Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 13 Mar 2000 08:10:43 +1100
From:      "Andrew Reilly" <areilly@nsw.bigpond.net.au>
To:        Dennis <dennis@etinc.com>
Cc:        Joe Abley <jabley@patho.gen.nz>, Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai <asmodai@wxs.nl>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Is FreeBSD dead? Well, not in theory...
Message-ID:  <20000313081043.B90430@gurney.reilly.home>
In-Reply-To: <200003122042.PAA00896@etinc.com>
References:  <200003122012.PAA00812@etinc.com> <20000312083736.A27614@patho.gen.nz> <200003101840.NAA12885@etinc.com> <Pine.BSF.4.05.10003111306520.14049-100000@bsd1.nyct.net> <200003111841.NAA17534@etinc.com> <20000312083736.A27614@patho.gen.nz> <20000312193205.W68308@daemon.ninth-circle.org> <200003122012.PAA00812@etinc.com> <20000313091940.B18713@patho.gen.nz> <200003122042.PAA00896@etinc.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Mon, Mar 13, 2000 at 04:14:34AM -0500, Dennis wrote:
> At 09:19 AM 3/13/00 +1300, Joe Abley wrote:
> >I have yet to find a "real product" with good documentation.
> 
> I hate when these discussions get so out of context. The original point
> regarded source code, and whether it was useful enough to allow end-users
> to maintain their own systems simply by having it, since many of the
> caveats and "code tricks" are known only to the authors, or because of the
> substantial learning curve of fully understanding a hardware device.

Well, I've been able to get several problems "fixed" as a result
of having the source code.  I might not be able to fix the problem
myself, but I can usually (a) work around it and (b) submit a
detailed-enough PR or message to the author, including a pointer
to the problem piece of code and what I think's wrong with it, that
a fix has been installed in very short order.

How much better would I have fared with Solaris, SCO or NT?

What does it matter if there are users that can't derive even this
level of utility from the source, when there _arent_ any better
alternatives.

Again, your complaint has no positive arguments for ways to
improve the situation, or alternative scenarios that would be
better.  It is just an unhelpful whinge.

-- 
Andrew


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20000313081043.B90430>