Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 15:18:21 -0500 From: Bart Silverstrim <bsilver@chrononomicon.com> To: Peter Risdon <peter@circlesquared.com> Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Please don't change Beastie to another crap logo such as NetBSD!!! Message-ID: <c35591c4227ca34c8becc4512be2447f@chrononomicon.com> In-Reply-To: <1108158719.23699.86.camel@lorna.circlesquared.com> References: <p06200708be315f521112@[128.113.24.47]> <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNCEFLFAAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> <649200329.20050211081852@wanadoo.fr> <621dabed4fc2996ae4cb3a2929d6842c@chrononomicon.com> <p06200718be32c8f6d47e@[128.113.24.47]> <1108158719.23699.86.camel@lorna.circlesquared.com>
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On Feb 11, 2005, at 4:51 PM, Peter Risdon wrote: > On Fri, 2005-02-11 at 15:56 -0500, Garance A Drosihn wrote: >> At 8:00 AM -0500 2/11/05, Bart Silverstrim wrote: > [...] >>> Since when did FreeBSD, a project always driven by volunteers and >>> not by commercial matters, > > FreeBSD is a commercially viable operating system. I happen to think > it's the best server OS there is - for businesses. This thread has made > it seem, sometimes, as though the touch of commerce is anathema, which > is silly. As I understand it, the support of commercial organisations > is > vital to the project. If you want a project that pisses on its > sponsors, > there's always OpenBSD. I didn't say it wasn't commercially viable. What I said was that it was driven by the volunteers. Commercial support isn't being "pissed on". BUT it can easily taint it when a commercial sponsor goes from *just* supporting to saying they'll support more if...and more if this...and that...oh, and you don't want that person over there on the commit list because he's not a team player. And yes, I'm overdramatizing to try to make a point. If they want to support it, that's great. But the thing I don't want to see (and I hope others don't want to see) is FreeBSD starting to have it's priorities driven by commercial interests or a group of people who want to mess with something solely because it's not their definition of politically correct. The difference between driven by volunteers and driven by commercial interests is that commercial interests will cater to the user and give them what they want. The volunteers give them what they need. What they want yields products like Windows, so hobbled by bandages and bandaids for backward compatibility and security breaches to support their "ease of use" mantra that it is...well...crappy for use anywhere but the desktop. What they need yields servers that are reliable and robust and minimize unscheduled downtime. >> suddenly gain a marketing department >>> that is trying to steer FreeBSD into the business sector? > > You mean it isn't in the business sector? It's just for geeks to put on > their home computers? Somebody ought to mention that to Yahoo. And > let's > hope nobody who is having FreeBSD pitched to them as a viable server OS > for their business reads that remark as they google. Again, never said it wasn't. It was well made and it HAPPENED TO BE perfectly viable for that use. It was never a group of people who sat down and said, "How can we build this OS to serve Yahoo's customers the best?" Never read the remark that there's an ulterior motive behind the creation of FreeBSD, that it was aimed for businesses? My impression was that it was created to be a good server OS. Use it or don't. It doesn't need businesses to survive, but if they use it they'd be better off. It was untainted by business politics and marketing tripe. FreeBSD and Linux were examples of what happens when marketers stay OUT of the core process of delivering the project and the geeks using and developing the OS told users that if they wanted a feature, they might put it in...maybe not. Don't like it, you can do it yourself. Is this the best approach? Probably not. But it's how it came to this point. If marketing led FreeBSD's goals now, you'd have an OS that would require three times the RAM, twice the disk space, Ports would have a front end tool that's entirely GUI driven, the OS would have more services by default, and it would always install and boot to a GUI based on GNOME or KDE...because it friendlier and more marketable that way. >> Is >>> FreeBSD starting to have marketing dictate technology instead of >>> technology dictate marketing? > > What changes would a logo require of the underlying technology of > FreeBSD? That's just rhetoric. It doesn't. The question was, "is FreeBSD starting to have...". >> Some of those volunteers would like to see a new logo. Others >> would not. The vast majority probably do not care at all. Somehow >> the ones who like the present logo seem to think they can simply >> dismiss all comments from the other volunteers who would like a >> new logo, as if the work done by THOSE volunteers is somehow >> irrelevant. >> > > I haven't noticed anyone suggest that Beastie be banished, just that a > proper logo might be appropriate now. Here's a suggestion: Beastie > stays > as the mascot. People use it as and when they wish, subject to > conditions which are at the discretion of a private individual and not > the FreeBSD project. And there's a new logo, as opposed to mascot, if > the competition throws up one people like. This distinction has been being made more and more; "change logo, not mascot". I think what got people's hackles in a bind was that there has been periodic discussion over changing or altering the mascot because it's too satanic. He's evil! You're debbil worshippers! This periodic infringement of religion on geek territory...the mascot that has come to represent what many people have donated significant portions of their time to working with...makes people a little edgy whenever the word "change" comes within fifty feet of Beastie. They get a little touchy about that. People suggesting the contest and people flaming the protesters should step back and respect that. Then there's the announcement of a new logo. The first thought for the Beastie defenders is that another fundie feud is starting, and they might use this as a way to once again try to get rid of the logo...er, mascot...they have made so near and dear to them. > By the way, thanks very much indeed for the work you're doing as a > volunteer committer. Without that, we wouldn't be here burning up > bandwidth on a technical support mailing list. Every list has side comments and debates every so often, as much as the purists hate it. Almost as much as people hate it when new people ask the same question that was answered a week ago and is in the archives. Or is in the Handbook. Or the FAQs. Deal with it. This expresses some of the personality of people who use FreeBSD. I remember someone writing in saying they were an evangelist. Someone else questioned if they were a real evangelist for FreeBSD, working on stage arguing for deployment of FreeBSD like they did. Hey, it's great that you're out there being vocal, but you know what? Everyone who puts even ONE FreeBSD system in their business and points out that it's FreeBSD, not just another faceless server, is an evangelist. They took the time to learn the ropes of install and hopefully will learn the ropes of proper administration. If you want a pure list that never discusses anything, always follows strict rules of what to post how and when...you're going to lose potential sysadmins. People will be too afraid to speak up for fear of looking stupid. And you're going to look like you're on too high a pedestal to lower yourself to answering someone else's questions because they're just burning up bandwidth.
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