Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1999 00:19:55 -0800 From: Dave Yost <Dave@Yost.com> To: stox@enteract.com Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: The Linux PR firestorm disaster (w.r.t. FreeBSD) Message-ID: <v04104421b2fea97aa6bb@[205.219.69.138]> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9902272346340.66146-100000@m4.stox.sa.enteract.com> References: <v0410441db2fe804df784@[205.219.69.138]>
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At 12:13 AM -0600 1999-02-28, Kenneth P. Stox wrote: > <RANT MODE> RANT MODE ignored. What you say will have to stand on its merits. > OK folks, let me make this clear, GET A CLUE!! > > The endless bickering between a minority of the Linux and FreeBSD > communities is completely counter-productive. Positioning FreeBSD against > Linux is about as useful as getting a job for the Microsoft PR department > as far as getting the real goals achieved. And the real goals are: _______ > > 1) FreeBSD developments have helped the Linux community. > > 2) Linux developments have helped the FreeBSD community. > > 3) FSF developments have helped both communities. All true. > > Let's keep it that way, and work off each other's strengths, instead of > picking apart each other's weaknesses. > > We should be making allies of the Linux community and encourage them to > make allies of us. FreeBSD and Linux can complement each other. How? Maybe I'm dumb. Please educate me as to how they complement each other? If one gets more mindshare than another, does all work stop on free unices? No. If 95% of the ongoing work (including the porting and marketing of commercial software) goes to linux, then what happens to FreeBSD? Every platform competes with every other platform for mindshare, some more than others. That's the way it is. All of the free unices are competing now against each other because of the big press frenzy over linux, and linux is being pushed way to the top by the press. Why? Not because it's better. I want to see the best of the free unices enjoy the biggest mindshare and therefore most software availability. > We should > be working to that end. > > Just a silly thought to put into you heads, have you ever thought that > just maybe, the instigators of many of these arguments in public forums > just might be professional Microsoft evangelists ? We might be playing > right into their hands. I think that's probably true, though "evangelists" may not be the right identification. The main idea, I think, on this round, was to trump up something, anything, as a worthy competitor to make themselves look less invulnerable. Linux seemed the best candidate at the moment. If all this is true, then they have created a PR monster, but it is to the detriment of FreeBSD mindshare all the same. I have seen many linux articles and TV reports in recent weeks, and _never_ even a mention of the existence of FreeBSD or other free unices. This is a PR disaster. > Does the idea of "Divide and conquer" come to mind? Interesting idea. > > </RANT MODE> Dave To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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