From owner-freebsd-advocacy Fri Apr 28 1:31:25 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from gwdu60.gwdg.de (gwdu60.gwdg.de [134.76.10.60]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EF0EC37B990 for ; Fri, 28 Apr 2000 01:31:17 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kheuer@gwdu60.gwdg.de) Received: from localhost (kheuer@localhost) by gwdu60.gwdg.de (8.9.2/8.9.2) with ESMTP id KAA83674; Fri, 28 Apr 2000 10:30:54 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from kheuer@gwdu60.gwdg.de) Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 10:30:54 +0200 (CEST) From: Konrad Heuer To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Important: Open Source & German Federal Government In-Reply-To: <6868.956854927@localhost> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=X-UNKNOWN Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Thu, 27 Apr 2000, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: > > I don't think we should bash Linux or start a flame war here, but we co= uld > > try to articulate that both - FreeBSD and Linux - should have their pla= ce. > > Why shouldn't we try something like `FreeBSD for the server - Linux for > > the desktop' (just to suggest a - probably too - simple slogan). >=20 > And what forum should this take place in so that the german government > will see and react to it? It's all well and good to ask BSDi to take > an active role in this, but they're going to ask precise questions > about what information they should release and to whom... Sorry that my first mail wasn't precise enough. Well, the KBSt (let me use that abbreviation) people ask for general feedback (including any reports about experiences with open source systems) via e-mail: troles@kbst.bund400.de So why should we who have experiences with FreeBSD not send them some information about what we do? That's my first intention. There will be someone who can tell about FreeBSD on the desktop with KDE and Applixware, and there will be someone who can tell about a web server with FreeBSD, apache and mysql and so on. Of course I'll send them mail about what I do but a single vote won't change much. So my first hope is that more than one message will arrive at KBSt to make them know that FreeBSD is already widespread and a successful open source system. And what can BSDi do? I think they could be able write a mail to KBSt, too, with some statements like this: FreeBSD is and will stay an open source system with these features (fill in here all you like). As far as we can see the next major release will include these new features (fill in again). There are lot of important and useful open source (...) and commerical software products (...). FreeBSD is used by some well-known ISPs (...), and commerical, reliable support is provided by .... Furthermore, a lot of Linux software (...) is perfectly runnable under FreeBSD. I know GeNUA in Kirchheim/Germany sells and supports BSD/OS but BSDi will of course know better about commerical support in Europe (including Germany). Since SuSE plays a very active role in supporting in Linux in Germany Linux is in good position here, no doubt. Maybe my ideas of what BSDi could state are completely nonsense but I all I wish is to make people know that FreeBSD is an excellent open source system although isn't as popular (yet?) as Linux. :-) The IT strategy the KBSt will fix in June will be influence many decisions in many administrations in the years to come. Thanks for reading so far and for your patience. Konrad Heuer Personal Bookmarks: Gesellschaft f=FCr wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH G=D6ttingen http://www.freebsd.org Am Fa=DFberg, D-37077 G=D6ttingen http://www.daemonnews.o= rg Deutschland (Germany) kheuer@gwdu60.gwdg.de To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message