From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Sep 3 07:10:33 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id HAA19511 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Thu, 3 Sep 1998 07:10:33 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from citadel.cdsec.com (citadel.cdsec.com [192.96.22.18]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id HAA19498 for ; Thu, 3 Sep 1998 07:10:14 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from gram@cdsec.com) Received: (from nobody@localhost) by citadel.cdsec.com (8.8.5/8.6.9) id QAA20294 for ; Thu, 3 Sep 1998 16:16:26 +0200 (SAT) Received: by citadel via recvmail id 20251; Thu Sep 3 16:15:40 1998 From: Graham Wheeler Message-Id: <199809031414.QAA03611@cdsec.com> Subject: Re: An Open Letter To The FreeBSD Core Team To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 16:14:28 +0200 (SAT) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25-h4.1] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Just my $0.02 worth: FreeBSD is open source and free to use, so anyone who wants to take it and test out their research ideas on it is free to do so - and if they pan out, they can always submit them and perhaps have them included. If there are enough people who feel that they can do a better job and who have `long term architectural vision', they can alsways take the existing code base, give it a new name, and go for it - and time will tell whether their vision is so great after all. I think the FreeBSD team are doing a brilliant job. They have provided, and continue to provide, an operating system that is highly functional, performs like greased lightning, and is more stable than any other I know of. It not only makes a great desktop platform (especially with the Linux compatability), but it is an ideal server platform on which to base complex third party products such as those manufactured by my company. Without FreeBSD, we wouldn't be in business. With FreeBSD, our company was able to start three years ago on about US$20 and a couple of PCs. As Jordan points out, a development effort as large as FreeBSDs can only run on one or both of two things - money, or sufficient enthusiastic demand from users. As FreeBSD is free, it relies on the latter, and for that to happen, it has to be useful - whether that be in academic, home, or business environments. One final point - for us living in Africa, commercial UNIXes are often prohibitively expensive for many small organisations, NGOs, academic departments, and so on. FreeBSD and Linux are real blessings to those in emerging economies. Believe me, we need FreeBSD far more than people in Hamburg do. I say `thank you' to the FreeBSD core team - your efforts are very much appreciated. gram -- Dr Graham Wheeler E-mail: gram@cdsec.com Citadel Data Security Phone: +27(21)23-6065/6/7 Internet/Intranet Network Specialists Mobile: +27(83)253-9864 Firewalls/Virtual Private Networks Fax: +27(21)24-3656 Data Security Products WWW: http://www.cdsec.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message