Possible Partnership

["Brian C. White" <bcwhite@verisim.com>]

Good day, everyone!


There is a company starting (coincidentally here in Ontario) that is
going to be providing a linux distribution based on Debian and KDE.

What I would propose is a partnership between them and us such that they
can take over most/all of contrib & non-free and any work they do for
"free" packages gets sent straight back to us.  Even without this, though,
the partnership could still be beneficial.

It is not their desire to sell a proprietary system (like Caldera), but
rather one that includes some software that Debian currently classifies as
"non-free".

The advantages to this that I can see are:
 - Higher profile for both groups
 - True (paid) support for a Debian distribution for those who want it
 - Better support for contrib/non-free packages
 - Debian becomes "free software only"

I don't really see any disadvantages to this other than Debian would have
some responsibilities to its partner, but I don't think this is necessarily
a bad thing.


I'd like to hear what everybody's thoughts on this are.

Comments they made regarding this idea were:

        We've been thinking the idea over a great deal, and the consensus
seems to be leaning towards pursuing the partnership. It looks like a good
way to help Debian resolve a dilemma and get our company some recognition.
However, we would want some fairly strong editorial control over the
phrasing of any announcements or other postings on the internet. This is
just to avoid any use of language which would suggest that we are not
committed to free software. 

        If you think that's reasonable, we'd be very happy to have you
take this option to the rest of the Debian board and see how they feel.

A few other (more-or-less) random thoughts (some of which you may need to 
be able to explain us to your board):

         * We anticipate that there will be many sites currently
           running Debian mirrors (love that ftp'ble installation 
           process!) that would want to mirror ours as well. We have, 
           of course, no problem with this.

         * I gather the main Debian site is currently hosted by iConnect,
           and I'm a little worried that our involvement may offend them.
           (ie. They generate revenue by selling Debian CD-ROMs, which will
           also be a large part of our business). I'd just like to be sure
           that we're not stepping on their toes, since they have provided
           a great service to the Linux community.

         * Our company's main software product will be a Debian 
           distribution (with a couple of extra bells and whistles, including
           support). If things go well with the rest of the Debian board, then
           we'd probably move to a 2-CD set (one for core Debian, and one for
           the non-free stuff that we host --- Except that I suspect core 
           Debian no longer fits on a single CD, but you get the idea).

         * Our company will be open for business around the end of May. 
           Our ftp server will be in place by that time (barring acts of god).

         * In addition to selling/supporting a Linux distribution, we're
           planning on offering network consulting services to other 
           firms. That end of the business is fairly high-end, in the sense
           that we will be trying to compete with Caldera, Novel, Microsoft,
           etc. 

         * What I'd really like to see happen is for Debian and us to
           form an alternative to the Caldera/Redhat model. That is, Debian
           provides the distribution (which savvy users can just install
           over the internet), but we sell it with support. Unlike
           Caldera, however, we do not want to use Linux as a platform for
           selling commercial/non-free software. We're happy to earn our
           revenues doing the support of completely free software (just
           as Stallman has always felt that software companies should
           make their money).

         * Our corporate by-law require us to devote a fixed percentage of 
           our profits back to developers. Debian is already pencilled in
           for about 5-10%. We are also planning to support XFree, FSF, and
           some smaller items like KDE. I feel compelled to point out that
           these support funds will be forthcoming no matter how this 
           possibility of a partnership with Debian is resolved.


                                          Brian
                                 ( bcwhite@verisim.com )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     measure with micrometer, mark with chalk, cut with axe, hope like hell