From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Nov 30 18:08:54 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DDDB8106567E for ; Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:08:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rwatson@FreeBSD.org) Received: from cyrus.watson.org (cyrus.watson.org [65.122.17.42]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B92538FC14 for ; Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:08:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rwatson@FreeBSD.org) Received: from fledge.watson.org (fledge.watson.org [65.122.17.41]) by cyrus.watson.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 57ACF46B39; Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:08:54 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:08:54 +0000 (GMT) From: Robert Watson X-X-Sender: robert@fledge.watson.org To: Alexander Churanov In-Reply-To: <3cb459ed0811291342i524eaab3g1acadcd9cbdb638b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: References: <20081128234155.0221e263@serene.no-ip.org> <20081129174625.U70754@ury.york.ac.uk> <3cb459ed0811291342i524eaab3g1acadcd9cbdb638b@mail.gmail.com> User-Agent: Alpine 1.10 (BSF 962 2008-03-14) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: "Conrad J. Sabatier" , freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: i give up X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:08:55 -0000 On Sun, 30 Nov 2008, Alexander Churanov wrote: > The solution is to ask someone, or, better, to pay someone for providing > that knowledge. Computer shops rarely indicate that hardware is compatible > with FreeBSD. Whom to ask/pay? All this leads to idea of creating some > organization that will sell FreeBSD compatible PCs and hardware. I'm sure, > business like that can not exist , because FreeBSD userbase is not largest. > But non-profit organization, would, probably. There are quite a few companies around already that will certify their hardare for use with FreeBSD, and provide support for using their hardware with FreeBSD, especially in the server department. Several companies do a rather good business in this department, including iXsystems (owns FreeBSD Mall and helped organize the recent MeetBSD), Iron Systems, Freedom Technologies (was FreeBSD Systems), and others. It's quite possible to talk to these and other companies and say "Sell me a server with FreeBSD pre-installed and the following configuration" or "Which RAID controllers do you recommend, can you install them and guarantee they will work with the latest FreeBSD install". So I wouldn't underestimate the FreeBSD user base :-). Robert N M Watson Computer Laboratory University of Cambridge