Serious Competition

[Patrick Hustis]

At 11:31 PM 11/12/01 -0700, you wrote:
>Example:  I use Smoothwall (smoothwall.org) for my firewall.  One of the updates to the distro added a "nag" screen on the admin interface saying that it is open source and free to use but please send a contribution.  One of the authors of the distro started getting emailed and telephone death threats to remove the contribution "nag" screen, which he did for the safety of himself and his family (this is all documented on the smoothwall email list).  They are providing a "free" product to a market that expects it to be free.  A market that backlashes even just asking for an OPTIONAL contribution.


Good grief!

I thought it was wierd that the latest update to smoothwall came so quickly, and only removed the nag screen.  I don't follow the email list, and wasn't really sorry to see the screen go away so I didn't think much about it.  Man... there are some twisted individuals on this rock.

Patrick




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Patrick Hustis                         
TelTrax Corporation
Vice President  Information Systems
phustis@teltrax.com
480-481-9292
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