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Which would you more likely do?
Buy a gentoo CD
39%
 39%  [ 23 ]
Donate via gentoo.org's website
60%
 60%  [ 35 ]
Total Votes : 58

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kvh009
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 6:21 am    Post subject: Gentoo CD Reply with quote

8O Gentoo should put their distribution on a CD and charge for it. Gentoo should not pass up the opportunity for revenue. There is no difference between gentoo and slackware or any other distribution that sells it on CDs.
:idea: Which would people rather do: Buy a gentoo CD at cheapbytes.com or donate on gentoo.org? I personally have a dialup modem and would rather pay $10 to get a CD.
:!: I recall reading many times over that Linux related software misses the opportunity for revenue. I don't see a down-side to selling a gentoo CD.
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garyura
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 7:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe they can provide & sell the CD that include the Gentoo Linux & also some off the usefull app (source code) like KDE & GNOME, so the people that have the slow internet connection can still using the Linux with a full of optimizie for their PC & have fun

<<<Garyura>>>
8)
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Belg
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 8:14 am    Post subject: Donate, but only if.. Reply with quote

I would much rather donate money than buy a CD, but I really don't want to have to deal with Paypal :p.
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ordior
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 9:45 am    Post subject: Re: Donate, but only if.. Reply with quote

Belg wrote:
I would much rather donate money than buy a CD, but I really don't want to have to deal with Paypal :p.


I have a fast internet connection (its almost a prerequisite for Gentoo) and a CD burner so I dont need to buy a cd. But I'd be happier paying for a CD from LinuxEmporium than using PayPal, find an alternative to PayPal and I will make a donation.
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pjp
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 11:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would rather donate money myself. I have paid for other distros and have been very unsatisifed, so I will not pay until AFTER
I am satisfied with the product. To be fair, I'm talking RedHat 5 and older, Suse around the same timeframe, Caldera even
before that, Slackware way before that and possibly others. I've spent alot of money on a product that wasn't ready for me,
nor I it. So far, I'm doing OK with Gentoo. The other problem comes after I've been "satisfied". I personally do not trust Credit
Cards over the internet...

Just my opinion...
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Fragadelic
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 1:10 pm    Post subject: Re: Gentoo CD Reply with quote

kvh009 wrote:
8O Gentoo should put their distribution on a CD and charge for it. Gentoo should not pass up the opportunity for revenue. There is no difference between gentoo and slackware or any other distribution that sells it on CDs.
:idea: Which would people rather do: Buy a gentoo CD at cheapbytes.com or donate on gentoo.org? I personally have a dialup modem and would rather pay $10 to get a CD.
:!: I recall reading many times over that Linux related software misses the opportunity for revenue. I don't see a down-side to selling a gentoo CD.


They are working towards a CD to sell but when it will be available is not known.

A question for kanuslupus:

Why is it that ONLY Linux is held to the "I won't pay for it till I'm satisfied" mentality?

Can you do that with a car at your Car Dealership or clothes? I think too many people take advantage of the fact that it is available for free downloads and put themselves in a mindset that they won't pay for it until "The Most Stable Version Comes Out". Well if you are waiting for that, you will never pay for it. The software is being written for a multitude of PC hardware configuration combinations.

There are hardware issues with Geforce cards and older Athlon's/Motherboards. How do you think you would be received by your local PC shop if you tried to tell them you wouldn't pay for it until it was stable. You'd get laughed right out of the store.

Yes linux can be complicated with a great deal of applications installed by most other distributions but how stable would Windows be with that many applications installed?

If you have a slow connection - buy a CD.

If you have a fast connection and a burner - donate.
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imadork
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 2:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Fragadelic wrote:
Why is it that ONLY Linux is held to the "I won't pay for it till I'm satisfied" mentality?

Can you do that with a car at your Car Dealership or clothes?


Actually, you can, kinda - both those products have return policies and/or warranties. The "I won't pay for it until I'm satisfied" mentality is tempered by the fact that there is some recourse if you buy something that won't meet your needs, or is fundamentally broken, and return it in a reasonable amount of time. (I bought a used car recently, and the head gasket promptly blew a few weeks later. The dealer stood behind their warranty and fixed it.)

Why is software any different? Because everyone assumes that if software doesn't work as advertised, it's your fault, not the software vendors for writing crappy code. And that if you bring an opened software package back because "it didn't work", they assume you just copied it and are out to freeload.

with Gentoo, the value proposition is quite simple. It's free to download and use, but those CVS servers need to be maintained somehow. Here's where you get to see how many freeloaders there really are: if there's not enough money coming in to maintain the servers, the whole portage system goes away, and Gentoo ends up being less useful.

FWIW, from what I've seen since I started tinkering with Gentoo in the last week, I'd gladly pay a small amount a month to "subscribe" to Gentoo, even if the subscription doesn't get me any extras, but just because it's useful to me.
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dnaquin
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 2:33 pm    Post subject: CD or Donate Reply with quote

I'd much rather buy a CD than donate. I have a fast internet connection, I have a CDRW, but I still rather have a CD from the manufacturer.

Now, given the opportunity, I'd buy a CD from Gentoo rather than donate (especially over Paypal). If and only if the proceeds from the CD actually went to Gentoo.
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gilgames
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 7:17 pm    Post subject: Re: CD or Donate Reply with quote

dnaquin wrote:
I'd much rather buy a CD than donate. I have a fast internet connection, I have a CDRW, but I still rather have a CD from the manufacturer.


Gentoo has proven it's worth to me already, so I don't mind paying the developers. In Gentoo's case(or any other fast evolving product), buying a CD just isn't practical because it's already antique almost as soon as it's made (now where have I heard that before :wink: ).

So I'd rather donate and keep downloading the stuff(iso's and tarballs).

Just my 0.02 EUR
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jonemi
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 8:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Official Gentoo CDs could be given as gifts!
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betatim
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 10:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i don't realy need a cd(fast inet link) and don't really want to donate money to the team because i think people doing this sort of brilliant stuff do it because they really like their job/hobby and don't really need to be paid for it. i would rather like to buy a cool shirt7post/what ever you need to put on your desk/case to show you are a gentoo'er. and if you charge me 5 bucks for a small sticker i know that 4 of them will be spend for keeping the servers alive and 1 to pay the firm making them. that would be a way of financing gentoo. you would do something sensible with your money(donate) and get something very cool and useful back(not a old outdated cd)
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niyogi
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2002 11:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i hate paypal. so i'd rather donate money by some other method. paypal is the *worst* company in the world with some of the most vicious viral marketing tactics in the world. so easy to get duped by them. why the hell should i be a member of paypal to donate money?

bleh. *goes to the toilet to vomit*. :D
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pjp
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2002 12:34 am    Post subject: Re: Gentoo CD Reply with quote

Fragadelic wrote:
A question for kanuslupus:

Why is it that ONLY Linux is held to the "I won't pay for it till I'm satisfied" mentality?


FOREWARD: Please do not take any offense to remarks made, they are only intended to be answeres, not rude or otherwise.

First off, imadork had some good points a few posts up.

Q: Why is it that ONLY Linux is held to the "I won't pay for it till I'm satisfied" mentality?
A: It isn't really, I'll leave it at that.

Q: Can you do that with a car at your Car Dealership or clothes?
A: Yes, I have test driven the car I purchased and even some I didn't just cause I wanted to see how they were to drive. I also try on clothes if I don't think they will fit. There are warrantees as Imadork mentioned. Also, I would never buy an "open sourced" car, sorry, but my life is at stake, and I'd want the transmission/engine/brakes/steering to work fairly reliably together. I wouldn't buy clothes that had seams that didn't come together properly either. I'm not trying to criticize, but linux distros are still working on that kinda thing. I did mention that "linux wasn't ready for me, nor I it." Why waste the time and minimal costs in charging my credit card and then crediting my card because I returned a product?

Q: I think too many people take advantage of the fact that it is available for free downloads and put themselves in a mindset that they won't pay for it until "The Most Stable Version Comes Out". Well if you are waiting for that, you will never pay for it. The software is being written for a multitude of PC hardware configuration combinations.
A: I'm not looking for the most stable version... there never will be one... that'd be like saying I'll buy a PC when the fastest processor is out. I want a system that I can use without having to spend days setting it up. Gentoo and similar distros excluded. The fact that I can compile everything to work better with my machine is the main reason I'm giving it a go. I have found very few HOW-TO's useful. Documentation is also fairly poor with the distros I've paid for. If it doesn't set itsefl up, then the docs should be provided for me to do so.

Q: There are hardware issues with Geforce cards and older Athlon's/Motherboards. How do you think you would be received by your local PC shop if you tried to tell them you wouldn't pay for it until it was stable. You'd get laughed right out of the store.
A: I would return the product because it didn't work with my machine. Laughed out of the store? I've never had that problem with a product that didn't work to my satisfaction. Do you live outside the US? Just wondering, because I've never heard of that being much of an issue. I ever have a problem like that, I'll put out an editorial in the paper explaining the poor service I experienced at that business and I'd never return. My guess is, that "PC Shop" would wished they'd been a bit nicer. I'd also call the Better Business Bureau. Software I can understand more so, but I also don't buy software. I use freely available products.

Q: Yes linux can be complicated with a great deal of applications installed by most other distributions but how stable would Windows be with that many applications installed?
A: Windows isn't really that stable without that many applications *grin*. I'd like to know how many users of linux use all of those apps. Thats another problem I think needs to be resolved within linux, too much bloat (excess apps). Sure there great if you need them, I'm not saying they shouldn't be offered.

Q: If you have a slow connection - buy a CD.
A: I'd agree (I've spent over $150 buying distros on CD)

Q: If you have a fast connection and a burner - donate.
A: Yep, doing that now. Not sure how the donate thing will work. I don't give out Credit Card stuff via the internet. The actual transaction may be secure, but I don't trust the security of the machines and networks that hold my information. I'd imagine I could mail them a check.

So, I may not have been very clear in what I meant by "I will not pay until AFTER I am satisfied with the product.". To put it in brick-and-mortar-speak, I have currently "purchased" a product (metaphorically, no I have paid no $). I am currently installing the product. Who knows if I'll actually get everything working or not. I need to dig into alot of stuff to figure out how to secure it. In windows, I can go to zonelabs.com and dnld a free utility that is probably good enough for my needs. I can't really do the same with linux because I have to learn quite abit about installing software and configuring it for my setup etc. etc. I think that makes sense, no? So, lets say at some point, I give up, or whatever. I would then choose to "return" the product for a refund. Now lets suppose I did pay a fee when I downloaded the software. I wouldn't have unless there was the possibility of returning the product. We'll say there's a 30day return policy. Well, after about 15 days, if I don't have it installed and running, I'd return the product. I think the big thing here is, you assumed I'm using the distro. I downloaded RedHat 7.1? I think it was. Installed fairly easily actually. Until I loaded Gentoo, it sat on my HD unused. Why? Because trying to secure it was a pain. I gave up.

Sorry for the length :).
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squanto
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2002 1:08 am    Post subject: send them a check Reply with quote

I don't trust pay pal, so I would rather send them a check in the good ol USPS.
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celtic_hack
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2002 4:04 am    Post subject: Why not subscribe Reply with quote

I have hi speed, so don't need to buy. I would prefer to buy a CD than donate. I have a rather large collection of Linux CDs. I would also not mind donating at the same time, but from the place I purchase and not paypal. I like what little privacy I have (which is very little).

I'm not sure what kanuslupus was getting at with the long QA session. Not sure why Linux isn't ready for kanuslupus, I do everything in Linux I ever did in Winblows, and more. I do agree with him that imadork had good points.

I have been using Linux exclusively for some time. It has problems. I have problems with too much bloat, too many options in the distros. And the menu system sucked until very recently.

Also yes you can do that with car dealers. I have taken cars home to testdrive over a period of days. Plus every car I have ever owned has been "open source". I go down to the autoparts store and get a repair manual and add my own parts, etc. And so is my Harley, complete with aftermarket third party add-ons because all the interfaces are "open source". ;') Just not "free as in beer source"

Gentoo is the second I have downloaded. LFS was first.

I think a subscription would be an alternative to donating.
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Last edited by celtic_hack on Sun Apr 21, 2002 5:18 am; edited 1 time in total
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squanto
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2002 4:22 am    Post subject: subscription Reply with quote

I am fairly new with Linux, about a year, but I don't think I would like a subscription service. I don't want to have to shell out so much per year to get the stuff I want. If Gentoo keeps up to date with their product and keeps me happy, I would be willing to donate more than once. I like the donation system because if I find something I like, I can send the creators money and help them create more things I like.
And anyways, the subscription service would be kind of like the way that M$ is headded.
just my thoughts
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Jeevz
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2002 11:31 am    Post subject: Re: subscription Reply with quote

squanto wrote:
I am fairly new with Linux, about a year, but I don't think I would like a subscription service.


Agree, I don't like the subsrciption idea much.
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pjp
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2002 4:23 pm    Post subject: Re: Why not subscribe Reply with quote

celtic_hack wrote:
... I'm not sure what kanuslupus was getting at with the long QA session. ...


I was just replying to Fragadelic with the Q&A session, thats all.

As to why linux and I haven't been ready for each other? I don't really enjoy spending days to figure out how things work.
My main concern is security. I know very little about security in linux. I have a cable modem and leave my machine on 24/7,
so I'm paranoid about attacks. In older distros, setup was not easy (stll isn't really, installation has just become easier).

Only on a version of Caldera was I able to set up video to work. I could never get a PPP connection when I still used a
modem. I read through the HOW-TO's, but couldn't seem to get either of them running. I'm not saying linux was incable of
doing everything windows can, just that it was too difficult for me compared to how much effort and time I wanted to invest.

In fact, Gentoo has been bootable on my PC since around the 17th of April. I still haven't gone back to deal with security.
I may do some of that today, cause I do want to get Gentoo up and running :).

Hope that answers your question.
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