From: Ted Lemon Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 21:38:42 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Manual page documenting ISC DHCP contribution process. X-Git-Tag: V3-ALPHA-19990326 X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=ea5027182f947d11dcea50fa953d3720258308aa;p=thirdparty%2Fdhcp.git Manual page documenting ISC DHCP contribution process. --- diff --git a/common/dhcp-contrib.5 b/common/dhcp-contrib.5 new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c3f15c08f --- /dev/null +++ b/common/dhcp-contrib.5 @@ -0,0 +1,214 @@ +.\" dhcp-contrib.5 +.\" +.\" Copyright (c) 1996-1999 Internet Software Consortium. +.\" Use is subject to license terms which appear in the file named +.\" ISC-LICENSE that should have accompanied this file when you +.\" received it. If a file named ISC-LICENSE did not accompany this +.\" file, or you are not sure the one you have is correct, you may +.\" obtain an applicable copy of the license at: +.\" +.\" http://www.isc.org/isc-license-1.0.html. +.\" +.\" This file is part of the ISC DHCP distribution. The documentation +.\" associated with this file is listed in the file DOCUMENTATION, +.\" included in the top-level directory of this release. +.\" +.\" Support and other services are available for ISC products - see +.\" http://www.isc.org for more information. +.TH dhcp-contrib 5 +.SH NAME +Contributing to the Internet Software Consortium DHCP Distribution +.SH EXHORTATION +.PP +The Internet Software Consortium DHCP Distribution has historically +been funded through the donation of various charitable and +non-charitable organizations, as well as by individual contributions. +To some degree, support for the distribution has been done on a +volunteer basis, but by and large the reason that you have this +distribution in your hands right now is because people like you have +provided funding for it. +.PP +We would like to encourage you to continue to provide such support, or +to begin providing it if you have not in the past. You are in no way +obliged to provide us with any support at all, and this message is not +intended to guilt-trip you about providing support. If you choose +not to provide support, for whatever reason, you aren't going to be +treated differently on the mailing lists, and your requests for +features aren't going to be prioritized any differently. If you want +to be treated differently, you can buy a formal support contract, of +course, but this document is about contributions, not support +contracts. +.SH FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS +.PP +Q: So if I won't be treated differently, why contribute? +.PP +A: The obvious +answer is self-interest. If you contribute, it means that the author +will have time to work on stuff that's not of the utmost high +priority. People are constantly asking for things that we would +really like to provide, but for which we have no time. By +contributing, you are literally giving us time to do these things. +The amount of time varies with the contribution, of course, but if +everybody contributes a little bit, it can add up to a lot. +.PP +Q: But everybody isn't required to contribute. If I contribute and +nobody else does, doesn't that make me kind of a sucker? +.PP +A: Obviously, we don't think so, but think about this: if you contribute, +then we can point out to others that we've received contributions, and +this will make the idea of contributing seem more legitimate to them, +making it more likely that they will contribute. So your +contribution has more value than just the money you provide - it also +helps us to raise funds from others. +.PP +Q: If I contribute, I want a say in what work gets done. +.PP +A: We do sell support contracts, and we will also do development work +on specification if we feel it is relevant (although you won't get to +own it). This can be quite expensive, though - much more than even +the maximum we'd expect you to donate. So no, contributing doesn't +buy you a say in what work gets done. +.PP +Q: I work for a charity that feeds the homeless. Should my charity +contribute? +.PP +A: Absolutely not! The idea here is not to take food out of the mouths +of poor people. If donating to us would mean that somebody in need +that you could have helped will go without help, keep the money. +It's not worth it to us. This goes for providing shelter, +psychiatric aid, legal assistance, and any other similar charity work. +.PP +Q: Cool! I work for a university, helping students who are in need of +an education, so we shouldn't contribute, right? +.PP +A: No, that's not quite what we mean. Sure, if you work for an +organization that provides free education to needy people, at whatever +level, then we'd rather you did that than support us. But if your +university has a big budget for running the computer center, can +afford to plant nice gardens and maintain nice lawns, and maybe has +all its dorms wired for ethernet, then even if you qualify as a +nonprofit under federal law (or the law in your own country) you +should still contribute. DHCP is just as much a part of your +infrastructure as your campus wiring. +.PP +Q: This software came on a CD that I bought. Haven't I already +contributed? +.PP +A: If you're seeing this notice, and you didn't see a notice saying +that the people who sold you your CD contributed to us, then no, you +haven't already contributed. In general, we encourage people to +include this software on their distributions if they feel it would be +useful, and we do not require them to contribute in exchange for that +privilege. +.PP +Q: I've contributed to the development of this software by submitting bug +reports and patches. Why should I also contribute money? +.PP +A: When you contributed these bug reports and patches, was there zero +effort involved on our part in integrating the patches or figuring out +what was wrong? Probably not. Bug reports and patches can be +extremely valuable, and we can't say that in no event do they qualify +you to get out of contributing - after all, we're leaving that up to +your judgement anyway, aren't we? But unless your contribution was +pretty massive, and is actually in this distribution, we aren't likely +to agree with you about this. +.PP +Q: Software should be free. You have no right to ask for money to +support this effort. +.PP +A: You are entitled to that opinion, but please don't raise it on the +mailing list, as it will tend to get people excited. Please remember +that while copying software is generally a very cheap process, +creating it is not. The amount of work that's gone into this software +package is quite significant, and there's plenty more work to do. If +you happen to be in college, working toward your degree, and have no +social life (and yes, I've been there and done that) then it can seem +like there's no additional cost to hacking on software - after all, +it's fun, isn't it? While this is true, it is also true that you're a +lot better off with this software than you would have been with the +software I wrote in college. Enough said? +.PP +Q: Can't I contribute work instead of software? +.PP +A: We'd like to encourage that to some extent, and are indeed trying to +bring some developers into the fold, but you shouldn't expect that +your willingness to do this translates directly into an opportunity. +For example, you may want very much to work for [insert the name of +your favorite commercial Linux vendor here], but unless you have the +appropriate skills, they like you, they're willing to pay what you +need, and they have work that's appropriate to your skills, you're not +going to get hired there. +.PP +Q: I don't contribute to the Free Software Foundation - why do you rate? +.PP +A: You should contribute to the Free Software Foundation too! +.PP +Q: I don't contribute to [insert name of your local food bank here]. +Why do you rate? +.PP +A: If you feel bad about not contributing to the local food bank, this is +a very easy problem to solve, and we encourage you to do so. +.PP +Q: Once I've contributed once, am I done? +.PP +A: We'd like to encourage you to contribute once a year. If you want, +we can send you a reminder notice on the year anniversary of your +original contribution. If you don't specifically ask for this, we +won't force it on you. No salesperson will call. No spam will be +sent. We definitely won't try to convince you that it's been a year +since you last contributed when it hasn't been a year yet. +.PP +Q: I don't have you in my budget this year. +.PP +A: Fine, put us in your budget for next year! +.PP +Q: It's really hard to do charitable contributions at my organization. +.PP +A: We'd be happy to sell you a product instead. If you choose to go +down this route, what we'l sell you is a license for some number of +clients and a CD. Just let us know how many DHCP clients you have, +and we'll use the following schedule to figure out how much to invoice +you (shipping is included on orders of $100 or more). Even if you can +do charitable contributions, you might want to use this schedule as a +guideline for figuring out how much to donate. It is only a +guideline, of course - if the amounts listed feel like too much or too +little to you, do what seems appropriate. +.PP +.nf + $10k for businesses supporting >10k nodes + $5k for charities supporting >10k nodes + $2.5k for businesses supporting >1k nodes + $1k for charities supporting >1k nodes + $500 for businesses with >500 nodes + $250 for charities with >500 nodes + $200 for businesses with >150 nodes + $100 for charities with >150 nodes + $100 for businesses with <150 nodes + $50 for charities with <150 nodes + $25 for home use, client or server + $0.10 to $1 per client for businesses that are reselling the + client, depending on volume. +.fi +.PP +Q: Are you nuts? I live in [insert your country name here] and the +typical annual salary for a programmer is less than what you're asking +me to contribute! +.PP +A: We leave the choice of how much to contribute up to you. Really. +We aren't kidding. +.PP +Q: Can I contribute with my credit card? +.PP +A: Yes. The details haven't been ironed out at this writing, but if you +send mail to dhcp-contributions@isc.org, we'll work it out. By the +time you read this, we may have a web interface set up - if so, it +will be linked in at http://www.isc.org/dhcp-contrib.html. +.SH SEE ALSO +dhcpd.conf(5), dhcpd.leases(5), dhclient.conf(5), dhcpd(8), +dhclient(8), RFC2132, RFC2131. +.SH AUTHOR +The Internet Software Consortium DHCP Distribution was written by Ted +Lemon under a contract with Vixie Labs. Funding for +this project was provided through the Internet Software Consortium. +Information about the Internet Software Consortium can be found at +.B http://www.isc.org/isc.