[wellylug] Very Important: Meeting of 13th Feb 2005

[Centurion Computer Technology (2005) Ltd]

On Thu, 2006-02-16 at 11:53 +1300, David Murray wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Feb 2006, Jim Cheetham wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, Feb 16, 2006 at 11:11:01AM +1300, Centurion Computer Technology (2005) Ltd wrote:
> >>
> >>> What about WellyLUG walking with a large version of Tux in the next
> >>> Christmas Parade here in Wellington? We could hand out CDs of SuSE, with a
> >>> pamphlet detailing how to find WellyLUG, all the way from the northern end
> >>> of Lampton Quay right down to Courtenay Place.
> >>
> >> Why push Suse a commercial distro which you have to pay for or it's
> >
> > The whole point of handing out CDs is more interesting that worrying
> > about which distro to select ...

But don't hand out a busted distro that is just a marketing toy for a
commercial vendors Pro version in that scenario.  The choice of distro
we hand out is important!
> 
> Yes. That was my point - handing out CDs of a distro(s) that newbies will 
> find easy to use.
> 
> I personally have found OpenSuSE to be very easy to use after freely 
> downloading it via BitTorrent from Novell's website.
> 
Until you decide to setup a samba share or postgres database on it.

> I don't think that a distro has to have only and exclusively Open Source 
> software. I think that if adding a few useful but propriatary packages 
> will give Linux more appeal... then so beit - add those packages.
That's  not the issue.

The issue is that the open source stuff they do provide is in some cases
broken or doesn't work properly if at all with their 'Oh so fancy' gui
tools.

Just take your beloved Opensuse.  The samba server gui tools just
doesn't work, the postgres database isn't working or installable.

> Why should the open source nature of Linux prevent people from running 
> proprietary software if those packages are what they want to use?
> 
It doesn't.  The problem is where commercial linux vendors giveaway
hobbled versions of their distro's were the Open source tools are busted
in order to force users to buy the Professional version which has it all
working properly.
  
> Choice is, after all, choice.
Yep exactly.  I choose community developed distros like Debian because I can trust them 
to work without all the marketing bullshit.

> I personally prefer as much Open Source as is reasonably possible.
> 
> But as soon as Adobe Photoshop (or Pagemaker, etc) is available for 
> Linux... I'll be one of the first in the queue to buy a copy, because 
> they are good programmes that work well and are well known in the 
> industry; and skills with those programmes are employable.

And thats fine.... As long as they don't bring out a linux distro that
has busted versions of the gimp, scribus, and openoffice, and then say
buy our Pro version which comes with Photoshop, pagemaker, and Adobe pdf
writer which actually work.



-- 
        Daniel Reurich
        Centurion Computer Technology (2005) Limited
        
        Ph: (04) 565 1832
        Mobile: (021) 797 722
            
        email: daniel at centurion.net.nz