[conspire] SuSE Personal/Prof, apt4rpm, Newbie Ed. -was- Distros for novices

[Christian Einfeldt]

On Thursday 09 September 2004 08:37, Rick Moen wrote:

>
> > But the Professional version of course has everything, and it's
> > legal to make copies of it and give them away.
>
> This could not possibly be true unless SUSE[1] / Novell have
> dropped a number of non-redistributable packages from the SUSE
> Linux Professional boxed set, since I checked the full package
> listings in SUSE Linux 8.2.

Your point here is well taken from a legal perspective.  However, in 
the course of filming for the Digital Tipping Point documentary, we 
have interviewed Nat Friedman, Miguel de Icaza, and Jack Messman, 
and I have informed them all that I copy SuSE 9.1 CDs and give them 
to friends, and they thanked me.  I also told them that I pay for 
those CDs first.  As a simple end user who can't figure out how to 
download stuff like that, I love the CDs.  They are so handy.  I 
think that the primary concern that Novell would have is if someone 
was engaged in the commercial distribution of its software 
products.  Novell's biz model is not wrapped around sales of the 
software.  Of course, it's nice to encourage people to get in the 
habit of purchasing the CDs eventually after they have tested it 
and like the product.  But I think that a freebie to entice a 
newbie would be welcomed by Novell.  Of course, I'm not going to 
put the above in our film, simply because of course Novell would 
like to supplement their costs from sales of the handy CDs.  

Of course, I also told the Novell folks that I am pushing SuSE 
locally with our Bay Area governments, which they appreciated.  So 
I think that it is based on your personal intent. 

snip...

> So, unfortunately, unless SUSE Linux has greatly changed in the
> last couple of versions, your statement about SUSE Linux
> Professional being lawful to redistribute is not correct.  (The
> SUSE Linux Personal boxed set isn't, either.)

If you have any doubt about your activities, I would simply contact 
SuSE and let them know what you are doing.  They will give you 
permission, depending on your purpose.  It probably depends on the 
scale, etc.  Email me if I can be of help with this.