Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:42:35 +0100 From: Willem Jan Withagen <wjw@digiware.nl> To: stable@freebsd.org, current@freebsd.org Subject: Many many many thanks to all that develop FreeBSD. Message-ID: <4B87A59B.4000605@digiware.nl>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi, When everything is life is just smoothly flowing by, and all is hunky-dory, some things don't get the credits they deserve. So here we go.... ;) Standing at the coffee machine this morning I realized that FreeBSD has been part of my professional life for already way, way too long. Before 1993 I was tinkering with CPM, SCO, sys3/5, i386, Apollo Domain, Linux <0.98 and sorts. When friends an I decided to start an ISP, then very novel, now really part of our lives. And one of the friends suggested to use FreeBSD instead of Linux. As Linux at that time was still very much in flux and really just a flying target, we were more than up for it. Because if gave us the systems that we were all too familiar with. And it really did work richt out of the box. (well almost, needed to hack on the serial driver for the 16 port card we had) The first commercial server that we deployed was running FreeBSD 1.1. I still fondly keep that CD. One of those friends has been part of the Core team (Guido van Rooij) for a while. And I'm sure that a lot of the code he hacked up to keep the ISP going ended up somewhere in the tree. The release strategy has always been a real nice service to our business. Lots of systems where kept at major_versions, until the hardware became too old. Only then to leapfrog into the most stable version at that moment. And I don't ever recall that we were disappointed in the way FreeBSD developed itself. The ISP was sold in 2000, and I started doing other things. But in 2000 just about everything the ISP was delivering ran on FreeBSD. And I remember boxing being up for over 2 years. (especially those not exposed to the public.:)) Only reason for some windows was, because business wise you can't do without. At home FreeBSD has been my friend from that same moment forward. I trashed my Linux Toys, merged to FreeBSD and never looked back. My home is now running on 2* FreeBSD's and lots of Jave-embeded devices. Again there never disappointed in what FreeBSD delivered. Recently I started a new company again, but much to my disappointment (but understandably so) the chipset supplier (NXP/Philips) delivers only support for Linux (or WinCE) and the new shop is mainly Linux oriented. Although a some of the dev-team are still FreeBSD at hart. And parts of the system are tested against FreeBSD for avoidance of too much Linux-isms. :) So when I ran into some trouble yesterday, I realized how much FreeBSD has contributed to "painless computing"(tm). And not just only because of the quality of the software, but also because of the support that is offered. And for that I would like to thank, compliment, free-beer-license all the people that made my life trouble free Many many many thanks to all those that make FreeBSD. --WjW
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4B87A59B.4000605>