Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1998 04:36:37 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: Open Systems Networking <opsys@mail.webspan.net> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: your mail Message-ID: <12464.907414597@time.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 03 Oct 1998 01:02:51 EDT." <Pine.BSF.4.02.9810030028460.5976-100000@orion.webspan.net>
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> Linux has more dox online than my mom has cookbooks. So the simple fact is > people are just going to have to write FreeBSD dox and stop asking WC to > perform miracles. It just ISNT going to happen. WRITE till your hand falls > of people or we are not going to get anywhere fast. Hear hear! Just to put this in perspective: Do you folks know when the last major "mainstream" magazine in the U.S. published an article on FreeBSD? I'll give you a hint: December 1996. That was when BYTE published my own article on the FreeBSD project and, since then, we've had a few single-page blurbs here and there (and the latest one-pager in PC Magazine this month was a very glad sight) but nothing approaching feature length. I have, in the same period of time, probably seen 30 feature length articles on Linux in the american trade press. Now, just for a little contrast, let's go to Japan and look at their mainstream press. Whooee! Articles about FreeBSD almost every month! 20 different books on the bookshelves, covering everything from "How to be an ISP with FreeBSD" to "FreeBSD kernel internals." Regular columns on FreeBSD in several of their Unix magazines. And you know what? In Japan, FreeBSD and Linux are neck-and-neck in terms of users. It's not the more usual "Linux kicks FreeBSD's butt" scenario there at all, and that's certainly not because Walnut Creek CDROM (or even Pacific HiTech) are doing amazingly good promotion in Japan. PHT is doing some promotion, yes, and for that they should be thanked, but it's really the user base in Japan which is making ALL the difference in terms of garnering market share. So, in a nutshell, Brett is completely wrong about this. It's not WC holding FreeBSD's progress back, it's apathy on the part of those who could be achieving everything that the Japanese FreeBSD users are achieving if they put the same amount of energy into writing all that stuff. I've been approached by literally every book and magazine publisher here in the U.S., each starving for books and articles on FreeBSD, and if I were into that (which I most emphatically am not) I could spend every waking hour of my life just writing articles and still not catch up with demand. I have, at various times, grabbed the shirt of anyone I could think of in the FreeBSD community with even an ounce of writing ability and offered them everything from whisky to women if they would just PLEASE WRITE SOMETHING. Do you hear me Frank? Do you hear me Brett? That's what this is all about, and the statistics from Japan don't lie. Press == Users. You don't need to go on a witch-hunt against the only company who's doing ANYTHING to promote FreeBSD at the moment, that being a foolish attack on one of your few allies, you simply need to help them and I think I've already made it more than clear just how to go about doing that. Flaming me or WC will not get articles written, only writing articles will accomplish that. - Jordan To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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