Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 22:25:39 +0200 From: Christian Brueffer <chris@unixpages.org> To: Michael Lucas <mwlucas@blackhelicopters.org> Cc: Murray Stokely <murray@freebsdmall.com>, GB <gbrooks@BLUE-MOUSE.COM>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD PR (long, rambling -- bear with me) Message-ID: <20020916202538.GD602@unixpages.org> In-Reply-To: <20020913212648.A4465@blackhelicopters.org> References: <20020913143941.A2346@blackhelicopters.org> <006c01c25b71$9adf6940$6e01a8c0@CITYMOUSE> <20020913173803.B92101@freebsdmall.com> <20020913212648.A4465@blackhelicopters.org>
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On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 09:26:48PM -0400, Michael Lucas wrote: > On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 05:38:03PM -0700, Murray Stokely wrote: > > On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 05:04:59PM -0500, GB wrote: > > > * Professionally formatted white paper comparing FreeBSD-based solutions > > > to Windows/Linux in various situations. > > Have you seen the BSDi/WindRiver whitepapers that cover this? > > Updating those would be a good place to start. We've handed out many > > many tens of thousands of those documents over the years. > > Where could we get copies of these? And are they available for our > use under a reasonable license? > > > > * FAQs or introductory documents directed at specific groups (again, I > > > keep thinking of utter newbies, those who've dabbled in Linux and the > > > I.T. professional, but there are likely other groups as well). > >... > > Our FAQ and Handbook are our introductory documents. > >... > > Let me put on the writer hat here: > > As a writer, I am lazy. I mean, I'm *really* lazy. Astonishingly > lazy. Appallingly lazy. I write FreeBSD because I already know it. > My articles are all stuff that I have to learn for my day job. > Writing is easier than getting a real job, and some day I hope to do > it full-time so I never have to leave the house again. > > Your average press writer must produce 2000 words a day, or his kids > don't eat. This might not seem like much, but it is when you're > working with an unfamiliar topic. Writers will work with whatever > makes it easiest to produce that 2000 words. At the moment, that > means an incestuous bloodsucking of other Linux stories. > > Keep this in mind at all times when working with the press. > > We have much of the information, but we need to "press-friendly" it. > One day, you will call up www.FreeBSD.org, and see "Media Center" near > the top in big, friendly, candy-like letters. You click there, and > get the Big Media Questions Links: "Who uses FreeBSD?" "Why Use > FreeBSD?" "Conversion Whitepapers". These can easily be links to the > Handbook, or double links -- one to the Handbook, one to a PDF made > specifically for that purpose. The FAQ is too big, and the Handbook > is just out of the question. > > Remember, writers are not nerds. (Well, okay, some of us are. :-) > They do not bloody *want* to well read the FM. > > > > * Some standard press materials/backgrounders that the media could > > > download, such as: > > > -- FreeBSD vs. Linux vs. Windows vs. Mac OS (a one-page table) > > http://www.FreeBSD.org/~murray/OS.pdf > > (based on an earlier comparison by Bob Bruce, and with input from > > the folks on hackers@) > > Bingo! Could we perhaps get source for this PDF, or should we > recreate it and add Solaris, etc? > > > > -- Major sites running FreeBSD > > Our definitive list is maintained in the Handbook, chapter 1. On my > > travels through Asia I've learned of a few other big customers that > > should probably be added to that list. > > Please do. > > > > Again, this is material that's already out there, but the No. 1 rule > > > with the press is that reporters like to have things handed to them -- > > > make it easy to do the research and even easier to write, and you'll > > > have more press than the competition. > > See, Greg is a nicer man than I am. A good PR flack can make "lazy" > sound sensible and useful. :-) > > > I think the way to start is to collect the relevant information on a > > third party web site for now. Once the project achieves critical > > mass, we'll import it to freebsd.org and maintain it from there. > > I am willing to host this temporarily on blackhelicopters.org. It's > bandwidth-limited, but if bandwidth becomes a problem, that will > become my case for migrating it to FreeBSD.org. :-) > > ==ml > There is also a really nice summary of FreeBSD written by Sebastian Benner. It is geared towards FreeBSD newbies and discusses the history of the project, special features (e.g. jail, securelevels, periodic scripts) and offers many references to additional documentation. We had a copy of it laid out at the BSD booth at the Linux Kongress in Cologne, Germany (thanks to Dirk Meyer) and there were a lot of people interested in it. Unfortunately only a german version is available at the moment, but that can be changed :-) Located at: ftp://ftp.fernuni-hagen.de/pub/pdf/urz-broschueren/broschueren/b0050208.pdf - Christian -- http://www.unixpages.org chris@unixpages.org GPG Pub-Key : www.unixpages.org/cbrueffer.asc GPG Fingerprint: 0DB5 8563 2473 C72A A8D1 56EA DAD2 B05D 5F3C 3185 GPG Key ID : DAD2B05D5F3C3185 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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