@DanaBlankenhorn The die hard fans over in the Mandriva forums were complaining a couple of years back when the company seemingly pulled the plug on the community.
A couple employees assigned to support users through the forums were fired, and no official face of the company has bee seen since. (the primary forum manager went to Red Hat)
But the community has carried on, thrived, and today earns a bit of respect for being polite, decent and above all helpful in solving problems. (ARTFM ...that's 'Anti~')
It was a risky move by Mandriva. But whatever their intent, the result is they get almost all of their public good will for free. Same with product support for their free releases, which like fedora are a testing ground for their corporate products.
Not at all the same as your suggestion I know, but in any community, officially supported or not, the company behind it can expect the same; a modicum of free marketing and free support help.
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