[svlug] Fedora or Ubuntu for novis

[Tim Bird]

Don Marti wrote:
> The main problem with getting companies to make
> code Free is _not_ managers acting in the interests
> of their shareholders or in their own interest.
> The main problem is just inertia.  If the policy
> at a company has been "never release source code"
> you have to do something to make it happen the first
> time, and you can't justify putting in the time to do
> it unless you can say that you have to.
> 
> If you're Joe Product Manager and you want to put
> source code for your device on the net, or on the
> bundled CD, you can easily explain it as "we're
> complying with our obligation under the license."
> If you don't have the GPL to point to, _you_ have
> to come up with the reason why you're sharing code,
> and it had better not be "community mumble mumble
> hippy dippy 2.0 mumble mumble."

That's exactly right.  I love this last part you wrote.

Most of the reasons that community guys try to give
to product guys for mainlining stuff (as opposed
to just publishing as required by license) don't
really have a compelling ring to them, to the product
guys anyway, and amount to so much mumbling like you
say.

May I quote you on this?
 -- Tim

=============================
Tim Bird
Architecture Group Chair, CE Linux Forum
Senior Staff Engineer, Sony Corporation of America
=============================