Date: Thu, 06 May 1999 20:57:36 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com> To: stox@enteract.com Cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: linus on BSD Message-ID: <41922.926049456@zippy.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 06 May 1999 22:06:36 CDT." <Pine.BSF.4.10.9905062033270.51713-100000@m4.stox.sa.enteract.com>
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> [reasonable summation of Linus's position elided]
>
> 1) We must not cede the desktop, but trumpet it. We're damn good
> on the desktop, we're even better on the server. Linux and NT
> are disappointments when moved from the desktop to a server
> roles, FreeBSD is a joy.
Well, here's where I must beg to differ with you. As I've noted in
past postings to this advocacy list, my personal predilection for
focusing on the server market stems from a combination of two factors,
not just one:
a) My disinclination to charge machine gun nests and other positions
of strength which I have the option of flanking.
b) My fundamental disappointment with the FreeBSD *community's*
commitment to the desktop. I don't see joy, I see gaping
holes in what we offer and have always offered.
I didn't start out in FreeBSD with the feeling that our only hope of
salvation lay in focusing on our strengths, that being primarily the
server market, since if you have enough guys you can even charge
machine gun nests successfully if you're willing and able to pay the
price. I was more than willing to fight a two-front war for the
server and the desktop, but I also became rapidly disillusioned of
this when the guys who were supposed to be fighting for the desktop
never showed up.
I should not have been particularly surprised at this, I suppose,
given that since this project's inception, it's been driven by user
demand and our users have, by and large, come from ISP and "old Unix
guard" demographics. Our users have been people who's primary
interest lies in FreeBSD machines sitting in server rooms and
essentially doing network-based rather than desktop-based services.
Seeking to change this, we've had desktop contests, we've had logo
competitions, we've done all sorts of things to try and interest
people in desktop-shaped things but, with a few notable exceptions
(the bt848 folks, Luigi, etc), we just haven't been very successful at
it. At some point you simply have to declare a losing strategy for
what it is and that's what I was eventually forced to do with the
desktop; I didn't start out with that opinion, it was simply one
forced on me by pragmatism.
That said, I can still see this changing as more and more people start
getting more involved at a technical level (seeing someone actively
working on adding MIDI support to our current sound driver was, for
example, a very encouraging development) and that's essentially what
it's going to take. Being credible on the desktop has never been
something held up by marketing, believe it or not, since you first
have to have something, anything, to market before you can start that
phase and we've never gotten that far with FreeBSD on the desktop.
The desktop installation, even with the small improvements I've made
for 3.2, is minimal at best and support by 3rd party multimedia ISVs
(things like RealAudio G3, Macromedia plug-ins, etc) almost
non-existent for FreeBSD. You can't just pull this stuff out of thin
air, either, you have to address it and you need to put a LOT of time
into crafting comfortable desktop environments for the beginning user
before any cozy sound-bites on how FreeBSD is now buddy-buddy with the
desktop will sound even remotely credible.
Do I see people out there who are finally willing to *do the work* of
making FreeBSD a credible desktop solution or do I simply see the
usual array of faces wondering when it's going to happen by sheer
magic? :-)
- Jordan
P.S. If you need ideas for where to start, just go install the very
latest SuSE or Red Hat Linux distributions sometime. They don't do a
*lot* more than we do, and in some areas they do considerably less,
but the areas where they do honestly hold the user's hand more
effectively are nonetheless instructive. Learn from them.
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