Vendor Watch: It's Time to Get Organized Against Vendors

You felt compelled to say something, so I can only assume that you felt this initiative was worth spending some time reading about. So why don't you contribute something worthwhile instead of just complaining? You can make the difference from the norm which you dislike.

Back on topic, I don't think a star based system would be great. I usually ignore such ratings, simply because they can only really be a superficial indicator to issues which usually deserve a far greater amount of attention from everybody who cares. I see it more black and white and thus not requiring multiple levels of rating, since a vendor either cares or does not. If a vendor cares, they provide documentation and freely distributable firmware images, etc.

I like the red/green distinction, because it can quickly draw attention to where it is needed and help to shame. 0-5 stars always seems to me to be levels of goodness for anything above zero.

I would like to see info and links under each of the "reds" to news items and mailing list posts which spotlight that companies poor stance on customer support and the impact of it. While the "greens" should get not only info and links highlighting those companies good customer support, but also links to where to buy and perhaps links to appropriate Google searches for their products.

The front page should probably have some well thought out description of why these unsupportive companies are bad for all Open Source Software and the freedom of the people who supposedly use OSS for the freedom. Since Linux vendors and FreeBSD seem to be terribly quick to accept the terms of companies, when the companies should really be accepting the terms of we the customers. The companies are NOTHING without their customers, so we should dictate the terms to them.

From a recent interview with Theo, I got the gist that we the consumers have become "the product". Where bigger companies are selling us to the smaller OEM's. We are a commodity or stock which gets used for buying and selling power. Surely this could only happen through the public becoming complacent with choice and levels of support.

The companies will continue to do the wrong thing as long as it is profitable for them. Once they see their profits going down (the only thing which matters to them), then they will change. A little bad press or a drop in profits of 0.1% is not going to do it. We'd have to get a large number of OSS users behind this initiative to have a good chance of making a change. But I think the fundamental change which is required for the greater good (including shifting companies to an open stance), is for the consuming public to realise that they have the ultimate power in their wallets.

Funny how Linux, with all the press it gets about being open and free as in beer and freedom, is getting a little bit of corporate evil injected into the inside of it and the freedom loving users don't seem to be noticing it. NDA's and BLOBS acceptable for GNU/Linux? That's the "choice of a GNU generation"?

Thank goodness for OpenBSD.