Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 23:35:19 -0400 From: Dan Janowski <danj@3skel.com> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, David Shanes <dshanes@personalogic.com>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Subject: Re: Fw: Your Article "Freeware: The Heart & Soul of the Internet" Message-ID: <352D9376.79BA2FB7@3skel.com> References: <025301bd63fb$0b94bc80$1d43a8c0@shanes.personalogic.com> <199804092124.OAA00915@dingo.cdrom.com> <19980410113536.65458@freebie.lemis.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi All, Just for the record, for a long time this whole 'debate' has made me sick. The two main issues here are market presence and maturity. Linux has an edge in market presence because it is 'this cool thing grown from the muck of the Internet'. Many people, myself included, started with Linux not because it was better but because it seemed like a cool new thing, and it has a public presence because of its lineage (however short it may be). You won't find much on any of the BSD derivatives because its been there so long that its like the water stain on the wall that you stop noticing. When a new stain shows up, it gets noticed. People in this business don't dig constancy, commitment and stability. It ain't so 'cool'. An OS that is by the ass of the pants has thrill and excitement. Linux lacks maturity, which is its Achilles heel and its marketing appeal. Linux also has folks like RedHat and Caldera that make Linux appealing, visible and accessible. We have not done much to enhance the appeal, visibility or accessibility issues. We can't fault ourselves because we are doing real work with our OS. But, confronted with the risk of being marginalized, we need to deal with these three things. We should also be careful about panning Linux. We will only catch shit for it. As we all know this whole thing is really about cosmetics not merit. Panning MS does little good aside from satiating our own need to bitch about that which is lacking in merit. The question of what to do has been initiated by others in this thread already. As I think about it, I get a sinking feeling that what we really lack is capital. Do we need a FreeBSD version of RedHat or Caldera that will market, sell, reinvest and support the OS in a more direct way? Do we dare suggest that with all that we have gained and earned from the use of FreeBSD, that we should contribute funds to the effort. Hell, Yahoo went up how many points in the market today? I have considered contributing funds, but unlike the great rel-eng that we have, there isn't a FreeBSD advancement organization. Anyway, that's enough broadcasting for the moment. Thanks for listening, Dan Greg Lehey wrote: > Tim knows about Jordan, despite his message. We've repeatedly tried > to get them interested in BSD, but there's something at ORA that > resists. I suspect it's not Tim (who lives in California), but > somebody on the East Coast. > > I've just about given up with ORA. They seem to be relinquishing > their position as the favourite UNIX publisher and chasing the NT > crowd. I'm surprised they even had this "summit". > > Greg > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message -- danj@3skel.com Dan Janowski Triskelion Systems, Inc. Bronx, NY 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?352D9376.79BA2FB7>