Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 21:23:53 -0500 (CDT) From: Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com> To: jdn@acp.qiv.com Cc: toor@dyson.iquest.net, brett@lariat.org, mike@smith.net.au, dshanes@personalogic.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re[2]: Fw: Your Article "Freeware: The Heart & Soul of the Internet" Message-ID: <199804100223.VAA23203@darkstar.connect.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980409180601.1026A-100000@acp.qiv.com>
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Jay Nelson <jdn@acp.qiv.com> wrote: > On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, John S. Dyson wrote: > > [snip] > > >The problem with FreeBSD, is that people working on FreeBSD are > generally > >older, and find evangelism to be painful. Also, people using FreeBSD > >are busy using it, as opposed to worshipping it. > > > >How do we (really) deal with this? > > I suggest we don't evangelize, per se > Oh but we must!! > I agree that most of use are > older -- and it appears that most of use deal with real clients in the > real world. The cost of an OS is the scheme of the commercial world is > not a deciding factor. Support and reliability is a major factor. You hit on a key fact here and that is support. Please don't take what I am going to say as a criticism. Because FreeBSD users are older and thus more experienced I think it is often taken for granted that every user is at the same level of expertise, which is simply not the case. Further there is an attitude and in some ways correctly so that RTFM is the order of the day. There is a lot of truth to the addage that give a man a fish and you will have to feed hin forever, but teach him to fish and he will be able to feed himself. However, I have noticed some seemingly stupid guestions that go unanswered or ignored completely. I have asked several of these myself even after RTFM.... and just didn't get it so to speak. I am guilty of the terse answer RTFM mind set, and I had a lady administer a public flogging to me on this mailing list this past week because of it. It is understandable that the population of the newsgroup and mailing lists are busy, but to reach the newbe and a larger user community more patience with the user whose UNIX knowledge is at the orangutan level will be required. I have worked in the computer user industry for many years, and the one thing that I realized early on is the UNIX scares the hell out of most people. It has a reputation for be criptic, etc. What I would propose would be some volunteers to take these questions and patiently answer them to maintain user retention, and don't let them slip off to Linux becuse of the mis-apprehension that it is better supported. And that belief is out there partialy because of the volumes of books on the shelves devoted to Linux, most of which are nothing more than a statement of environmental waste in all the trees destroyed to provide the paper for them. Overall I believe that the support offered for FreeBSD is of a higher quality that that of the Linux newsgroups. There is a lot of bulljive passed for expertise on their NGs. So we have a strong base to build upon. We have a pedagree UNIX -- oops -- with a rich heritage not a clone. Some marketing and market presence will get the word out. No reason for FreeBSD to take the back seat to any OS. We have a great story to tell. ----------------snip > > What I suggest is this: > > First -- Jordan -- since you're the main man in this, put the pencil > to the paper and figure out what it would cost to mount a program of > professional news releases -- including customer profiles. Look at the > number of CD-ROMS sold and divide cost by CDs and add to CD cost. Look > at the newsletter and consider subscription. Most of us can afford > some extra bucks and would be happy to spend it for the credibility. > Think in terms of two to three times per month for the news releases. > > Second: poll the rest of us for contributions. Many of us are using > FreeBSD in production environments. (Yeah, I'll volunteer -- even > though I can't write worth a plug nickle.) I'll go along with this. I can't code but would be willing to do my part. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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