Re: [tlug] And they said it was Free?

["Scott McLennan" <scottmclennan@example.com>]

> But if they would give away doughnuts for free without wrapping at the
next
> corner which might taste somewhat different, which would you pick.

Well. The wrapping is important but I wouldnt want to eat doughnuts
with a strange taste...

> You still don't get it.
> Mandrake is going to stay free, you just have to pay for the extra. If you
look
> at RedHat, they are doing the same thing.
> Charge $ for services. Sell boxed versions that have some nifty extras
like
> StarOffice or RealPlayer that isn't really free software.  But you can
still
> download readhat except that extension cd. Same with Mandrake.

It seems more "full on". You have to give your credit card and they seem
to be asking for more money then just buying the CD. The pricing scale
goes up to thousands of dollars with the default being set on a large
amount.
You have to make a conscious effort to 'avoid' the paying part of the site.
With redhat, you
can just go to "Download" and there it is. With Redhat, you have to make
a special effort to find the 'paying  part'. The redhat default is 'Vous
dont pay'.
With Mandrake it seems that the mandrake default is that 'Vous pay'. You
have to
make a special effort to 'avoid the paying part'. This is contradictory to
the
overal mentality of the Free Software Argument... Seems more money hungry
which is a no no in the FSF world as far as I knew/thought...

It seems more like "If you want this.. then you must pay for it"...
Once they introduce a pricing system like that, it's very easy to
sting the user for more money. It's not just simple html "We are
doing this for the world for nothing. Arent we great!" but "We
are a business and can you cough up as much as you can for this".
My point is they can easily change the 'this' part overnight. So in the end
analysis "Is it really Free"? or better
"Will (all of it) it stay Free for a long time?".....and for how long?

> > I do help out with Charity in other areas but...
>
> *plonk*

Yep. The pilot organization for brain disease people. (Im not one of them
but.. ). We have a sobadaimae branch.