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Why companies don't support Debian (LinuxWatch)
Why companies don't support Debian (LinuxWatch)
Posted Jan 31, 2008 23:03 UTC (Thu) by jmm (subscriber, #34596)Parent article: Why companies don't support Debian (LinuxWatch)
What the article describes as a disadvantage is actually Debian's greatest strength: Having no significant money involved leads to full independence. Debian can't go bankrupt (think Progeny) or be bought out by a competitor (think Novell ;-) ) The same goes for Ubuntu: It's essentially a gadget of a dotcom millionaire, who also afforded himself a space flight. If he finds himself a new hobby, Ubuntu is doomed. No other distribution than Debian (except maybe Slackware) has a track record of delivering quality releases for fourteen years.
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Why companies don't support Debian (LinuxWatch)
Posted Feb 1, 2008 8:21 UTC (Fri) by branden (subscriber, #7029) [Link]
I should set the record straight as Progeny's fourth employee and the only one hired in 2000 who was there continuously until it closed. Progeny didn't go into bankruptcy; Progeny just plain ran out of money and ceased operations. As far as I know, it still legally exists as a business entity and will do so until dissolved by its principals, those being the Board of Directors--or, if certain paperwork is not filed with the states of Indiana and/or Delaware, until it is purged from their incorporation and operating license rolls. But it may take years for that to happen. You probably meant "bankrupt" in a colloquial sense, but lots of companies go into bankruptcy (e.g., United Airlines). Bankruptcy was not Progeny's fate.
Hmmm. That gives me an idea.
Posted Feb 1, 2008 21:54 UTC (Fri) by jd (guest, #26381) [Link]
Maybe the board could be convinced to rent out the Proginy name to anyone starting a roofnet or metronet, for some very nominal value. Keeps the name as a commercial entity, makes them more money than they'd have otherwise, and has the potential of being as profitable in the long term as any chain store where the connection with the parent is essentially just a naming license.Or, to get this back to Debian, since the name has no real market value any more, maybe they could donate it to Debian to give Debian the corporate credibility without having to have anything to do with corporations.
Why companies don't support Debian (LinuxWatch)
Posted Feb 3, 2008 2:24 UTC (Sun) by jbailey (subscriber, #16890) [Link]
Of course, the fact that Progeny refused to sell services didn't help. The reason I wound up getting involved with Ubuntu in the first place was because despite everyone saying that Progeny's business was selling Debian support, the sales reps wouldn't allow someone to buy that. This was Spring 2004.