Hi Ttuxxx
Far from being offended by your comments, i am actually glad you brought them up, and Im also glad you brought up your concerns now. I would hate to have made the video and it be rejected by the puppy community for being too "corporate". I thought the issue of me having some company structure to my work would come up eventually, so this is as good a time as ever to explain.
Let me explain a little about the huge corporation that is (not) Ecomoney Systems Ltd. Ive just (yesterday) filed our accounts, which had more circles on it than the wheatfields of Western Europe, and less digits than the the worlds entire whale population. Ive actually had to send it in three times already because its hard to work to get them to believe someone would bother running a company, with all the hassles that involved, for nothing.
Why do I bother running a company if it makes me no money? The answer is simple, it opens doors in the busimess world and gets things done, which is my main concern. It means that I can legally take away computer waste from schools and colleges while complying with government regulation, for nothing, while the company down the road has to charge £3 an item for disposal. The reason I do it for nothing is because I can sell them for a nominal fee (around £40) to families that would otherwise not be able to afford them. I use this money to keep petrol in
my £100 car, pay for internet access, web hosting and software mirrors, and mobile phone top-up so I can keep the whole thing going.
The charities I deal with usually get them for free, or I ask them for around £5 to cover delivery. Another reason I run a company is because it keeps my personal finances separate from my work, and this avoids all kinds of paperwork. I dont draw any wage or a salary from the business, and neither does our secretary, Sylvi-Maree Westlake (sylvi on the forum) or our "Chief Technical officer" (he chose that name) who deals with our more technical difficulties. We havnt made a profit...ever, and more often than not I have to use my own money to keep things going.
Ecomoney Systems Ltd was registered at the end of 2004 as a
Social Enterprise through a government scheme. The reason our government (what country are you from Ttuxx?) is promoting social enterprise is because it doesnt have the money to invest in social services, and it thinks that by getting altruistically minded people to run companies where all of their profit has to be re-invested back into our business aims is a way of getting those public services for free (probably so it can save the taxpayers money to bail out their masters at the banks instead).
We were originally commissioned to create solutions for the web based management of community currency systems (a citizens operated currency), We developed a package based on phpbb, which we released for free. It was the first such program of its kind in the world. That concept has been copied and improved all over the web and a huge number of sites now exist. With the depression, they are going to get ever more popular. I havnt seen a penny (of national currency) personally for this. Having fulfilled our origional remit, I realised that these systems were pointless unless people had a secure, cheap, easy, non-corporate controlled and reliable way of accessing them, and the rest of the
mind blowingly informative material that the only free information network in the world contains, This is why I now work on the puppy linux project full-time...for the last four years for free. Im honoured and excited to have the opportunity to do this film.
You haven't put anything into 4.2 from what I've seen, and I don't agree that you would deserve such a spotlight for making such a small tiny donation.
Puppy development is an ongoing process, Each version getting better and better. What makes it (and all open source software) is the gathering up of feedback from the user base to the developer base. Its no good developers just developing what they personally want. Puppy linux, from its mission statement, is a project aimed at getting people to switch to linux ("linux newbs") from other operating systems. The only way most are going to do this is if it benefits them personally to do so...such is human nature.
Over the years since I started using puppy linux, I have introduced hundreds of people to it. That is personally stood over them while they have tried linux for the first time. This is either through supporting them in their homes charities and businesses, or at the
cybercafe where I used to work. The things I have learnt I have
fed back thorugh the forum so that faults can be rectified and puppy linux can become more useable and hassle free, so more people can move away from Windows.
Some notable examples are the problem with pup_save.2fs files filling up causing desktop icons to disappear with no warning, and xwindows not showing up after a power failure/lockup, leaving a black screen full of code (implemented in version 3 and the last 2.15ce community edition). All of these are show stoppers to new linux users, and make them very likely to give up on it, return to microsoft, and continue criticism to others that linux is just too complex for most computer users. All these are faults that are now fixed. Another thing I have been banging on about for years is that puppy looks primitive, grey and uninteresting out of the box. This is something I am over the moon about being resolved in 4.2, thanks to your own coding.
Ive also contributed on the forum many of the problems that my users have faced, and supplied fixes in them, liasing between the developers in their language, and writing solutions for newbs in their language.
During the last four years, Ive seen puppy linux go from 20th place on distrowatch, to seventh or eighth, contributing to linux overall destop penetration that has gone from about 0.2% to 2 or three percent this year, and set to double or triple over the coming year, and for all the years after that. Im an in absolutely no way saying that this was due to me only, or even that my contribution was particularly significant compared to the great many others involved in open source or puppy linux in particular, and at the same time I wouldnt say that my contribution to the latest puppy 4.2, and its previous foundations isnt "anything".
I want to do this video because I think it will be a great help to new users, and excellent way to promote puppy, and because I have the experience in demonstrating puppy linux to new users to do it effectively. Im also lucky enough by chance of birth to have free access to a professional video production company who specialise in instructional videos of technical processes.
All I ask is that, along with the names of the many developers/project managers who have contributed to this release, the name of the project that I run (at cost to myself), that I am known as locally be mentioned for a second in the end credits, the name of the person who composed the music for the video and the name of my fathers company who is also giving up his time for free. I wish to use the "ltd" part because I think it will give new users a better impression that puppy linux is a serious project (opening doors) and that is the name under which I (Robert Simpson) undertake all of my puppy linux related projects. This would be no more intrusive to the purpose of the video than putting the name and contact details of the developer in the Help>About menu in an application would be intrusive to the purpose of that application.
This is just that, a request. If my name is not mentioned at all I am still willing to produce the video. Especially if mentioning my projects name would cause one of the best current contributors to puppy linux to "walk".
P.s, While totally sharing your views about flash, I must disagree with your views about including it. When we have as much market penetration (98%) as adobe, but then we will have the leverage required, but until then we must find the best solution to the its problems and compromise. Would love to hear about this "trade secret" you have Ttuxxx.