Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 21:26:48 -0400 From: Michael Lucas <mwlucas@blackhelicopters.org> To: Murray Stokely <murray@freebsdmall.com> Cc: GB <gbrooks@BLUE-MOUSE.COM>, advocacy@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD PR (long, rambling -- bear with me) Message-ID: <20020913212648.A4465@blackhelicopters.org> In-Reply-To: <20020913173803.B92101@freebsdmall.com>; from murray@freebsdmall.com on Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 05:38:03PM -0700 References: <20020913143941.A2346@blackhelicopters.org> <006c01c25b71$9adf6940$6e01a8c0@CITYMOUSE> <20020913173803.B92101@freebsdmall.com>
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On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 05:38:03PM -0700, Murray Stokely wrote: > On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 05:04:59PM -0500, GB wrote: > > * Professionally formatted white paper comparing FreeBSD-based solutions > > to Windows/Linux in various situations. > Have you seen the BSDi/WindRiver whitepapers that cover this? > Updating those would be a good place to start. We've handed out many > many tens of thousands of those documents over the years. Where could we get copies of these? And are they available for our use under a reasonable license? > > * FAQs or introductory documents directed at specific groups (again, I > > keep thinking of utter newbies, those who've dabbled in Linux and the > > I.T. professional, but there are likely other groups as well). >... > Our FAQ and Handbook are our introductory documents. >... Let me put on the writer hat here: As a writer, I am lazy. I mean, I'm *really* lazy. Astonishingly lazy. Appallingly lazy. I write FreeBSD because I already know it. My articles are all stuff that I have to learn for my day job. Writing is easier than getting a real job, and some day I hope to do it full-time so I never have to leave the house again. Your average press writer must produce 2000 words a day, or his kids don't eat. This might not seem like much, but it is when you're working with an unfamiliar topic. Writers will work with whatever makes it easiest to produce that 2000 words. At the moment, that means an incestuous bloodsucking of other Linux stories. Keep this in mind at all times when working with the press. We have much of the information, but we need to "press-friendly" it. One day, you will call up www.FreeBSD.org, and see "Media Center" near the top in big, friendly, candy-like letters. You click there, and get the Big Media Questions Links: "Who uses FreeBSD?" "Why Use FreeBSD?" "Conversion Whitepapers". These can easily be links to the Handbook, or double links -- one to the Handbook, one to a PDF made specifically for that purpose. The FAQ is too big, and the Handbook is just out of the question. Remember, writers are not nerds. (Well, okay, some of us are. :-) They do not bloody *want* to well read the FM. > > * Some standard press materials/backgrounders that the media could > > download, such as: > > -- FreeBSD vs. Linux vs. Windows vs. Mac OS (a one-page table) > http://www.FreeBSD.org/~murray/OS.pdf > (based on an earlier comparison by Bob Bruce, and with input from > the folks on hackers@) Bingo! Could we perhaps get source for this PDF, or should we recreate it and add Solaris, etc? > > -- Major sites running FreeBSD > Our definitive list is maintained in the Handbook, chapter 1. On my > travels through Asia I've learned of a few other big customers that > should probably be added to that list. Please do. > > Again, this is material that's already out there, but the No. 1 rule > > with the press is that reporters like to have things handed to them -- > > make it easy to do the research and even easier to write, and you'll > > have more press than the competition. See, Greg is a nicer man than I am. A good PR flack can make "lazy" sound sensible and useful. :-) > I think the way to start is to collect the relevant information on a > third party web site for now. Once the project achieves critical > mass, we'll import it to freebsd.org and maintain it from there. I am willing to host this temporarily on blackhelicopters.org. It's bandwidth-limited, but if bandwidth becomes a problem, that will become my case for migrating it to FreeBSD.org. :-) ==ml -- Michael Lucas mwlucas@FreeBSD.org, mwlucas@BlackHelicopters.org http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/q/Big_Scary_Daemons Absolute BSD: http://www.AbsoluteBSD.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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