[ About selling Linux to students, educational institutions, etc. ]

No, no, NO! That's what I say. Simply because I don't think Linux
should ever be subjected to pressure from the commercial sector. 
And I don't think that it's the kind of operating system we want
students and teachers, etc. trying to "depend on" for educational
reasons, because it is such a "work-in-progress". Don't we all
agree that Linux is, in a sense, a "hacker's" OS? It's the perfect
chance for all of those UNIX kernel and software development
hackers out there to really build and shape a product. 

I think it would be a big mistake to start marketing Linux as a
tool for J. Random Student. Not that it shouldn't be available to
everyone, but rather if it's seen as a commercial product, then
people are going to start to feel like those behind Linux development
are obligated to make it work a certain way, instead of being able
to freely make changes, overhaul the entire thing, make older
versions completely obsolete, and all of that other wonderful
(no sarcasm intended) impromptu changing of the system. 

I think having Linux available on disk for a nominal fee
(like the GNU project distributes tapes of its software)
is a WONDERFUL idea, but marketing it as a commerical product
is a bad idea.

Go ahead, flame me, but I don't want to see Linux as another
grubby commercial OS. And besides, once you start marketing it,
the bug reports are going to start rolling in... :-)

Does anyone here think that Linux is in a state where students
and educational institutions should start implementing it
wide-scale? I dunno.

mdw

Matt Welsh    welshm@dg-rtp.dg.com        ...!mcnc!rti!dg-rtp!welshm
UNIX-SQA, Data General Corporation RTP        Office: +1 919 248 6070
  "Where's the KABOOM?! There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering KABOOM!!"