Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 17:18:30 -0700 From: Joe Warner <rootman22@comcast.net> To: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why do you do it? Message-ID: <200411011718.30582.rootman22@comcast.net> In-Reply-To: <20041101212824.GA35814@gothmog.gr> References: <200410300630.14877.rootman22@comcast.net> <20041101212824.GA35814@gothmog.gr>
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On Monday 01 November 2004 02:28 pm, Giorgos Keramidas wrote: > On 2004-10-30 06:30, Joe Warner <rootman22@comcast.net> wrote: > > As far as the FreeBSD user community goes it's a no-brainer for me, > > FreeBSD touts a long list of reasons why someone interested in UNIX, > > computing, programming and/or networking would want to use it. However, > > I've always wondered what motivates the FreeBSD Developers. The general > > explanation I've heard is "Because we get to work on projects we're > > interested in as opposed to profit-based projects imposed by our > > employers which we may or may not be interested in." Is it that simple > > or does it go deeper? Why do you do it? What motivates you? > > I hope this isn't too long. The quoted material is copied verbatim from > Poul-Henning's article. The comments below the quoted stuff are mine. > > : I guess the closest we get to anything of the sort is the "FreeBSD: tools > : not policies" catchphrase which I coined some years ago (heavily inspired > : by the Software Tools concept, which you can read more about in Peter's > : book). > > To understand why someone would contribute to FreeBSD, it's first important > to understand why someone would *use* FreeBSD. The greatest majority of > FreeBSD contributors are also users of the system itself. > > Here's a list of reasons for using FreeBSD that I have been able to write > down during the last few days: > > - Appreciation of quality. This works in multiple levels: > > . As a user, for having a quality system to work with. This includes a > wide range of FreeBSD characteristics, but the most visible are: the > excellent documentation (manpages, sgml docs, other documents), the > featureful base system, are all important reasons why a user would prefer > FreeBSD. > > . As an administrator, for having a stable system that Just Works(TM). > The flexibility of the installation procedure, the documented detailed > instructions for updating or upgrading an installed system, are details > that make administering FreeBSD a lot more fun than other UNIX systems. > > . As a developer for having a system that is organized in a logical > manner. The clear separation of the base-system vs. third-part > applications, machine dependent vs. machine independent features, the > well-known BSD platform, and the availability of the system source are all > details that make developing on or for FreeBSD a very pleasing experience. > > . All the above together. When combined, all the details listed above, > the tiny little fragments of every day life with FreeBSD, make it the > system of choise for many people. I know they do for me. > > - Tools. FreeBSD has been useful to me. > > . As a workstation: I'm too addicted to the UNIX way of doing things -- > to the point of being frustrated when I have to sit in front of the pretty > point-and-click randomness that some people like calling a 'desktop'. > FreeBSD lets me work the way *I* want, any time. When I feel like using a > GUI, a GUI is there for me. When I don't, it's gone. Simple and nice. > > . As a network server, firewall, NAT gateway, etc. Some will argue that > all these can be done with other UNIX systems too. The advantages of > FreeBSD in this area are many though, speed and stability being almost > invariably the two most important ones, followed by the great number of > network related features the system has (netgraph, ipfw, dummynet/natd, > bridging, ipfilter/ipnat, pf, altq) or the excellent support of networking > standards, etc. > > - Education. Learning by reading the work of others. Just having the > source of some-random-kernel version 1.2.0 doesn't count. The history and > the rationale of the changes made, set forever in stone in a CVS tree, > browsable and searchable with standard tools is very important too. > > - FreeBSD is UNIX. I have used UNIX systems almost exclusively for doing > my every day work since about 1994. > > At times, I had to work in other environments too. The comfort level of > UNIX beats all of those I've tried so far, any day, easily. > > I hate it when I have to work with non-UNIX platforms, because I feel > like being constantly delayed and put back by the limitations of the > system: you can't use more than 13 characters for names of files, > directories cannot nest more than a couple of levels, the filesystem is > dog-slow unless you run a defragmenter, there is no way to create a disk > image without specialized and very expensive software, you can't put more > than a few hundred files in the same directory before the whole thing > crawls to its knees, ... and the list goes on forever. > > No, thanks! I'll take my UNIX any day. > > - Licensing reasons. GPL may be good if you plan to `conquer the world'. > Doing real work, in a real business environment, is easier if you don't > have to worry about the possibility of being forced to open source > everything your company has ever done. > > - Community. I meant to write a post in my weblog entitled "Why Attitude > Matters", describing why I think the attitute of the FreeBSD users and > developers played an important role in my initial choise of FreeBSD as my > favorite OS. I never quite finished it, but I'm still collecting notes, > searching for interesting messages in my mail archives and so on. > > It will be a while before I have something resembling a complete article, > but in the mean-time let me say just this: > > Apart from very rare cases, everyone I've corresponded in the years > I've used FreeBSD (both members of the team and not) has been very > gentle, understanding and *helpful*. I can't stress the last word > too much. _Very_ helpful. Despite the fact that they don't have to. > > Giving back to a community like this feels absolutely great. It's the > best way to become a part of this group of talented, smart, gentle > community that treats newcomers with respect. > > : Why am I sitting here at ten in the night, writing a column for an e-zine > : that I don't know when will come out next? Why did I even volunteer to > : co-write this column in the first place ? > > Optimistic expectations. Making a contribution to an open source project > is always based a bit on the expectation of "making a positive difference". > > This is something that cannot be done so easily with commercial UNIX OSes. > When you buy a UNIX system from a vendor like Sun, HP or whoever, you get a > `product'. The roadmap of improvements, the design of future directions, > the changes that are made and the features that will eventually get > implemented are usually chosen by the `big customers'. > > In FreeBSD, every user, even the newbie who has installed the system > yesterday and tries to read through the Handbook but gets confused, has a > chance to make a positive difference to the system: by submitting a > question, by posting a bug report, by suggesting features, etc. > > Having the impression that the evolution of FreeBSD *can* be influenced by > every user, if they put the time and effort to do something, is what works > as a trigger to make the users really *do* something. > > : I have been close to quitting the project a couple of times over the > : years. But each time, emails from friends and strangers and the soft > : seducing song of code needing improvement have lured me back. > > The first part of the closing sentence above rings a familiar bell to many > of us, the contributors to open source projects. Some times, the reasons > why one contributes are linked with social life. > > There is a great deal of truth in the last part of the above sentence too, > which I'm sure Poul-Henning put there intentionally, but might go unnoticed > if one hasn't worked with FreeBSD people for a while. It can be put into > words as a simple phrase that characterizes a great percentage -- the > overwhelming majority -- of the developers that are members of the FreeBSD > team: > > The obsession with quality. > > If there is something that is broken (or, at least, that they consider > broken) the FreeBSD developers have a huge, irresistible urge to fix it. > Here is then the second sort of motive for contributing to an open source > project: all the technical reasons. > > : I guess that gives me personally an answer: I bother because I can make a > : positive difference in FreeBSD and have some fun with friends and > : likeminded individuals while doing so. > > That's the meat of it. Technical and social reasons. > > : In the light of the increasing commercial momentum of Linux, not, by > : definition, an entirely good thing for them, and with "Linux Standards > : Base 2" looking like a strong contender for the long promised definitive > : UNIX standard, we could find ourselves relegated to being "a better linux > : than linux" if we are caught unprepared. > : > : Why do we bother? > > I bother because I like what I do as part of the FreeBSD project. Both the > technical and social part of it all. > > The technical part refers to working with a system that I can twist and > bend to my will, that serves me as a workstation, server, or research > machine, that includes all the UNIX features I have grown accustomed to > during the 11 years I work with computers, a system whose source has > educated me and increased my knowledge of the way computers work and a > system that is hackable without having to pay hefty amounts of money for > 'buying' the right to read the source. > > The social part refers to all those wonderful afternoons or nights that I > hang out with my friends, doing things that I like, sharing our common > interest in computers and the way they work and using FreeBSD as our > vehicle to learn how to think, how to design and build things, as a tool to > assist us in our (very interesting, to all of us) programming hobbies ;-) > > - Giorgos Thanks Giorgos, it's really great to read your perspective and it brings me a lot closer to understanding the overall motivation/s. Would you mind if I shared this with our [1] list members? Also, I was hoping to get responses from some of the other developers too but I hate to cross-post and I'm not sure which other list would be appropriate. Do you have any suggestions? Advocacy, perhaps? -Joe [1] http://www.gubug.org
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