Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:10:55 -0600 From: "Gary Smithe" <deb.guy@gmail.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: corporate backers of freebsd Message-ID: <10f7864f0712311010x2497409ava350991ccebf3ae2@mail.gmail.com>
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Good Day All and Happy New Year, I'm not looking to incite anyone, but here comes a BSD vs Linux question. Yes, I tried searching the archives and found nothing. I used FreeBSD back in 2000 for a few firewalls, but due to certain influences I switched to Linux after a couple of years. I'm interested in getting back to the BSD's but have just one big concern. As most users Unix and it's clones, I prefer the "free as in beer" licensing model, but want to know that someone else is paying the big bills. In short, here's my question: Canonical, RedHat, IBM, Novell, and a slew of others are funding / supporting Linux development and pushing some of that development into the free community, so that all can benefit from full-time developers and the money that supports them. I've seen where Cisco and Juniper are using FreeBSD, and assuming there are other big names, do they directly fund or contribute to the community? I guess my big concern is that I'd like for development to continue, with new features and hardware being supported. The best way for this to happen, IMHO, is for the developers to have full time jobs essentially devoted to FreeBSD and that some, if not most of that work is then sent back to the community. I'm not saying that I should contribute nothing, as I have contributed cash via CD's, T-Shirts, and other venues, but that doesn't provide nearly the revenue that a good corporate backer can. And just to throw more gasoline on the fire, I'll also assume that the BSD's are going strong and that there are no concerns of them suddenly disappearing if I make the change over. If you made it this far, thanks for your time in reading it. dg
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