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To: Warner Losh <imp@village.org>
cc: Thomas Gellekum <thomas@ghpc8.ihf.rwth-aachen.de>,
        pechter@stars.sed.monmouth.army.mil,
        FreeBSD-hackers@freefall.cdrom.com
Subject: Re: Linux commercial softwarew 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 26 Dec 94 11:22:11 MST."
             <199412261822.LAA12357@rover.village.org> 
Date: Mon, 26 Dec 1994 12:26:17 -0800
Message-ID: <16603.788473577@time.cdrom.com>
From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Sender: hackers-owner@freebsd.org
Precedence: bulk

> We've change owners, and the new owners will likely not be making this
> available unless a tangible return on investment can be shown.  If you
> are interested in purchasing OI for Linux or for FreeBSD, please drop
> me a line at imp@boulder.openware.com and I'll put you in touch with
> the powers that be.

Tanglible returns on investments are always so nebulous though.  I know
I'm preaching to the choir when I tell YOU this, but I'm just hoping that
you'll pass some of these questions discretely onto management when
and if possible.

1.	How much `investment' can there be in a FreeBSD or Linux version
	when all the work has already been done and will be done by one
	of your people working more or less for free on it?

2.	Have you guys ever heard of advertising?  That's investment that
	goes out in hopes that more sales will come in as a result.
	_Properly handled_ this time, a free port could be really good
	advertising for a fraction of what it would cost to advertise in
	all the various journals that programmers and other people of
	potential interest hang out.  Free UN*X is not just a cute thing,
	it's becoming all the rage, like the Internet did.  Do they want to
	catch the wave now, or do they want to do it later?

Some might find it hubris to claim that Free UN*X is a big thing, but
I've been going to these conferences lately and I'm seeing a BIG
impact that's only getting bigger every day.  Maybe your management
should _attend_ one of these symposiums sometime! :-)

[Yeah, Jordan, maybe you should even DO that symposium you've been
threatening to do for the last 2 years.. :-)]

				Jordan