Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 01:38:14 -0600 From: Nathan Kinsman <nathank@mentisworks.com> To: Francisco Reyes <fran@reyes.somos.net> Cc: FreeBSd Chat list <chat@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Newbies vanishing? Message-ID: <382E66E6.6625EF23@mentisworks.com> References: <199911120447.XAA86456@sanson.reyes.somos.net>
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Actually, I think FreeBSD gains nothing but benefit from Linux. Especially after the various Linux IPOs and increased commercialization. The different Linux camps will become more fragmented due to profit minded competitiveness, and FreeBSD will remain committed to its users and enhancing the operating systems without having counterproductive underlying motivations. I really think FreeBSD is being given a sort of manifest destiny in the current environment, and will become increasingly respected as a clean, unadulterated open source ideal, and we well get an increasing number of FreeBSD converts coming from all camps. Likewise, commercialization and increased popularity of Linux is leading to more and better open source software projects, which is most cases offer direct benefit to FreeBSD, and in my opinion it is often easier to obtain and get running currently available open source software on FreeBSD then any individual Linux distribution (given the ports and packages collections, standardized compilers and libraries, and increased concern from cross platform computability). Many software projects will provide an RPM for Red Hat or Suse, but with 30 or more linux distributions all using slightly different technologies it gets harder and more sloppy to install "Linux" software on Linux, I think FreeBSD is becoming a better Linux then Linux. As far as newbies not posting as many questions, I think this is partly due to the increased number of web and newsgroup resources available. I rarely, if ever, have a question about FreeBSD I have not been able to find an answer for somewhere on the Internet. As result, I've been using FreeBSD for 2 years now and have learned everything I know about it from existing resources. My perception of many current FreeBSD newbies is that the are converts from other Unix or Unix like OS camps and don't need as much hand holding. My only real concern for the future of FreeBSD is threads support, without a good threads implementations the performance of Linux on modern server and workstation machines could become significantly superior, and much software is requiring threads. But I think good progress is being made. I wish I could do more to contribute. Best Regards, Nathan Kinsman Francisco Reyes wrote: > > On Thu, 11 Nov 1999 20:51:26 +0100 (CET), Konrad Heuer wrote: > > >Surely, freebsd-questions probably isn't the correct list where to mail > >this question to. I feel a little bit worried since - to my opinion - the > >number of newbie questions in this list decreases. Might be FreeBSD > >installation and operation has become more easy or the FAQ database has > >been improved very much, but might also be - and I fear that - the number > >of newbie installations doesn't grow anymore. Will Linux really kill us in > >the end? > > This is really best for chat. > I think it is difficult to measure new installs. > It is also possible that there are just as many new people installing as before and that they are asking > less. You are also not taking in considerating the newsgroups. You would have to look at volume of newbie > questions there too. > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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