Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sat, 8 Jul 2000 20:23:46 +0200
From:      Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai <asmodai@wxs.nl>
To:        Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
Cc:        advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: No port of Opera? (Was: ((FreeBSD : Linux) :: (OS/2 : Windows)))
Message-ID:  <20000708202346.M35215@daemon.ninth-circle.org>
In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20000707203753.04804100@localhost>; from brett@lariat.org on Fri, Jul 07, 2000 at 09:09:54PM -0600
References:  <4.3.2.7.2.20000707003817.04760d40@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20000706225433.0475b4d0@localhost> <Your <4.3.2.7.2.20000706193313.04a8ca40@localhost> <54201.962945434@localhost> <4.3.2.7.2.20000706225433.0475b4d0@localhost> <20000707082704.Z35215@daemon.ninth-circle.org> <4.3.2.7.2.20000707003817.04760d40@localhost> <20000707211621.C35215@daemon.ninth-circle.org> <4.3.2.7.2.20000707203753.04804100@localhost>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
-On [20000708 20:00], Brett Glass (brett@lariat.org) wrote:
>At 01:16 PM 7/7/2000, Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai wrote:
>
>I think you'll agree that WHATEVER it's called (call it a Frobnicator
>if you'd like), the effect on the availability of natively compiled
>applications is the same.

No, I do not agree.

>>With the help of the linuxulator we got it easier to ride the hype which
>>Linux created.
>
>Any "riding of the hype" which has occurred has been, IMHO, utterly
>independent of the existence of the Frobnicator. The people who I see
>switching are using FreeBSD as an Internet server and are not, as a rule, 
>running desktop or commercial applications. My clients who run such things 
>as office suites (e.g. Corel Office) are sticking to the OSes for which 
>they are natively compiled so that they can get support.

Brett, I seriously wonder if you even have been exposed to people using
FreeBSD as desktop.  Here at the ISP I work for we use FreeBSD as
primary server platform, but almost all techs run it as well for their
desktop and a couple of helpdeskers multiboot.

And that's just our company, I know of a lot which are like this.

At home I use FreeBSD only.  Both for my servers as well as my desktop.

Don't assume that just because YOUR clients are NOT doing it implies
that NOBODY is doing that.

>>Now that the hype is reaching its momentum it becomes obvious that
>>FreeBSD/BSDi is being a major player in the whole ballgame as well.
>>Have you looked around recently?  There's more and more mention and
>>support for the FreeBSD cause (and indirectly for OpenBSD and NetBSD).
>
>I am making an effort to generate those mentions and create that support,
>and so are others. But FreeBSD is not even really at the status of
>"second fiddle" yet; it's more like "third viola."

Then I really have no idea who you have been spending time with lately,
but I am listening to Bruch performed by a whole orchestra.

>>We are here, we are demanding our portion of the marketshare, there's no
>>denying us.
>
>You cannot "demand" market share. Rather, you must offer things of value.
>And one of the most important things of value -- the thing that has 
>historically proven to make or break a platform -- is native application 
>support.

Yes you can demand marketshare.  I hope I really don't have to explain
that all.

>>We pulled this off with Oracle (IIRC) and we also amassed tons of votes
>>for a native JDK and for more products, and we got them and/or are
>>getting them.
>
>Maybe. But will they deliver? And will they support it for more than
>one version? I am hoping that we can keep Applixware and Xi Graphics.
>(As you may recall, a representative of Xi Graphics told me emphatically
>that they were "dropping all support for BSD" about half a year ago.
>It turned out that she was mistaken and they were dropping BSD/OS only,
>but it this is still not a good thing -- especially as BSD/OS and
>FreeBSD move closer together.)

Hey, Xi's loss.  Plain and simple.

Applixware is already in a new FreeBSD beta stage for what I know
(little imps tend to tell me these things).  A colleague of mine, and
some friends have been having some good talks with Oracle and it all
looks promising on that front.

>Bottom line: the Linuxulator/Frobnicator/Prognosticator/Whatever is
>hurting the platform. I've proposed a strategy to counter this. Shall
>we take action?

You go ahead, have this spare soapbox, I am going to do much more
interesting things instead.

-- 
Jeroen Ruigrok vd Werven/Asmodai    asmodai@[wxs.nl|bart.nl|freebsd.org]
Documentation nutter/C-rated Coder BSD: Technical excellence at its best  
The BSD Programmer's Documentation Project <http://home.wxs.nl/~asmodai>;
The only thing we have to fear is Fear itself...


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20000708202346.M35215>