From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Mar 12 13:10:53 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from sr14.nsw-remote.bigpond.net.au (sr14.nsw-remote.bigpond.net.au [24.192.3.29]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D5D2737BD81 for ; Sun, 12 Mar 2000 13:10:48 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from areilly@nsw.bigpond.net.au) Received: from areilly.bpc-users.org (CPE-144-132-171-71.nsw.bigpond.net.au [144.132.171.71]) by sr14.nsw-remote.bigpond.net.au (Pro-8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id IAA12708 for ; Mon, 13 Mar 2000 08:10:45 +1100 (EDT) Received: (qmail 91956 invoked by uid 1000); 12 Mar 2000 21:10:43 -0000 From: "Andrew Reilly" Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 08:10:43 +1100 To: Dennis Cc: Joe Abley , Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai , hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Is FreeBSD dead? Well, not in theory... Message-ID: <20000313081043.B90430@gurney.reilly.home> References: <200003122012.PAA00812@etinc.com> <20000312083736.A27614@patho.gen.nz> <200003101840.NAA12885@etinc.com> <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> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0pre2i In-Reply-To: <200003122042.PAA00896@etinc.com> Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG 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