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Date:      Sat, 3 Oct 1998 14:26:54 +1000 (EST)
From:      Nicholas Charles Brawn <ncb05@uow.edu.au>
To:        Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD advocacy list <FreeBSD-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: Device Drivers for Linux and Intel's annoucement
Message-ID:  <Pine.SOL.4.02A.9810031411540.20026-100000@banshee.cs.uow.edu.au>
In-Reply-To: <19981003133421.A2176@freebie.lemis.com>

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On Sat, 3 Oct 1998, Greg Lehey wrote:

[snip]
> Your're very much entitled to your opinion.  On the other hand, when
> you go out on lists like that, many people will consider you to be a
> typical FreeBSD user, which I think you are not.  Both Jordan and I
> have repeatedly stated that we think you are harming FreeBSD more than
> you're helping it (though we both appreciate the good you do, as
> Jordan shows above).

>From what I've seen and read, Brett has been very gung-ho about
promoting FreeBSD. Those of us who use it know that we are using a
technically excellent product, and like any good thing, we want to share
it with the world. Unfortunately, up to, and including recently - many
of us haven't put much effort towards promoting it as much as we could
have. Brett's efforts have encouraged many of us to go out there with
the same enthusiasm of our Linux friends, and constantly remind them
about FreeBSD. :)
 
> We could be wrong.  Question to everybody who's seen Brett's messages:
> should he continue, or should he stop?  If the consensus is that he
> should continue, I'll shut up (that places no similar requirement on
> Jordan, of course :-)

However. Many of us dislike the attitude of those in the Linux camp.
We're all familiar with the blanket-marketing of Microsoft, and in many
ways, the approaches of some zealots in the Linux camp imitate this.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, as Microsoft has gained hugely in
terms of market share because of this, and recent announcements by
Oracle and Intel to support Linux show that this is working.

Where I think Brett may be having a derogatory effect, is when he
attacks Linux. As Robert Hart pointed out (for those don't know, he's
some bigwig at Red Hat) at the recent AUUG '98 conference in Sydney -
Linux is not attacking the traditional unix server market, though it is
making headway there. Instead, it is aiming at the desktop market,
which has traditionally been dominated by Windows. There is so much
market share there, he said, that if Linux only got a tiny percentage of
a percentage, that'd be a huge leap forward.

In other words, Brett, aim your guns at the Microsoft juggernaut. As the
open source unices march forward eating up MS market share, we will all
benefit. Of course there has to be a trailblazer, and in this case it is
Linux. But remember, we're not too far behind...
 
> Greg
> --
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Nick

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