Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 11:22:11 -0800 From: David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com> To: Anthony Atkielski <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Prevalence of FreeBSD and UNIX among servers Message-ID: <3C0D2263.FCDE2830@acuson.com> References: <00ef01c17cda$6b419760$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <3C0D0426.BEC515D7@dnr.state.ak.us> <010001c17cf4$954228d0$0a00000a@atkielski.com>
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Anthony Atkielski wrote: > > That seems logical, but why would they choose Linux specifically? Everything I've seen thus far during my brief newbie experience > with FreeBSD suggests that it is significantly superior to Linux for any kind of serious production use, and FreeBSD doesn't cost > any more than Linux (perhaps less, since you don't have to purchase complete distributions). Indeed, any of the BSD clones would > seem to be a better bet than Linux. Is hype alone driving the feverish interest in Linux? Several reasons. First, more people have heard of Linux than FreeBSD. Second, more people are familiar with Linux than with FreeBSD. Third, more people are experienced installing maintaining Linux than FreeBSD. You need to take into account the decision maker. If they haven't run FreeBSD, know anyone in their organization running FreeBSD, or even heard of FreeBSD, then they aren't going to choose it. They won't choose FreeBSD just because it has a nice reputation among a group of people they don't associate with. And of course, the ratio of Linux sales reps to FreeBSD sales reps approaches infinity. If you take a closer look at those Linux deployments, you'll see that Redhat overwhelmingly dominates. Much more so than it dominates other distros on the desktop. Slackware and Debian servers in the business are almost unheard of, though they are more stable, robust, and reliable. Looking closer at Redhat you'll see several qualities that appeal to the corporate buyer and deployer: comfortable installation, distributed package management, large and seemingly stable company, well known name, fewer abrasive advocates, etc. > > I was hearing my fellow Comp. Science students > > predicting Unix would crush Microsoft back in 1988, > > when Windows 3.0 was in beta testing. > > That point of view has traditionally been common in academic circles, since students usually don't know any better. Actually, most student DO know better. They know the technology better. They know the capabilities better. But they aren't the marketplace, and it's the marketplace that decides such things. I was a student in the early '80s, way before Windows 3.0. When the Mac first came out I predicted that it would quickly fail. My reasoning was sound. The Mac took away all control from the user (there wasn't even a floppy eject button), and had very poor development tools (you needed a Lisa to real programming on it). But the marketplace didn't listen to me. And now the Mac has the best consumer hardware in the world and runs a BSD based OS. David To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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