Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997 14:45:54 -0600 From: Lee Crites <adonai@jump.net> To: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Commerical applications (was: Development and validation Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19970118204554.0067a968@jump.net>
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At 13:47 17-01-97 -0700, Terry Lambert wrote: >> Microsoft isn't popular because of all the books that are written about >> it, books are written because their products are popular. You get >> popular by having good products and telling people about them. > >Or having mediocre products and telling people about them. 8-). One of the things I used to say (guess I still could with some minor changes) was this: "Windoze, the operating system from the same people who brought you edlin..." In all honesty, most people *don't* consider M$'s products to be the best, even M$. So why are they the most popular? I can't say. I *think* it is because of the hype found in many of today's periodicals. So we have this paradox: you are good (popular?) if people *think* you are good, and people *think* you are good if you are good. Which comes first? I came into FreeBSD after some real fact-gathering and decision-making excercises came out basically undecided. When I ordered my first cd's, I was literally still trying to justify going for FreeBSD or Linux. What caused me to go one this was is another story. My point is that once someone really starts to look into which os they want to use with an open mind, there are a lot of sources available to tell them of the quality of FreeBSD -- you just have to look for them. In my opinion, the polular media -- newspapers, talkshows, and magazines, just won't take the time to look for them. So I think one of the original propositions made in this discussion is true: *WE*, the users and developers, must make that information known. I, for one, have no clue how to submit an article to a magazine for publication. If I knew, I'd be more than happy to write an article about my experiences getting on-line with FreeBSD. (if you know how, please let me know) I'd like to join some of the local (Austin, Texas) unix users groups and start working on forming a FreeBSD users group and/or FreeBSD sigs in the others. I'd like to stop by my kids schools and see if they'd be interested in learning a real operating system. I could then take Jordan up on his offer to supply promotional cd's do places like that. I'd even be quite interested in a FreeBSD specific magazine, if one existed. I can do the article; I can do the user group thing; I can stop by the high school and junior high and talk to them; I have no clue how to do a magazine. (Any takers?) Anyway, what I am trying to point out here is I think we must *do* something. If all of us did one thing each quarter to promote FreeBSD, how many thousands of things would happen each year? Imagine what would happen in the unix world if in the next 12 months there were 1,000 articles submited concerning the finer points of FreeBSD... Lee
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