Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 16 Jan 1997 12:27:54 -0600 (CST)
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.de>
To:        jdn@qiv.com (Jay D. Nelson)
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG (FreeBSD Questions), chat@FreeBSD.ORG (FreeBSD Chat)
Subject:   Re: Commercial Applications??
Message-ID:  <199701161827.MAA00582@papillon.lemis.de>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.3.95.970113223016.3690B-100000@acp.qiv.com> from "Jay D. Nelson" at "Jan 13, 97 10:54:24 pm"

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
(follow up to -chat; this is no longer appropriate stuff for
-questions).

Jay D. Nelson writes:
> Why not just say "A production quality Unix for IBM PCs" or something
> similar. (Is *nix or clone more politically correct?) Mentioning Linux
> at all suggests that Linux is somehow best of breed. FreeBSD offers me
> what Linux doesn't and Linux offers some things that FreeBSD doesn't.

This might be a possible alternative.  Yes, the name UNIX is a trade
mark or some such, but you'll notice the text on the top of the cover:
"FreeBSD turns your PC into a powerful UNIX workstation".  Maybe we
could tone down the reference to Linux.

> BTW, I don't think a daemon with sneakers _or_ a penguin does much for
> the marketing effort. `Maudie Frick' will never use Unix knowingly,
> and the post-pubescent whacker will go for the wildest and
> wackiest. Your market is really the individual who already knows Unix
> or a beginner who knows something of the history.

I'll let others decide about penguins and platypuses, but the daemon
has a long history (see pages xvii to xxi of the Preface for more
details).  It has appeared on a number of very serious computer
science books, notably "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD
UNIX system", "The Design and Implementation of the 4.BSD system"
(note the missing UNIX; thanks, lawyers), and "TCP/IP Illustrated"
Volumes II and III.  I feel honoured to be allowed to have it on my
comparatively low-tech book.

> Market tradition, maturity and stability. I have to support AIX and at
> least half the code has a UCB copyright on it. Unix -- as it's known
> today -- wouldn't exist without BSD!

The same goes for System V.

> My compliments to the FreeBSD team. To make this good a system that
> runs on the whore's nightmare of contemporary PC hardware is a truly
> remarkable achievement!

Agreed.  The FreeBSD team has done a remarkable job.

Greg



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199701161827.MAA00582>