Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 11:38:48 -0500 (CDT) From: "Jasper O'Malley" <jooji@webnology.com> To: Brian McGroarty <BMCGROARTY@high-voltage.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Marketing FreeBSD / FreeBSD as a product Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.02.9908061131250.1020-100000@mercury.webnology.com> In-Reply-To: <C566D2FFB44AD31186D40008C7333C82@high-voltage.com>
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On Fri, 6 Aug 1999, Brian McGroarty wrote:
> I love Chucky. And I'd like to see him as part of BSD/FreeBSD forever.
> However he's a poor choice for the cover of the Walnut Creek CD-ROMs. The
> character, especially in his current incarnations, has a very cartoonish
> appearance. He's certainly a draw and a recognizable symbol for those already
> using FreeBSD. But for someone picking over the packaging cold, he grossly
> misrepresents FreeBSD as a product.
Barring a massive shift in the alignment of the planets, there's
absolutely no chance that the BSD Daemon will disappear from the cover of
the FreeBSD CD-ROM distributions. I'd almost be willing to say most people
in the project are willing to risk the loss of market share to avoid
playing to the ignorant masses that immediately identify the daemon with
the Christian image of Satan and choose not to buy as a result.
> FreeBSD itself is an unknown in most circles outside established UNIX
> production environments and academia. Thus, not only does Chucky carry little
> branding value, "FreeBSD" itself doesn't describe the product well. Every bit
> as large as the FreeBSD logo, the cover needs "UNIX" to identify FreeBSD. The
> strengths should be listed underneath. "STABILITY. PERFORMANCE. SECURITY."
FWIW, FreeBSD can't use the name UNIX anywhere. It's a trademark owned by
the X/Open Group (unless they've sold it to someone else at this point).
To use the name, an operating system needs to meet some arbitrary standard
of what a "UNIX" is, and the distributors need to pay an obscene licensing
fee.
I like the rest of your ideas, though. I've always felt strongly that
we'll need a boxed product someday.
Cheers,
Mick
The Reverend Jasper P. O'Malley dotdot:jooji@webnology.com
Systems Administrator ringring:asktheadmiral
Webnology, LLC woowoo:http://www.webnology.com/~jooji
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