Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1999 15:10:34 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: "G. Adam Stanislav" <adam@whizkidtech.net> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD and memetics Message-ID: <4.2.0.32.19990422144951.00c60f00@localhost> In-Reply-To: <19990422153804.B2321@whizkidtech.net> References: <4.2.0.32.19990421150131.04614650@localhost> <4.2.0.32.19990420204456.00b25160@localhost> <4.2.0.32.19990420075641.00b1a5f0@localhost> <199904201841.NAA05137@whizkidtech.net> <4.2.0.32.19990420204456.00b25160@localhost> <19990421102449.B224@whizkidtech.net> <4.2.0.32.19990421150131.04614650@localhost>
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At 03:38 PM 4/22/99 -0500, G. Adam Stanislav wrote: > have never gotten the impression that FreeBSD was trying to win a popularity >contest. :-) Some people appear to be evn worried about it becoming too >watered down if it became too popular. This is misguided. It is that which does not reproduce which whithers and dies because the resources are consumed by stronger competitors in the ecosystem. Memes must replicate or be overwhelmed and die. There is nothing whatsoever about the existence or use of more copies that would hurt FreeBSD. >It is not mine to approve or disapprove. I am quite happy with FreeBSD >running on my computer. This is a very narrow worldview. You are neglecting to recognize that, if FreeBSD does not flourish, key software applications will not be available for it and it will be smothered by Linux. >FreeBSD is a good and solid platform, that is all I care about. It is >attracting developers such as myself because of its technical superiority. Again, this is fine, so long as you embrace an individual, short-term viewpoint and neglect the big picture. >> Jordan is attempting to position FreeBSD exclusively as >> a server operating system, and is actively steering developers toward >> another platform: Linux. These are losing and damaging strategies. > >Are they? Is he? If you have not seen this, then you may not have taken the time to become adequately informed about the marketing and positioning of FreeBSD (what little is currently done). The slogan "The Power To Serve" appears on the FreeBSD Web site and on many of the proomotional materials. Representatives of the FreeBSD project and of Walnut Creek CD-ROM actively steer desktop users and software developers (ALL software developers, even if they develop server software) to Linux. >> The engineer, who has assumed the role of captain without the experience >> or worldview required for this very different position, is aiming the >> ship right for the rocks. Many previous ships have crashed on those rocks >> before. > >Yes, NeXT comes to mind. Steve Jobs is not an engineer. NeXT did fail to his blind spots, but they were different blind spots -- including targeting a market with zero potential. >The big difference was that NeXT was marketted as a >commercial system. Not so. NeXT was targeted at academia. On the day of the announcement, Jobs proclaimed that educational institutions were a huge market and he intended to capture it. The fact was, the market was already saturated and there was little demand there for his product. >The average person could not afford it. The machine was not targeted at "the average person." Which was a mistake, but that's another story. >Perhaps many of >those who could afford it could not justify spending so much money on >technology way beyond their perceived need. NeXTStep wasn't particularly advanced compared to other things being done at the time. >OS/2 was commercial as well. The point being? >FreeBSD is free. The developers of free software have a totally different >attitude than commercial software companies. This generalization doesn't wash. The developers of Linux have a very different attitude than the leaders of the FreeBSD development effort. >Jordan just summed it up in his >message to Licia: He writes software for himself, and you're welcome to use it >if you want, but if you don't want to, that's fine. An attitude that's fine for the occasional hacker, but inappropriate for the leader of a product development team. >Besides, there is an important subtlety in Jordan's method: People do try >Linux, then decide FreeBSD is the way to go. Give the man some credit, he is >shrewder than it appears. Do not assume that what worked on you -- a sample of one -- is necessarily shrewd or the correct way to go. MILLIONS of people choose Linux over FreeBSD and stick with it. >In my humble opinion (not meaning to start any wars), FreeBSD needs easy to >follow docs for its survival. Docs written by writers, not programmers. Documentation by no means ensures survival. It certainly didn't for OS/1. >Yes, but OS/2 was commercial. It's a different ball game. Not in this respect. >Incidentally, I believe that *commercial* developers will be willing to >support free software only under the GPL. This is wrongheaded and in fact the opposite of what will actually happen if developers are properly educated (something which should happen as a result of the proper promotion of FreeBSD). Most commercial developers would not support GPLed software if they knew its intent: to put them out of business. Those that are supporting Linux are naive and/or just stupidly hopping the bandwagon. --Brett Glass If nothing else, the brain is an educational toy. -- Tom Robbins To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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