[BlueOnyx:00284] Re: upgrading to BlueOnyx ?

[Abdul Rashid Abdullah]

Michael,

You and Brian deserve(d) more of the community support.  I used to buy
packages from Brian even when I truly didn't need it just so that he had
something for his efforts.

All,

We need to find some way to support Solarspeed or we will find ourselves
without anything.  How about a small annual "Support" fee for every instance
of BlueOnyx running?  You could take the model of allowing yum updates for
only those who have paid the support fee.  This will allow someone to
download and work with it without having to pay anything and then when they
are ready to go into production with it, they can pay the fee for the yum
updates.  Red Hat has/has a model similar to this.

The actual cost doesn't have to be much if there are quite a few of us
willing to contribute in this manner.  If you add this on top of the
additional packages, this will help keep things afloat.  Solarspeed has been
doing good work for a long time and I think it makes sense to help support
it to stay afloat.  We essentially are assuring our future as well.

I don't know how many boxes will be moving to BX, but I can say I will have
2-3 boxes (I run a small operation).  In the Cobalt days, we paid much more
initially for those boxes and we paid also when we wanted support (during
the Sun era).

I don't have a dollar figure picked out but I would say somewhere between
$50-$100 would be a good start.   It might be an insult to Michael compared
to the amount of work he has done, but if you consider he is willing
actually to give it away free, I think this is at least something.

I myself run my business as a side gig in addition to my main job, as well
as raising my 4 children, Cubmaster, etc...  The point is, Brian made a good
decision.  If it wasn't for some of the altruistic reasons I run my
business, I would probably close down too in favor of devoting more time to
family.

Michael, if you are against this based on principle, I can understand.
However, we need to find some model to support you as we are relying on your
support and services.  BX has breathed new life into this community and with
the speed you are ready to respond and have shown in the past, I think we
can really make this system much better than everything else is out there.

Regards,

-Rashid


On 1/17/09 11:36 AM, "Michael Stauber" <mstauber at blueonyx.it> wrote:

> Hi Michael,
> 
>> Now the only choice is Solarspeed, who I respect but with euro conversion
>> it will cost me about $1000 to get spamassassin for 4 servers versus $200
>> from Brian.  Michael any chance of a change to your price structure?
>> Multiple server discount? Maybe charge for quarterly updates and charge
>> separately for custom support or something.  If the price was a little more
>> reasonable for a company running multiple servers I would do it.
> 
> Yes, I've always done discounts for bundle orders. Just contact me offlist and
> we can work something out.
> 
> Now the rest of this message isn't really directed at you, but the list in
> general. 
> 
> I probably shouldn't be telling this on a public list, but I think I have to
> go into more details here than previously mentioned:
> 
> Like said before, Solarspeed has been run fulltime by me since February 2002.
> Between 1998 and 2002 I was also "moonlighting" it while studying and later on
> also while on a regular 9-5 daytime job with two hours commuting each day.
> Those times where really hard and took a toll on me, so I really feel with
> Brian, who did run his "two jobs" for six years straight. That can really burn
> a person out and it is a tribute to his stammina that he managed it for that
> long and on this level.
> 
> Now when I think back to the years 2002 or 2003, then those really were "the
> crazy times". The dotcom boom was still going heavily (although the painting
> was already on the wall that it wouldn't last). Back in those days both the
> software sales and the support business were going quite nicely. Somethimes
> there were days with 10, 20 or even 30 sales. Even if it were just "small"
> sales, it all added up nicely. Of course the USD <-> EUR exchange rate was
> also very favourable for US buyers back then. Like USD 1.00  = 0.63 EUR or
> thereabouts. Then came the big dotcom crash, Sun dumped Cobalt, ISPs were
> doing a firesale of their Cobalt servers and a successor of it wasn't readily
> available. Likewise, people were reluctant to invest any additional money into
> software for their aging Cobalts. When BlueQuartz came out and gained its
> footholds, things started to stabilize on a level which is a far cry from what
> it used to be in the past.
> 
> Nowadays the exchange rate is the other way around - on one hand. On the other
> hand: The number of straight software orders (meaning PKGs for BlueQuartz for
> example) I get has dropped to a level where I am unable to sustain my business
> with that. With that I not only mean: "It's not worth it, considering the long
> hours I have to pull". No, I simply mean: "Those few sales a month don't even
> pay the bills - period." And I'm living quite cheaply all things considered.
> Even doing a couple of straight "33% off on everything" firesales last year
> generated next to no sales, which was quite amazing.
> 
> Had it not been through diversification like Aventurin{e}, support contracts
> and custom coding jobs, then my outlook today would be much different. There
> have been times during 2007 and 2008 when I was seriously contemplating to
> close shop as well (just like Brian did now - just for other reasons), but
> then - due to a mad strokes of luck, a lot of persistence and another very
> unfavourable loan - I've managed to stay afloat.
> 
> Now while I try to keep my prices as fair as possible for everyone, there is
> only a certain amount of leeway that I can give - unless the volume picks up.
> 
> Now let us take a brief look at BlueOnyx: The groundwork for it was done
> between March and June 2008 - still under the BlueQuartz lable. I poured
> around 300 hours of work into it, but then had to set it aside as I could no
> longer afford the time to drag it to the finishing line.
> 
> When Brian and I gave it another go end of last year, I spent another 400
> hours into it 'til release, and there I'm not counting any of the hours that
> Brian spent on it last year.
> 
> So in a typical company a fulltime coder would have needed half a year to get
> it done. Had this been a paid commercial project, the bill for it would have
> five digits - with a leading five. In Euros and before taxes.
> 
> Still: BlueOnyx is given away for free and that will not change. Nor was it
> even contemplated to make it commercial to begin with.
> 
> Does this make sense from a business point of view? Of course not.
> 
> Partially this is done in the hope that it'll re-vitalize the commercial side
> of things as well. Like generating new interest in the "Blue stuff", in
> software, migrations and support. Still, from a commercial point of view
> BlueOnyx can only be seen as a long term investments, as it'll take years
> until any add-ons sales will have (barely) recovered the development costs and
> efforts.
> 
> Of course I can see your point of views as well: You want an OS that supports
> your needs out of the box and don't want to have to spend too heavily on
> extras. That's only natural and I'd see it the very same way, too.
> 
> However, on that we probably all have to make some compromises, or it won't
> happen.