Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 01:39:46 -0500 (CDT) From: Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com> To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Cc: jkh@time.cdrom.com, fpawlak@execpc.com, danj@3skel.com, jmb@FreeBSD.ORG, toor@dyson.iquest.net, brett@lariat.org, mike@smith.net.au, dshanes@personalogic.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Promoting FreeBSD - the user's piece of the action. Message-ID: <199804110639.BAA16560@darkstar.connect.com> In-Reply-To: <12686.892272670@time.cdrom.com>
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Jordan, Your points are well taken. Yes I have loaded the bandwidth with verbiage, and I don't feel picked on either. Please understand that I am somewhat new to the FreeBSD community. Obviously I have strong feelings about FreeBSD and seeing it flower as the fine OS that it is. Further, I in no way intended my remarks to be taken as someone else, the core team or others, should do the work. I understand that the work has to be done by volunteers, like myself. Sadly you sniped my closing sentence where I offered my time in some capacity that would benefit the cause. Nor was I necessarily expecting direction from your group. Perhaps I should have been more clear in my rhetoric. If what I have written is taken as a mere rant, then it has not been read correctly. It is true that my experience is in selling and consulting in the commercial environment, which reads that I have things to learn about how free software is done. I am willing to do just that. You mention RAH RAH!! and warfare, both are subjects that I know a few things about. You don't necessarily need to match the enemy man for man. I once was part of a regiment that faced three full divisions and we emerged victorious!! I can also speak to the part that RAH RAH plays on winning football teams. The idea being that RAH RAH puts the fire in the gut and leads people on to victory what ever the endeavor. Perhaps a core team of volunteers modeled on the way the core development team operates will be just as effective in getting our job done as you are doing yours. Just as you are the leader of the core team our leader will arise from ongoing dialog and compilation of ideas that eventually jell into the business plan that I suggested, and our efforts will have maximum effect. I maybe wrong, not the first time, but it seemed to me to be a reasonable staring point to get the ball rolling. There are many areas that will require coordination inorder to come off as a professional group that has their stuff together. And my intent was and is to get that dialog started and the effort fleshed out. If this discussion has shifted to chat, then that is where I shall go and carry on. I had not known of its existance previously. Again I am offering my time in any capacity that my talents can add value to the effort. BTW, a mutual aquaintance mentioned that there is a remarkable resemblance between yourself and the BSD Daemon ;-) Now is your humor tonight? Regards, Frank On 10 Apr, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: > [ Resubjected but left in -hackers with followup set since people seem > to just NOT want to have this conversation in -chat and so be it; > I shall not attempt to hold back the tide. :-) ] > >> 1) A marketing and business plan needs to be developed, objectives and >> target markets clearly documented. FreeBSD strengths clearly delineated > > I'm all for it, but keep in mind the fact that without volunteer labor > to make all these wonderful things actually HAPPEN, it'll be no more > successful than any of our previous attempts at serious marketing. A > lot of the usual voiced indignation and discussion but no actual press > releases written, no articles in the magazines, no books, no public > speaking engagements, in short - no significant action. > > Ask yourselves all for a moment just how you think that Linux's own PR > machine got to be such a monster - is it Linus being an engaging > speaker and spending 350 days out of the year on the road, pounding > the pulpit? No. Linus isn't a bad speaker, in fact, but he's too > busy taking care of his family to go on any road tours and it's not > really due to his efforts that Linux is as successful as it is today > anyway. Linux is wildly successful because it managed to attract, > early on, a hoard of camp followers who didn't hack the sources but > did hack text and produced reams of freely republishable text which > bootstrapped an entire book industry. They published articles in > magazines and wrote letters to the editor. THEY did the big PR push > behind the operating system and, as far as I can see, the developers > were left to do what they do best - develop software. > > I've seen a lot of good ideas in this thread, please don't get me > wrong, but what I've also seen is a disturbing number of posts which > essentially say "Rah rah! Yes! Get organized at the top and do a > bunch of stuff and FreeBSD will win! Here's a list of things I think > you guys should do ..." > > While I do appreciate the ideas, the above approach *seriously* misses > the point, the point being that if you wait for the core team to > aggressively market this OS then you're going to wait a long time and > miss any number of valuable opportunities in the process. More to the > point, you'll fail. I'm sorry, but it's an indisputable fact that the > core team doesn't have any real marketing folks on it at the moment, > nor do we know of any serious marketing folks who are genuinely > willing and able to lead any one-man cavalry charges, so for the time > being what FreeBSD's users all really REALLY need to do is to stop > waiting for someone from the top to "tell them what to do" and just > start doing it themselves! That's exactly what's been going on in the > Linux camp all this time, by the way. People haven't been asking > Linus Torvalds to put together a marketing plan for them before doing > anything, they've just gone right on ahead and done whatever seemed > obvious in the way of marketing/evangelism, and it's WORKING. > > I'm sorry for the use of caps, but this really is a serious problem. > Our users have, by and large, COMPLETELY MISSED the entire concept of > what marketing a free operating system is all about. Perhaps we've > simply been too successful at acting like a corporate entity for folks > to really make the connection that we're still free software and with > all of free software's marketing problems - the fact that everyone's > still waiting for a non-existent central marketing department to pop > up and say "here's the new ad campaign!" sort of suggests this - but > something is definitely wrong here. > > In any case, we don't have a central marketing department and > demanding that we form one in order to solve this problem really does, > again, completely miss the point. When you go to fight a war, you > don't find 5-10 guys and say "guys, the enemy is attacking with 12 > divisions of armored infantry - here are some rifles, go drive them > off!" No, you raise 12 divisions of your own among the populace and > it's the citizens who go off to fight the war on their own behalf. > > Free software is no different - if you want FreeBSD to win, you need > to sit down and _invest the time_ in making tangible things happen, > like writing magazine articles or any of the other activities I've > mentioned so far. It is with you, the user, that the war will either > be won or lost. > > I'm also sorry to make it sound like I'm picking on Frank, I'm not, > I'm simply taking this response as an opportunity to make the point > that people should really stop wasting time asking for instructions on > what to do and simply start DOING something. You don't need > instructions from me or anyone else on the core team on what to do, > you really do know already! I've already listed dozens of good > activities and most people know instinctively what constitutes good PR > - writing books, magazine articles or press releases, giving CDs to > libraries, presenting FreeBSD in schools, telling your friends - all > the things we've covered so far. > > If you're at all typical, your biggest problem is, in fact, simply > finding the time and volition to sit down and DO THE WORK. In this, I > can only suggest simply blocking out some time and saying "OK, enough > talk - this time I'm going to WRITE the friggin' thing!" (whatever > your value for "thing" might be) or getting involved in some > collaborative effort with a friend. Many books in print today were > only completed because several people were involved and managed to > keep one another on track - if one person had tried doing it alone, > it'd never have happened. That's a good point to keep in mind as you > contemplate your own private PR efforts. > > Last of all, please don't worry about "speaking inappropriately for > FreeBSD" - just take the initiative! I've had more than one person > contact me to say "I would have spoken about it at FooLISA but I > didn't want to speak for you guys." Erm.. That's another case of > seriously missing the point - FreeBSD belongs to all of you, we in > core being merely its current custodians, and you need not fear that > you'll be taking some sort of liberties by extolling the virtues of > YOUR operating system! Somebody in -core might send you a nasty-gram > if your arguments consist of nothing more than "Linux sucks! Run > FreeBSD dammit!" but it's still your right to evangelise however you > see fit, albeit hopefully with a modicum of style, and take up the > fight on your own. Don't wait for us! As the Nike commercial says: > Just Do It. :-) > > Jordan -- ----------------------------- "At no time is freedom of speech more precious then when a man hits his thumb with a hammer." -- Marshall Lumsden To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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