From owner-freebsd-chat Fri Sep 10 15:14:40 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from lariat.lariat.org (lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 813F11523A; Fri, 10 Sep 1999 15:14:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from brett@lariat.org) Received: from mustang (IDENT:ppp0.lariat.org@lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by lariat.lariat.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id QAA26142; Fri, 10 Sep 1999 16:14:25 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.19990910153408.04433c70@localhost> X-Sender: brett@localhost X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.0.58 Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 16:14:16 -0600 To: Joseph Scott From: Brett Glass Subject: Re: Market share and platform support Cc: Nik Clayton , "Jordan K. Hubbard" , freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <37D94ECF.C8310539@owp.csus.edu> References: <7196.936853710@localhost> <4.2.0.58.19990908203747.0463bd20@localhost> <7196.936853710@localhost> <4.2.0.58.19990909221237.04738870@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 06:32 PM 9/10/99 +0000, Joseph Scott wrote: > From what I gather part ( most? ) of Brett's concern is to what degree >does WC get involved if somebody else starts doing stuff with a FreeBSD >distro. That's certainly a major concern. > I see that Jordan has already given a response as what he >personally feels about this and what WC would do, since they are a >business. That being that if it was something he felt was good then he >would help ( so would WC ) and if he felt it was bad then he would want >nothing to do with and recommend others do the same ( I imagine that if >WC felt it "hurt" them then they would react also ). > > In the end Brett felt that wasn't concrete enough. That's correct. I can't risk large amounts of money (a lot of it other people's) and large chunks of my life strictly on Jordan's feelings about what Walnut Creek would do, since he does not own Walnut Creek. I'd like to establish a friendly relationship with Walnut Creek, but things MUST be set up so that the entire business proposition does not depend solely upon their good graces. And, from what I'm seeing, it might. Walnut Creek CD-ROM claims to be co-owner of the trademark "FreeBSD." (If so, it could preclude others from using it.) It employs a number of the key developers of FreeBSD; it gets preference on the FreeBSD Web site (which it hosts). Note that, in the right hand column of the FreeBSD home page, the section marked "Vendors" has no links, and that the FreeBSD FAQ mentions only Walnut Creek's distribution. The RELNOTES.TXT file in every copy of FreeBSD lists Walnut Creek as a source of CD-ROMs and no one else. The FreeBSDMall.com site is operated by Walnut Creek as well and does not list any other distribution of FreeBSD. This doesn't make the folks who are interested in backing me very comfortable. > From what I tell >however this senario has already happened. Correctly if I'm wrong but >isn't this basically what NetMAX is doing? They have products based on >both FreeBSD and Linux. Actually, ALL of their products are based on Linux. (Their slogan, in fact, is "Simplifying Linux.") A tiny footnote on a couple of their Web pages says that ONE of their products, NetMAX Professional, is "also available with FreeBSD." And it sells for *$500!* Besides, NetMAX Pro is a different class of product. It's really a set of server administration tools that HAPPENS to throw in an open source operating system. And FreeBSD is merely an option for that one product. > So what do we learn now? Well, if you want to do something based on >FreeBSD you can pretty much do what you want. If you want to do >something based on FreeBSD the "right and good way" then you should make >friends with WC and not enemies, they obviously are interested in seeing >FreeBSD derived works succeed. In that case, will they commit to that? Will they (and the FreeBSD project) commit to a "separation of church and state" that levels the playing field for FreeBSD distributions? Will they relinquish their claim on the name FreeBSD, and allow other distributions to be mentioned in the FreeBSD RELNOTES.TXT file and on the FreeBSD Web site? Sorry this is so long, I just wanted to make sure I made my point >reasonably clear. I don't really want to become part of a flame war, >but I thought it may be usefull to provide a real life example of what I >think Brett is describing. Your input is appreciated; *I* at least am certainly not going to flame you. But I hope you, in turn, can understand my concerns. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message