On Saturday 22 July 2006 09:52, Possum wrote:
> This may sound ignorant, but what is the "licensed code?" I mean, what is
> the benefit of having SLED over OpenSUSE besides the support?
It's their integration, adobe, mp3 support etc. I'm actually installing both
to compare them. Obviously their business model is a bit different, and to
some extent flawed.
All other mayor distro's will make security updates and patches available for
free. Novell charge for that service. This on big part of how they make
money.
The flaw is really in not letting the user know that updates are available
unless you subscribe to their service. You can get the 60 day license, but
once it expires you will not know that there are fixes available.
Much better would be to let you know. Let you see all the things that is now
security or otherwise flawed. But the notification systems just locks you out
and you are out of the loop. Which for many people will mean there are not
updates available.
Besides from not fitting entirely in how the Linux community is used to be
able to have a free ride, Novell insist that you pay for updates. In all $50
is not very much money for the service. More surprising really is that nobody
is charging for that. True, in the long run they make their investment back
as others continue to contribute in different ways.
It's not a common business model to bank on the goodwill you plan to produce.
Which says a lot about most companies, whom for the most part just wants to
get your money any which way. Just look on all the immoral sales being done
by sales people pushing products on people regardless of their need or want,
because they can.
The fundamental value of open source is that free to have and contribute back
which creates this big circle of "life". Quite interesting to observe. There
are few other communities that has such a volume of goodwill. It's no wonder
businesses have a hard time understanding us.
--Steve Szmidt
"To enjoy the right of political self-government, men must be capable of personal self-government - the virtue of self-control. A people without decency cannot be secure in its liberty. From the Declaration Principles ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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