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Free + Community
Free + Community
Posted Oct 21, 2004 7:13 UTC (Thu) by davidw (subscriber, #947)Parent article: Ubuntu Linux and the future of Debian
I think the thing that interests me most about both the Ubuntu and UserLinux ideas is that neither one of them is going to give up on the free aspect of Debian, so I can still install it wherever I want with nary a thought to licenses. They also both seem to have figured out that some commercial backing is good, but a community is critical. Ubuntu's challeng is going to be to create a community that gets involved, without feeling like free labor for a corporation. So far, it looks like they are moving in the right direction to accomplish this. It will be interesting to see how things develop on the business side of things with Ubuntu, as well...
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Free + Community
Posted Oct 21, 2004 19:13 UTC (Thu) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link]
It will be interesting to see how things develop on the business side of things with Ubuntu, as well...I'm wondering how long they will be able to pay for shipping on the free disks they are offering. From all indications Mark Shuttleworth is a generous person, but that (international) shipping bill could get pretty big after a while.
Free + Community
Posted Oct 28, 2004 8:38 UTC (Thu) by joib (guest, #8541) [Link]
I'm wondering how long they will be able to pay for shipping on the free disks they are offering.Compared to the cost of employing ~30 people to work on Ubuntu, I'm pretty sure that shipping CD:s around the world is peanuts.
But yeah, I do wonder what their business plan is. Mark Shuttleworth can probably afford to bleed more red ink than most startups, but at some point they have to get profitable if they intend their effort to be sustainable.