<DIV>umm... disclaimers and all that notwithstanding, when it comes to business models and ethical language it's pretty hard to stay on topic. This started out trying to organize some community based education focused on open source. As this thread demonstrates, the best of intentions still needs to pay the rent on space, feed the teacher, and provide the hardware to promote open-source use. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Brings to mind a Robert Heinlein acronym; TANSTAAFL - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. I've forgotten which book it was, maybe somebody else knows. What this project needs is either a grant-writer or a sponsor with the dollars to make it sustainable. Computersforchildren have about a hundred sponsors, not just M$. Take that list from their website as a starting point, and you might find one (or ten) of them less opposed to open-source than you think. But you won't get anything if
you
don't ask for it sometime. Basic rule of business. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Here's a last brain-burst (are we up to 4-cents worth now?) There are computer labs in local community centers - my kids all went to the Gloria J Parks center at Main and Heath, near UB, for example. They are all about facilitating community education. I still have some contacts there, if the business model eventually develops beyond the drawing board. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Mark</DIV> <DIV><BR><BR><B><I>"David W. Aquilina" <david@starkindler.us></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">On Tue, Jan 24, 2006 at 10:32:29PM -0500, peter@thecybersource.com wrote:<BR>> 2. How is Microsoft different than RedHat (Fedora Project). They are<BR>> both publicly traded companies with an obligation to their stock<BR>> holders. RedHat created a very innovative i
dea with
Fedora, a public<BR>> beta forum to test new software in the waters of users. <BR><BR>Before I address the comment above, I want to stress that all "standard" disclaimers apply - I'm only speaking for myself, not for my employer. All opinions have always been my own, and from this e-mail address will always be. Now that that's out of the way... <BR><BR>Red Hat *is* different than Microsoft in that they give a lot back to the community. Take, for example, the number of contributions to the kernel, to glibc, and GNOME, to name a few. A partial - though still incomplete list - can be found at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RedHatContributions. Many of these items (for example, GNOME and Xorg) are even used by Red Hat's competitors such as Sun and Novell. <BR><BR>More telling, they also contribute to projects which they don't commercialize at all. The best example is the One Laptop Per Child project - hardly any monetary gain there, yet they're contributing in a big way to it.
<BR><BR>I don't think it's too hard to see that with Red Hat and Fedora it's not just about money, it's about the community as well. <BR><BR>-- <BR>David W. Aquilina<BR>david@starkindler.us<BR>_______________________________________________<BR>nflug mailing list<BR>nflug@nflug.org<BR>http://www.nflug.org/mailman/listinfo/nflug<BR></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV><BR></DIV><BR><BR><DIV>
<P>Mark Robson</P></DIV><p>
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