From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 6 18:03:37 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8200C106564A for ; Thu, 6 Jan 2011 18:03:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Received: from harmony.bsdimp.com (bsdimp.com [199.45.160.85]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C2A08FC17 for ; Thu, 6 Jan 2011 18:03:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [127.0.0.1] (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by harmony.bsdimp.com (8.14.3/8.14.1) with ESMTP id p06Hx6sR032362 for ; Thu, 6 Jan 2011 10:59:06 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Message-ID: <4D2602E8.6080609@bsdimp.com> Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:59:04 -0700 From: Warner Losh User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD amd64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101029 Thunderbird/3.1.6 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org References: <20110103220153.69cf59e0@kan.dnsalias.net> <20110104082252.45bb5e7f@kan.dnsalias.net> <20110105124045.6a0ddd1a@kan.dnsalias.net> <20110105175926.GA2101@vniz.net> <20110106024403.GB22349@vniz.net> <8A69DE05-A433-4D40-8E63-8F06215606F2@samsco.org> In-Reply-To: <8A69DE05-A433-4D40-8E63-8F06215606F2@samsco.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Subject: Re: Linux kernel compatability X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:03:37 -0000 On 01/05/2011 21:00, Scott Long wrote: > I'm sorry, this simply hasn't been true in my experience. I've worked with companies that have decided to support FreeBSD, and I've worked with companies that have decided not to support FreeBSD. Emulation has never been used as an excuse to not support FreeBSD. It's purely a cost/benefit decision. Yes. I've been on the inside of a few of them, even seeing some business case figures. These usually say that for the segment that company X is going after for product Y can sell 1000 units to customer W and another Z000 to the market as it emerges over the next 2 years. 1000 units gets them $200k profit, development costs are $100k for developer time, test time, etc. Z is large, so potential revenue form this project is in the millions, with a guaranteed small initial profit. Decision: go. There's been other times where similar analysis has resulted in a 'no go' decision, since other opportunities are bigger. Other factors are in the noise until after the decision to go/nogo has been made. Warner P.S. The numbers above are hypothetical, but representative of the kinds of things that people look at in making a decision to support an OS natively.