, a half dozen
compilers and assemblers running in MS-DOS, all of
DECUS, most standards setting efforts, and probably a
whole lot more.
There's a name for societies so dominated by material
concerns that all issues must be economic ones: savagery.
And a name for societies which have solved their
immediate need for sustenance and allow portions of
their populations to strive toward transcendent goals:
Civilization. Debian wouldn't be possible if we
weren't part of civilization; its existence is one of the
thing historians a thousand years from now will take into
account when appraising our culture.
So why apologize?
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mike Shupp
California State University, Northridge
Graduate Student, Dept. of Anthropology
http://www.csun.edu/~ms44278/index.htm
