Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 13:23:31 +0000 From: Paul Robinson <paul@iconoplex.co.uk> To: Andrew Boothman <andrew@cream.org> Cc: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org> Subject: Re: Less messages to FreeBSD.org lists Message-ID: <401514D3.7020808@iconoplex.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <40143CC3.6010709@cream.org> References: <4013EA9D.6040808@cream.org> <20040125134151.M52260@mail.tacorp.net> <20040125185753.GA12995@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> <40141B3D.9070901@cream.org> <20040125194721.GA28036@xor.obsecurity.org> <40143CC3.6010709@cream.org>
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Andrew Boothman wrote: > I'm glad if that's the case. I don't feel that FreeBSD constantly > chases market share in the same way that a certain penguin-oriented OS > does, but no one would be happy to hear that we had a decreasing user > base. How about an extra bit in the install scripts that prompts the user to "ping" the FreeBSD servers with some useful data? If the user is happy to do so, it sends output of uname -v over UDP to a box somewhere in *.freebsd.org. The server then collects the figures and can then start providing better figures about take-up of versions which would be useful for both developers and those trying to understand FreeBSD usage "in the wild". If this information was sent out periodically after a make installworld as well, then up-to-date information about which releases and builds are being used out there could be made available and would "retro-fit" to those who don't use /stand/sysinstall any more, but just cvs to the build they want. This could be extended to sending output of dmesg to give developers an idea of which hardware is being used too, perhaps even with a dump of ps so we could see whether the box was being used for web, ftp, etc.... as long as we show the user what we're about to send to the FreeBSD.org servers, and offer them the chance to say "no", I don't think this would cause massive problems. Oh, one other thing - so that laptops that move around and other systems that come up on dynamic IP get counted only once, we'd need to also send something unique to the machine in the data - a MAC address or Processor serial number. The latter would be ideal, but not sure how easy this would be to implement in our multi-platform world. The UDP server to do take the data and append it to a file is tiny in Python. I'm happy to volunteer to manage the data and produce the stats on a monthly basis. Anybody interested in this? > FreeBSD does have excellent documentation, I always kick myself when I > work something out on my own and then realise a few days later that it > was all laid out in the handbook for me. > > Perhaps this does adequately explain decreasing list traffic... The project is becoming mature, it's as simple as that. Good reasons for mailing list traffic decreasing: 1. Documentation answers nearly all user questions these days. Kudos to those guys. 2. The code itself is crashing less and working with more kit than before. 3. There are extensive archives out there that will answer almost any questions you have. 4. We're all getting better at finding answers ourselves and we're not as novice as we once were. 5. ports and pkg_add reduce the number of questions about how to install "this package" on FreeBSD. Number 3 is my favourite - I stuck a new HDD in my laptop the other day and couldn't remember how to get the on-board sound working properly. Before firing off a request to the lists I googled for an answer, found a post and sat reading it thinking "gosh, this is exactly what I needed, and it's quite well structured as a response too...". I was about to send the author a quick note off-list to thank him for writing such an authoritative response (always good to praise where due), then spotted the author was me. I wrote the post in answer to somebody else two years ago. :-) So, there, that's at least two e-mails I saved just last week. -- Paul Robinson
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