From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 7 05:28:25 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AF28B16A4CE; Mon, 7 Feb 2005 05:28:25 +0000 (GMT) Received: from postfix4-1.free.fr (postfix4-1.free.fr [213.228.0.62]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DD27743D58; Mon, 7 Feb 2005 05:28:24 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rsidd@online.fr) Received: from imp4-q.free.fr (imp4-q.free.fr [212.27.42.4]) by postfix4-1.free.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0ACF628B10F; Mon, 7 Feb 2005 06:28:23 +0100 (CET) Received: by imp4-q.free.fr (Postfix, from userid 33) id BE544B6E6; Mon, 7 Feb 2005 06:28:23 +0100 (MET) Received: from proxy.imsc.res.in (proxy.imsc.res.in [203.199.209.81]) by imp4-q.free.fr (IMP) with HTTP for ; Mon, 7 Feb 2005 06:28:23 +0100 Message-ID: <1107754103.4206fc77b1e68@imp4-q.free.fr> Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 06:28:23 +0100 From: Rahul Siddharthan To: Scott Long References: <4205F382.8020404@freebsd.org> <20050206194857.5920e369.diegocglinux@yahoo.es> <42066967.1060300@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <42066967.1060300@freebsd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: Internet Messaging Program (IMP) 3.2.5 X-Originating-IP: 203.199.209.81 cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org cc: Robert Watson cc: Diego Calleja Subject: Re: The case for FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2005 05:28:25 -0000 Quoting Scott Long : > Diego Calleja wrote: > > In the firefox 1.0 release it has been demonstrated > > that agressive "marketing" _matters_ even if you are not a company. Firefox is > > a great browser, but it would not have been as succesful if there was not so much > > noise around it. What Freebsd needs is to make more noise, documeting changes > > is good but it doesn't really makes lot of noise. > > The Firefox comparison is actually very apt. There are quite a few > areas where Firefox is still inferior to the Mozilla Suite, but the team > has done an _outstanding_ job of advertising Firefox for what it is. Erm. I'm not sure where you think Firefox is inferior to the suite, but that's not the point: the point is, ordinary people find it useful, compared to Internet Explorer (not compared to the Mozilla suite). I know plenty of Windows users who've switched to Firefox. On the other hand, you need to be a Unix whiz to use FreeBSD. There's absolutely no point pretending it's useful to ordinary users: it's not. Nor are the other BSDs, and Linux is just barely getting there (though there's a huge market there, given that 90% of Windows PCs are reportedly spyware infected and people are just getting sick of it all). Besides, Firefox got some very good, honest third-party reviews in major newspapers. Of course, they'd have worked hard to get those reviews, but at the moment even the most user-friendly Linux distro can't hope for anything better than "holds promise for the technically advanced user". Now, there is a (much) smaller market, of knowledgeable unix users who are not scared of the command line and value stability, performance and a clean system, that FreeBSD could target (and has traditionally targeted). But is even that small market going away? People are still complaining about 5.x on the lists (even on this thread) and many people who want a solid system are still using 4.x. I don't think the problem here is advertising. The sort of user who would experiment with NetBSD after years of using FreeBSD is not the sort of user who is easily swayed by marketspeak. Advertising works, but only if there is a sound product behind it. Rahul