Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 19:24:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Will Andrews <andrews@TECHNOLOGIST.COM> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: My proposals for the future [Long] Message-ID: <XFMail.990910192411.andrews@TECHNOLOGIST.COM> In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.58.19990907215517.047c9880@localhost>
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On 08-Sep-99 Brett Glass wrote: > 1. An exponentially growing gap between the sizes of the BSD and Linux > user bases, coupled with slowly declining market share; You are certain that the numbers used were used in a scientifically correct manner, such as to give the numbers credibility? > 2. A lack of the sort of aggressive, contagious advocacy that continues > to fuel the spread of Linux; Misleading advocacy, you mean. > 3. A lack of the sort of venture capital and well-financed commercial > promotion now being expended on Linux; I'm not sure how that is a bad thing. With money comes the desire by investors to change the way things are done. > 4. A lack of interest on the part of large application developers (due > primarily to item 1 above); Of course, I'm sure you didn't bother asking the correct person whether this is true or not. > 5. An "elitist" attitude which discourages even very talented > potential contributors to the code base; I object to this statement. Anyone can contribute, providing they contribute in the correct manner; using the PR system is the simplest way to do so. Committers commit code bits / patches / etc. that are deemed quality code - if you offer a well-supported piece of code, they'd be fools not to commit it. > 6. A shortage of contributors to handle known problems in the code > base (due to items 1 and 5 above); and There is no shortage of contributors (177 committers, I think? in addition to several thousands of people who work on the various portions of FreeBSD). There is, of course, also no shortage of people who complain that there is a shortage of contributors but don't bother to contribute themselves for any reason whatsoever. > 7. A failure to recognize the value of a large and growing user base. Uhh? What are you talking about? >>Can we fix these problems? Are they problems, or choices >>with long term payoffs rather than immediate. > > They are problems. There is no long-term benefit to falling behind > Linux, either technically or in market share. I do not think FreeBSD is falling behind Linux, technically. As far as I can tell, Linux is still lacking the technical superiority that so many of its advocates speak of. > Some people on this list have sneered, somewhat contemptuously, at > the "hordes" of newbies that flock to a popular OS. But this is > elitism at its worst. We were all "newbies" once (as I was when > I first encountered UNIX in 1977), and everyone deserves to benefit > from a good thing. It's not "elitism", it's criticism. Get your isms straight. >>You can't really be so >>egotistical as to asssume that you, single-handedly (or even you and >>50 other guys with a few million dollars worth of capital), can >>compete with Red Hat and its 2 billion dollar war market cap? > > Why not? Red Hat is competing with Microsoft, which recently surpassed > the market cap of GE to achieve the largest market valuation of any > company on Earth. Red Hat is nothing more than a company trying to make money. I do not think FreeBSD's ultimate goal is to turn FreeBSD into a money-making OS (well, not to a large extent, like that of Red Hat Linux). > Or would Walnut Creek -- and you, as an employee thereof -- shoot me > in the back? Seriously: may I have your word, and Walnut Creek's, that > you won't sabotage what I do if I manage to get these investors to > cough up some money? If you do this, I could announce some positive > results as soon as FreeBSDCon. Your (return) sarcasm only contributes to the relative antagonism towards your boasts of advocacy. The previous person only doubted that you would actually lead a successful effort to propel FreeBSD's userbase up. He/she did not mean for you to think that anybody would backstab you. Your question as to whether this would happen seems to indicate that you lack the courage to even start such a campaign. > I've made quite a few, but they all boil down to this: good code and > good memes. This is what makes a successful software product. But > code quality is less important than good memes -- as is shown by > the dominance of Windows, NT, and Linux over BeOS, OS/2, and FreeBSD. I think a lot of FreeBSD would disagree with this -- particularly the large number of those who use FreeBSD for its superior code quality, and not because of a hype advocating its use. You really should do what you have claimed you would do, and not discuss about what you would do. Of course, doing is harder than saying. But then, if I'm not mistaken, you've been saying for at least two or three years. -- Will Andrews <andrews@technologist.com> GCS/E/S @d- s+:+>+:- a--->+++ C++ UB++++ P+ L- E--- W+++ !N !o ?K w--- ?O M+ V-- PS+ PE++ Y+ PGP+>+++ t++ 5 X++ R+ tv+ b++>++++ DI+++ D+ G++>+++ e->++++ h! r-->+++ y? To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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