Date: Fri, 24 Mar 1995 11:17:16 -0800 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@freefall.cdrom.com> To: hackers@freefall.cdrom.com Subject: Jordan's new status.. Message-ID: <17088.796072636@freefall.cdrom.com>
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I promised to say something about this a week or so back and have been too busy with my new status to talk much about it! :-) I am now no longer an in-house employee of Walnut Creek CDROM, but rather a full-time "author", working almost strictly from home. I am in charge of making sure that every FreeBSD CD goes out looking good and that FreeBSD itself is fed and reasonably happy. This means that I'll keep sending out free hardware to folks that need and/or deserve it and otherwise manning the pumps when crunch time comes around at each release. I'll also be the release engineer for 2.2 unless somebody comes along wanting that dubious distinction (Poul has already said that 2 turns in the box was enough for him). On top of that, I have some various tasks: 1. PR. WC has also given me a travel budget, and I'll therefore be traveling to and/or speaking at the various shows where it looks like FreeBSD's presence would be a Good Thing. I'll also start releasing frequent "progress reports" for the project, which my USENET Man Friday, Peter da Silva, will be posting to the net (thanks, Peter, for stepping forward with that!). This will help to give the deserved impression that FreeBSD is not moribund and that we're really _working_ here. The Linux newsgroups and mailing lists are always full of "whats going on" information, which really helps its community to feel like they're part of an exciting and evolving process. Is it any wonder that its followers are so rabid? They all feel like they have a stake in its development! The popular misconception that the *BSDs are deaf to their constituencies and are "closed door" projects is one that's going to be tough to break, but I'll be making it one of my personal crusades to do so. 2. Developer liason. Talking to Important People(tm) in the industry is a critical part of getting more commercial acceptance for FreeBSD, and I'll be dusting off my suit occasionally to go and talk with hardware and software vendors in an effort to convince them that we're the right horse to back. Anyone having ANY NAMES OR CONTACT INFORMATION they think might be helpful in such endeavors is very strongly urged to contact me! I'm now effectively a full-time employee of FreeBSD, so treat me as a resource! I can't complain about how I have a full-time job AND FreeBSD anymore, now can I? :-) 3. Documentation. I'll be diving into the FreeBSD book and other assorted documentation with a vengence just as soon as the 2.1 crunch is over. More on this as it happens, since doc is something that's much talked about and little done, so I'll just hope that actions will speak louder than words here! 4. Installation. I'll say no more about this except to say "watch my dust" :-) I will hopefully have quite a bit to do with 2.1's installation and general user hand-holding framework. It's definitely #1 on my mind in the 2.1 timeframe. 5. Janitorial services. You have something you've been desperate to see cleaned up and/or improved in FreeBSD and nobody is talking to you? Well, send it to me. Depending on how busy with the other 4 tasks I am (and they WILL invariably take priority, so don't expect me to gladly push the broom in all cases), I will either help you or join the queue of people ignoring you! :-) Well, that's all.. Other aspects of my new "job" will no doubt become apparent as we develop them. Just to let you know that the project now has at least one "full timer" to keep things in order, and this is something which it has sorely needed for some time. I suppose David counts for a full-timer as well, though we need to work on getting him more money to live on.. :-) Jordan
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