What I say now is possible and probable and some antecedent events made me to believe it now but not then.
I was trying to buy SuSe commercial version in Singapore (it is not available in Ceylon) and the response I got there was very poor.
They were trying their best not to sell me one.
They were trying their best not to sell me one.
I tried one of my friends in Singapore to buy one for me and that also did not materialize. This is me having contacted USA, India and Singapore over the net and Telephone.
There is tremendous pressure in Singapore with people with vested interests to suppress Linux including vendors.
The opposition I got in Singapore when I wanted to buy a bare bone computer without an y operation system was enormous.
The O.E.M guys has a laid back approach and convince the would be buyer to not to do so.
The O.E.M guys has a laid back approach and convince the would be buyer to not to do so.
I circumvented this by getting the O.E.M guys to write on boot record only proprietary Microsoft allowed.
Then I bargained for O.E.M. price for the laptop which I should not declare here (but cheap).
Before I paid the money I pulled out a Puppy Linux Mini CD from my front shirt pocket (I downloaded it in Singapore) and tested it to see it can boot a Linux CD.
I am not stupid.
At the airport waiting for the flight I got my laptop running PCLinux-2009 and played with it till the battery ran dead.
Second incident was with Xandros.
They let you download the CD, once money is remitted to their account.
I almost did that through my bank but at the last moment decided not to do so.
My gut feeling was that for some reason or the other, if the downloading failed they were not under obligation to post me a CD.
In any case my experience with Telecoms is less than ideal.
What I am going to do then?
Mind you I am a difficult customer to satisfy under normal conditions but under special conditions I may be more difficult and fully irritated.
Both these approaches were to test the customer services of Linux that they promise ensure and not to go into commercial adventures.
In the back of my mind if I was satisfied I would have considered promoting one or two commercial Linux distributions in Sri-Lanka in a limited capacity.
I have lot of friends who are prepared to pay for a good service.
The failure on both accounts made me to divert my attention to testing Live CDs.
Then the incident with Mandriva free download changed my mind substantially.
When I downloaded the CD it contained more than the MiB quoted in the iso. This happened three times and I reported it to Softpedia but they were defending (Softpedia) their stance but I told them it was not the first time I downloaded an iso.
I told them I have done it over 200 or more times. Only thrice I had problems; one with Pardus another with Juliex and the third I cannot remember (may be ADIOS).
It is less than 2% anyway.
All these done under Linux box but problems were frequent when Microsoft was used and writings of the isos were done with Nero.
Neither Microsoft nor Nero would bother to do the job accurately.
The ploy I believed that Mandriva did was to discourage the would be newbie to download and to ask for a paid CD.
They can always say, your downloading was wrong to begin with.
Al these incidents point to the ploy "kill the enthusiasm of the would be Linux newbies / fans".
How they disrupted "holding of a workshop on Linux by me in Kandy (Sri-Lanka)" was evident by generous offering of alcohol to the vendors and organizers with political patronage.
What am I doing right now?
Testing all the Live CDs I can lay hands on (old, new and any live CD with Linux).
The experience with Freespire made me to rethink it again,
Read the comment on "Freespire-not in my list" for details.
My suspicions on Xandros, Madriva and SuSe are somewhat substantial now and may be even justifiable.
When crooks get together anything can happen in this world!
Anybody can take Open Source and make a rogue Linux distribution and claim that it is a genuine Open Source.
Richard Stallman is right and his fears are not unfounded.
Then I bargained for O.E.M. price for the laptop which I should not declare here (but cheap).
Before I paid the money I pulled out a Puppy Linux Mini CD from my front shirt pocket (I downloaded it in Singapore) and tested it to see it can boot a Linux CD.
I am not stupid.
At the airport waiting for the flight I got my laptop running PCLinux-2009 and played with it till the battery ran dead.
Second incident was with Xandros.
They let you download the CD, once money is remitted to their account.
I almost did that through my bank but at the last moment decided not to do so.
My gut feeling was that for some reason or the other, if the downloading failed they were not under obligation to post me a CD.
In any case my experience with Telecoms is less than ideal.
What I am going to do then?
Mind you I am a difficult customer to satisfy under normal conditions but under special conditions I may be more difficult and fully irritated.
Both these approaches were to test the customer services of Linux that they promise ensure and not to go into commercial adventures.
In the back of my mind if I was satisfied I would have considered promoting one or two commercial Linux distributions in Sri-Lanka in a limited capacity.
I have lot of friends who are prepared to pay for a good service.
The failure on both accounts made me to divert my attention to testing Live CDs.
Then the incident with Mandriva free download changed my mind substantially.
When I downloaded the CD it contained more than the MiB quoted in the iso. This happened three times and I reported it to Softpedia but they were defending (Softpedia) their stance but I told them it was not the first time I downloaded an iso.
I told them I have done it over 200 or more times. Only thrice I had problems; one with Pardus another with Juliex and the third I cannot remember (may be ADIOS).
It is less than 2% anyway.
All these done under Linux box but problems were frequent when Microsoft was used and writings of the isos were done with Nero.
Neither Microsoft nor Nero would bother to do the job accurately.
The ploy I believed that Mandriva did was to discourage the would be newbie to download and to ask for a paid CD.
They can always say, your downloading was wrong to begin with.
Al these incidents point to the ploy "kill the enthusiasm of the would be Linux newbies / fans".
How they disrupted "holding of a workshop on Linux by me in Kandy (Sri-Lanka)" was evident by generous offering of alcohol to the vendors and organizers with political patronage.
What am I doing right now?
Testing all the Live CDs I can lay hands on (old, new and any live CD with Linux).
The experience with Freespire made me to rethink it again,
Read the comment on "Freespire-not in my list" for details.
My suspicions on Xandros, Madriva and SuSe are somewhat substantial now and may be even justifiable.
When crooks get together anything can happen in this world!
Anybody can take Open Source and make a rogue Linux distribution and claim that it is a genuine Open Source.
Richard Stallman is right and his fears are not unfounded.
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