[wellylug] Microsoft At WellyLUG last night.

[Grant McLean]

On Wed, 2005-07-13 at 09:39 +1200, Cliff Pratt wrote:
> David Murray wrote:
> > 
> > As for the LUGs, we know that Linux comfortably occupies
>  > the high moral ground. We know that the GPL will keep our
>  > OS free. We have confidence that the future of Linux is
>  > bright and confident.
> > 
> Linux may, though that is debatable. DeadRat, Sooky, 
> MadDriver and all the others that charge for "service" while 
> providing none, do not.

So a company that pays developers, testers etc to work on Open Source
software is not providing a service?

One part of the service is providing a steady stream of updated packages
including bug fixes and security fixes.  You might argue that much of
this work just involves integrating updates from the upstream package,
but in many cases, those updates originated from paid Red Hat employees.

I don't personally think that what Red Hat charges for their Enterprise
Linux product represents good value for money but I certainly wouldn't
claim that they 'provide no service'.

Grant