[CentOS] link to "commercial support" page isn't really helpful

Sun Jun 21 17:56:37 UTC 2009
Karanbir Singh <mail-lists at karan.org>

On 06/21/2009 03:31 PM, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>    i *cannot* suggest what content should go on that commercial support
> page since i have *no idea* what avenues the centos developers are
> currently exploring.

Well, thats an easy one to answer.

One of the major reasons I spend days and nights and pretty much every 
breathing moment of free time I get on CentOS is because I feel that the 
CentOS platform is a fantastic leveler that allows individual[1] and 
small[2] companies / support entities to build their base on - and its 
also something that allows a shared knowledge pool to build up around 
the common code that everyone has an interest in. From there, one might 
also infer that it allows these small market players the ability of 
deliver and support a client at the same or similar levels that larger 
clients would expect from larger companies.

Therefore, for me  - the 'official' support process must also do 
everything to encourage these small players and bring them up into a 
stream where they find a sustainable business model around CentOS - the 
project *and* the distro - but more importantly - the project, not the 
distro. For me, the product has always been the people - not the code.

Now - whatever commercial 'endorsement' process gets adopted - it needs 
to reflect that ( for me anyway, or I would fight for it ). I'd even go 
to the extent of saying that if the process penalised people larger than 
a certain size ( either in financial terms or market terms ), I'd not 
mind that one bit.

Lets not forget, were not going after Red Hat's market - or even trying 
to create a situation where we compete with them; on the other hand we 
are trying to bring the same benefits of using the RHEL codebase down 
into the trenches so that people who cant get access or would not need 
access to the Red Hat support / legal / business process could still 
benefit from the very open source friendly state of play that exists 
within Red Hat. And also create and encourage the knowledge pool that 
builds around this shared code base.

Anyway, this is my personal opinion - its not that of the entire 
development / management team; and something of this nature would need 
to go through at-least a few iterations with everyone involved before it 
gets put into practice.

I guess this is a good place to put in the disclaimer that I have zero 
financial gains from CentOS - I get NO access to any donations or 
advertisement revenues.

- KB

[1] one or two people
[2] less than 10 man
-- 
Karanbir Singh : http://www.karan.org/  : 2522219 at icq