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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>

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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

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