Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 12:51:44 -0500 From: "Mike Avery" <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: PCWeek article by Anne Chen -- Comments Message-ID: <199905051810.NAA25028@hostigos.otherwhen.com> In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.37.19990505102722.00c748f0@localhost> References: <19990505081901.B24172@ontario.mooseriver.com>
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On 5 May 99, at 10:54, Brett Glass wrote:
> At 08:19 AM 5/5/99 -0700, Josef Grosch wrote:
> >Yes, you have said many times before that the marketing of FreeBSD is
> >lackluster at best and the response has always been the same; go and do a
> >better job. >No on is holding a gun to your head Brett. If you are that
> >unhappy with the current marketing effort you are invited to do a better
> >job. Yes, that's right, just go a do it. No on is stopping you.
> Doing a better job would take a great deal of time and effort. If I could
> arrange, somehow, to generate enough of an income stream from it, I'd do
> it.
I started out as a programmer and systems analyst. And sold out and
moved into system administration. And all along, I harbored feelings
that marketing was somehow a way for people who added no value to
a product to get WAAAYYYYYY too much money. For doing things
that no self-respecting person would do.
As I get older, I realize that marketing creates demand. Whether we
like it or not. And that someone will create demand for a class of
product. If you don't create demand for your product, your
competitor will create demand for theirs. Marketing is as essential
as having a product. And it ain't easy. In fact, in it's own way it's
as hard as creating a product.
<big snip>
> >I've said this before and I'll say it again. If you are that unhappy with
> >our efforts then get up off your dead ass and do something about it.
> >Prove us wrong. Time to put up or shut up.
> Again, how would you suggest that I invest this massive amount of time and
> effort (and it would be massive; there's a LOT of work to do and many
> things to UNdo) and not go broke? While I *would* like to see FreeBSD
> succeed, I certainly couldn't martyr myself financially for it.
I don't think that if someone were to criticize FreeBSD technically
people would seriously tell them to "write your own OS". It's not
easy. And we know FreeBSD wasn't the product of one person in
their basement. Similarly, advocacy isn't a one person job.
As a FreeBSD newbie, I probably should look more before speaking,
but advocacy and development require different skills. That isn't to
say one person can't have both, but most often they don't. It seems
that there should be a separate group handling publicity, evangalism,
advocacy, and so on. And the group should be more open than the
existing structure seems to be.
Mike
======================================================================
Mike Avery MAvery@mail.otherwhen.com
(409)-842-2942 (work)
ICQ: 16241692
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