This forum looks like the best place to raise/suggest this idea.
I don’t even know if you have such a program, but one of the ways I like contributing to the openSUSE project is to buy a Box edition at every release. I have done so since openSUSE 9.2. Hey, it’s least I can do.
What I was wondering is, instead of me having to order a separate copy each time there is a release, what about having a subscription program, where I automatically get sent a copy at every release perpetually (and of course charged appropriately), until such time one was to opt out.
open-slx is novw the offical producer of the openSUSE box. I like the idea of this subscription program to sponsor the openSUSE project itself.
Currently we are contributin for example in helping to improve wiki and web space.
So what we can thing is making a special openSUSE subscription prgram, where most of the margin is used for sponsoring openSUSE. If the openSUSE community likes to do have that, I will start such a program.
What do you like to have included in such a program?
Before there was Novell-SuSE, there was simply SuSE and in the 2001-2003 period there was a subscription service and I was a subscriber. Frankly one simply needs a good set of disks mailed; The packaging should be minimal.
I don’t even need the disks just access to the servers to download like I do right now. I have no problem with a subscription. I was a Mandriva powerpack subscriber before coming to openSUSE.
I don’t think there’s any point having subscriptions. We should leave that for the commercial counter part. When/if openSUSE becomes a foundation then you can freely donate. I believe this is the future… so lets wait and see.
Certainly at this point a subscription is a bit dubious since the money could be used in all kinds of way that have little to do with openSUSE. If we do succeed in starting an openSUSE Foundation then a subscription would be a great way to support it and open-slx.
If it included nicely pressed DVDs in some sort of professional packaging, as FlameBait suggested, I’d definitely sign up.
I did a clean install of 11.3 last night and the update afterwords was 1.12 gigs. Someone is paying for that bandwidth. It’s not really fair to expect NOVELL or anyone else to provide that for free. This is why a subscription is attractive to me. NOVELL sells SLES and SLED but I really don’t want SLED I want openSUSE.
You’re absolutely right. Bandwidth isn’t free, and no one should have the expectation of it being so, now or in perpetuity.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I would like a subscription that I know supports openSUSE and related projects. I’m not overly concerned with keeping say, NetWare afloat. Now as long as NetWare and openSUSE are from the same house, I have an interest in keeping the whole house in good shape. But I have no desire to hide my interest…once those products are divorced from each other, I doubt I’ll feel much loyalty to the non-SUSE parts.
As for payment - I’m willing to pay, no doubt. Still, even now I don’t just take openSUSE and count my savings over buying proprietary solutions. Giving back/doing my part is why I try to come to the forums to help solve problems and encourage ideas (I’d like to do more of this to be honest). It’s why I’ve been involved in the community process to shape our strategy. It’s why I’m in the openSUSE Testing Core Team. I trade my efforts for the efforts of others in the community, and in the end SLED & SLES pay the bills by building upon all of that collective work.
I have a newly constructed “test box” waiting for 11.4 RC 4 as I don’t think I would be much good with an earlier version.
Other than the Forum and then testing how do you support openSUSE is still the question for me. I feel I am getting quit a bit more than I am giving back.
Just want to poke in and say that some sort of subscription support would be something I could get behind (kind of like contributing to public radio). Plus it kind of feels like a “street team” or fan club. I am not particularly technically minded, so I will probably never contribute code but it would be cool to support FOSS and openSuse in particular.
in reference to ReferenceSeete, I do count my savings on using openSuse and other free software, but I still know that if I kicked back some money to a worthwhile project it would be fair compensation and an investment in future developments.
