From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Sep 12 14:14:33 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 277DD14D80 for ; Sun, 12 Sep 1999 14:14:30 -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 PAA15085; Sun, 12 Sep 1999 15:14:15 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.19990912145908.04af73a0@localhost> X-Sender: brett@localhost X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.0.58 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 15:14:09 -0600 To: "David Schwartz" , "Jay Nelson" , From: Brett Glass Subject: FreeBSD Distributions: Leveling the playing field Cc: jkh@cdrom.com In-Reply-To: <000001befd61$6769baf0$021d85d1@youwant.to> References: <4.2.0.58.19990912134942.04a5d7a0@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 01:57 PM 9/12/99 -0700, David Schwartz wrote: > Bluntly, if two things are not equally good, it is not sensible to treat >them equally. Would you apply that statement to human beings in general? If so, who is to judge the "quality" of the human being? Or to say that he or she should be treated differently -- i.e. deprived of rights -- because he or she is not of sufficient "quality?" In the more specific case of the FreeBSD project and creators of FreeBSD distributions: Does it make sense to favor large companies over small ones? Or older ones over newcomers? Or established but less daring distributions over ones that try to "push the envelope?" If a distribution has more bugs or problems than another (perhaps because it attempted to add great new features), but is working to improve, should it be penalized in any other way than by the marketplace? IMHO, the answer to all of the questions in the paragraph immediately above is a resounding "no." FreeBSD, Inc. should set a level playing field for all would-be distributors, and then allow the marketplace to reward or penalize the products based on user experience. This is what is occurring in the Linux world, and it works fantastically. --Brett Glass To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message