From owner-freebsd-advocacy Wed Jun 3 22:46:08 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id WAA03402 for freebsd-advocacy-outgoing; Wed, 3 Jun 1998 22:46:08 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mailgw00.execpc.com (mailgw00.execpc.com [169.207.1.78]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id WAA03326 for ; Wed, 3 Jun 1998 22:45:58 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from fpawlak@execpc.com) Received: from darkstar.connect.com (harconia-1-109.mdm.mke.execpc.com [169.207.132.109]) by mailgw00.execpc.com (8.9.0) id AAA14262; Thu, 4 Jun 1998 00:45:57 -0500 (CDT) Received: (from fpawlak@localhost) by darkstar.connect.com (8.9.0/8.9.0) id AAA14792; Thu, 4 Jun 1998 00:45:50 -0500 (CDT) From: "Frank Pawlak" Message-Id: <980604054549.ZM14791@darkstar.connect.com> Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 05:45:49 +0000 In-Reply-To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" "Re: Unix Review --NT suckup rag" (Jun 3, 9:38pm) References: <19926.896935122@time.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: Z-Mail (5.0.0 30July97) To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" , "Frank Pawlak" Subject: Re: Unix Review --NT suckup rag Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Jordan, AS usual you are on target. Glad to hear that things (positive thinking) are starting to move toward commercial support. I am going to reply to that letter just on the principle that UNIX Review is bottom fishing when they publish rejoinders that are full of half truths and unsubstantated statements. Maybe if enough of us that appreciate what that publication was when they were devoted to solid technical articles keep bitching, and they are getting bombed by such, perhaps the editor will get a life and Unix Review will return to its' roots. Not holding my breath however. ;-) Frank On Jun 3, 9:38pm, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: > Subject: Re: Unix Review --NT suckup rag > > IMHO, another badly written article used to slam us and praise Linux. Calls > > the FreeBSD project "the last gasp of a fine research project that is now > > over". Makes a big issue about FreeBSD not having commercial support, and th > at > > the FreeBSD books are little more than bound man pages. > > Well, it's always good to listen to the dissenting opinions. > Sometimes they even have a point, like that last one about too many > man pages in our single book. I totally agree, I slammed the man > pages when they first went in and if I had more to do with determining > just what the content of that book was, I'd have never bloated it out > to 1700 pages just by adding in a lot of man pages. That was a move > made for purely marketing reasons and any shots to the jaw we get over > it are probably deserved. Unfortunately, I also didn't have 500 pages > of my own to contribute which would have made the book a far better > product and so I really couldn't do much more than grumble about the > man pages. Seeing as how I had nothing _constructive_ to offer the > book, I had to pretty much just shut my mouth and like it if I didn't > want someone coming back with "if you want a better book then write > the one you've been promising to write for over 2 years, you choad!" :-) > > And as far as commercial support is concerned, I agree with that too > and that's really probably come down most to just us here at Walnut > Creek CDROM dropping the ball. We have the infrastructure, we have > the funds and we could get the personnel if we just pulled our thumbs > out and decided to go for it, but the tech-support canyon before which > we stand is also a very deep one, and I suppose we can be forgiven for > showing a little reticence to jump. > > In any case, we have two important points to work on as a result of > this criticism: Better books and thumb removal on the part of those > who should now be putting a commercial support organization into > place. As far as being a "last gasp" is concerned, well, we all know > that's so manifestly untrue that we don't even need to get upset at > such a laughably transparent attempt to get our goat. :) > > - Jordan >-- End of excerpt from Jordan K. Hubbard To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message