"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:2006-03-23
lots of companies actually use debian, i know quite a few.
and the reasons are obvious, they can install debian stable, setup their shit, and then just add a note in the calender a few years later when that server is no longer needed, or a few changes may be needed.
however, they dont go broadcast that they use debian, they just use it.
They dont give money or any other support to debian, which is their right, even though we might think debian deserves it(which they surely do).
Debian keeps going anyway, which just shows that one can trust them, and i would trust them any day to look after my freedoms, and make sure i dont get into a closed-software-hell without specifically knowing it. AKA - if i dont specifically add non-free, i wont get nonfree crap.
Member since:2006-01-02
Vaughn-Nichols is a bit of a hack: http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/12/more-shameless-copying-by-ewe....
Member since:
2006-05-12
I am not familiar with Vaughan-Nichols, but maybe he cares because he would like to see Debian improve.
If his points are valid, I don't think they should be overlooked in favor of smearing him instead.
Sure Ubuntu has corporate support, but the worth of a distro is determined in large part by the package manager it uses, and Ubuntu uses debians.
Debian works the way it is, but I think many companies are reluctant to launch mission critical services on Ubuntu server, it is considered a "desktop distro" and I don't think they respect it as a big iron solution.
Many of the people who are familiar with Ubuntu would probably prefer to managing Debian server to Red Hat or Solaris.
I think it would be cool to see some companies get behind Debian and deploy products on it, and likely so does Vaughan-Nichols.