Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 20:15:43 +1000 From: phil grainger <freebsd@pronet.net.au> To: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: my two-cents worth Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19980420201543.007e9500@m1.gdr.net.au>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
hi, It's been on my mind a bit lately so I thought i would drop a line and see what happens. Hope i'm not going over old ground. When i was at uni studying marketing the talked a lot about alternative ways to satisfy "demand". Part of the marketing process is making customers aware of the existence alternative products, which is part of freebsd's problem, I have spoken to some people who thought freeBSD was a version of linux, however most people have never heard of it, watching people's eye's glaze over as you tell them it emulates linux better than linux. Promoting FreeBSD to the level where a lot of people are aware of it, could be very expensive ... Many times, when i have tried selling freeBSD to small organizations, they say that they would prefer to go for a better known operating system. They would prefer to run, what is basically a mediocre games platform, over freeBSD. Don't kid yourselves, NT is sold by the best marketing organization in the computer world. Competing with micro$oft is also pretty dangerous, just ask word perfect, novell, borland etc. I have to admit i choke a little everytime i see a certain operating system sold as part of a bundle to a local ISP for inexcess of $100k, and they end up replacing it with linux 6 months later. So, perhaps the alternative way to get FreeBSD recognized is through education, promoting freeBSD to university computer science departments, at my local university computer science department there is a lot of support for linux, basically because its free, in a theoretical environment, quality is usually very subjective ... Alternatively, there needs to be some organization involved in the actual commercially supplying and installing freebsd systems. Perhaps developing a CERTIFIED FREEBSD NETWORK ENGINEER type certificate/quasi-qualification, this could be bundled with the freebsd distribution. The stigma associated with free operating systems is really compounded by the poor performance of commercial alternatives. And the inability of "ordinary people" to find easily accessible support for freebsd, really rules it out a lot of the time, and the inability to determine the fitness of a consultant. It would certainly help my cause personally, to have some way of explaining to people that i can use a non-gui operating system. This could be linked to ... An ASSOCIATION OF FREEBSD CONSULTANTS, this would certainly improve freeBSD's viability in the corporate world, being able to supply 24hour a day, 6-7 days a week internet support for freeBSD systems by a group of certified freeBSD system admins could certainly give freeBSD the edge, in marketing. All this really requires is some standardization in how exactly you setup a freebsd box, and how you fix it if it dies. I'm sure this organization could also fund/promote the development of more freeBSD freeware/shareware. The lack of "commercial support" is/could be freeBSD's Achilles heel in the long term, what are we/us/you going to do if freebsd lost walnut creek's support? freeBSD.com versus freeBSD.org? As far as promoting FreeBSD to the "end-user" market, that would require something like redhat, a commercial orgainsation, where you buy a commercial distribution/limited support package or download it without any support. Just spend a few hours in #linux and workout where you want freeBSD to go. Personally, if FreeBSD is seen as an elitist operating system, that's fine as long as it stays rock stable and as bullet proof as it has been for me and everyone who uses it. If anyone in australia is interested in forming an australian freebsd cosultants assocation, i would be prepared to support it with some personal effort both financially and in an organisational effort, if you volunteer the same. if you think this may interest to someone you know, please feel free to forward it on, thanks for reading this far, phil grainger τΏτ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3.0.5.32.19980420201543.007e9500>