> While I have no doubt that Stephen is correct here, it is still true > that Andrew, hundreds of others, and I were all happy to contribute $60 > per machine (for X machines each) simply to help Red Hat, Inc. The > company has lost that income, and I still use that bandwidth! > > Red Hat would be well-advised to think of a way for many of us to keep > paying them *something*. I had just convinced my company to pony up for > three RHN subscriptions when the service died. > > Yes, I know that boxed sets were not profitable and that RHN income was > marginal. But that is the *point*. I, today, am still using stuff > (Fedora) that Red Hat, Inc. paid money to develop... just like I did > before with RHL. I still use bandwidth, and every time I convince > someone to install Linux we use *more* bandwidth. > > I ***WANT*** to give Red Hat money, but Red Hat must give me a viable > excuse to do so. Give me a service or subscription I can justify to my > wife and my boss, and you make at least $200-$500 from me this year, > instead of $0. But now the only options I have are RHEL and I cannot > afford that. > Then contribute money to any of the various development mechanisms. Not just red hat. Give money to gnome, to kde, to whomever. Many of these organizations accept donations and others would just accept a check. -sv