From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 6 13:53:34 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 33C6C16A4CE for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 13:53:34 -0800 (PST) Received: from fledge.watson.org (fledge.watson.org [204.156.12.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 54D5543D46 for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 13:53:32 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from robert@fledge.watson.org) Received: from fledge.watson.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by fledge.watson.org (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i06LqBUd090289; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 16:52:11 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from robert@fledge.watson.org) Received: from localhost (robert@localhost)i06LqBZo090286; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 16:52:11 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from robert@fledge.watson.org) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 16:52:11 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Watson X-Sender: robert@fledge.watson.org To: Narvi In-Reply-To: <20040106234532.L32387-100000@haldjas.folklore.ee> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: RE: Where is FreeBSD going? X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 21:53:34 -0000 On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Narvi wrote: > On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Robert Watson wrote: > > > On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, David Schwartz wrote: > > > > > FreeBSD does need more advocacy if it wants to get the kind of > > > visibility and credibility that Linux has in the public perception. > > > Frankly, I'm kind of baffled that it doesn't. I've always found the two > > > OSes more or less interchangeable and tend to install whichever one > > > whose CD I can find first. > > > > The best advocacy FreeBSD can get is to have happy users explain to the > > rest of the world how much they like our cool aid. Or rather, one of the > > greatest contributions end-users can make to FreeBSD is to tell their > > friends (and then help them get up and going :-). It's also one of the > > greatest compliments you can give. Developers are typically fairly bad at > > advocacy, and perhaps it's better that the developers work on what they're > > good at (since it always seems a few more hands can help). So if you (in > > the general sense, not you specifically) like FreeBSD, and feel like > > documentation or code aren't your fortes, go out and give a talk at your > > local Linux user group about FreeBSD. Or explain to the people at your > > company that they could go out and buy Windows, Solaris, or Linux with > > support, or they could rely on your own expertise in-house and get the job > > done at a fraction of the cost. > > i'm not quite sure this is a replacement for a postgersql / gnome / > openoffice style marketing team though. Agreed. It's just a starting point, but one particular benefit of it as a starting point is that it would bring to people's attention the people who's contributions to advocacy are most effective, as well as build a base of marketing materials and volunteers. High on my wish list of marketing materials are some 2-page "white papers" on deploying FreeBSD. Particular, short 2-pagers on FreeBSD as a network appliance or storage appliance base, as a firewall, and as a database server. Nicely laid out, business-like, and appropriate for distribution as PDF or on paper at conferences. Another thing I'd like to see is a retrofit on the "Power to server" brand, which I think was one of our more effective slogans. A nice logo and slogan can go a long way, because people stick them on everything. One of the ideas I've been poking at is moving to a logo that slightly deemphasizes the Daemon, and instead connotes "power and reliability" -- perhaps some sort of train-based logo. Something like: F r e e B S D [train in motion logo] The Power to Serve Robert N M Watson FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects robert@fledge.watson.org Senior Research Scientist, McAfee Research