Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 1st Feb 2008 20:56 UTC, submitted by irbis
"At a recent Australian Linux conference, Sam Varghese reported that two Debian developers pointed out that the Debian Project needs more corporate support for 'men, money and machines' to advance the operating system. They're right. It does. They also pointed out that many companies, such as HP, IBM, Silicon Graphics and Google, either use Debian Linux internally, or actually incorporate it into products. For example, HP uses Debian 'Etch' 4.0 in its new t5735 thin-client device. Right again. Debian, either directly or through related Linux distributions such as Xandros, is used both by Linux enthusiasts and Fortune 500 companies. Of course, you couldn't prove that by the vast majority of Debian developers who never see a thin dime from their Debian work. Or, I should add, get access to new hardware, travel expenses to Debian developer conferences and so on."
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Member since:
2005-11-05
The author of this article, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, has been highly critical of Debian in the past. It might not be fair to say he hates Debian, but it wouldn't be miles away from the mark either. So we don't have an exactly fair hearing here.
He also overlooks one thing. If you don't have much or any money and no "board of directors" who are obvious targets, people tend not to sue you. Giving a grant to Debian could merely fatten then up for patent trolls and all the rest, something Debian people are keenly aware of.
Finally, it's a (partly) free world so what's the problem? If Debian want to do things their way, why shouldn't they? As a Debian user I have every reason to be grateful for it, though personally I would prefer to see a bit more organization, a little more of a chain of command, and a higher-profile Debian Project Leader (folks who become the DPL seem promptly to disappear into a black hole). However, that's just my 2 cents and no more significant than that.
If Ubuntu wants to take up where Debian leaves off, then good luck to them. In truth, though, the jury is still a long way out as to whether Ubuntu will be able to do that. It's clear that the project has problems of its down. In my experience, so far, Debian Testing has consistently provided a more stable desktop OS than any version of Ubuntu I've tried/