> As to the person who suggested beer - oh Gods. The Finnish customs people are
> all ex-Nazis, and they've gotten a lot grumpier since their austere leader
> shot his brains out. They have a bad day EVERY DAY. Their only joy in life is
> to confiscate alcohol from abroad.
>
> Linus
>
> (*) Think about it for a while. How safe would you rate any personal cheque
> on a scale of 1-10? Personally, I'd call it at about a -50. You can print out
> fake cheques on your average dot matrix printer, for Gods sake! Small
> children in kindergarten can make one up with a pink crayon. No wonder no
> self-respecting bank outside the US wants to have anything to do with them.
Are Red Hat and SlackWare and their kind the only ones making a profit
off of Linux sales? If so, Linus is really being too humble. I have 3
consulting clients which use Linux in 24/7 production environments. All
of these companies are making money hand-over-fist. Two of these
companies have over 1000 employees. I am sure that there are many,
larger companies using Linux without having to pay a single, measley
dime, or franc, or whatever.
You should at least set up a deposit-only internet banking account tied
to a Finnish bank. From it you can distribute the SHAREware
contributions amongst Linux's many deserving developers. Linus taking
the lion's share, of course. I guess that means people may have to
travel to Finland to get paid, but these people need to get out of the
house anyway.
Sincerely,
Scott Miller
stmiller@crosslink.net