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Date:      Sun, 14 Jun 1998 18:26:16 -0700
From:      don morrison <dmorrisn@u.washington.edu>
To:        Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Draft of Nader letter
Message-ID:  <3.0.5.32.19980614182616.0080c6c0@dmorrisn.deskmail.washington.edu>
In-Reply-To: <199806150000.SAA04235@lariat.lariat.org>

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Maybe they changed the page since your post? (Some of your statements below
are incorrect. e.g.  They _did_ mention the BeOS.)  I read the article, the
whole thing and all the links to it, in fact, and I didn't find much of a
linux bias.  Bias is typically used as a negative term.  There was
definately some _enthusiasm_ for linux there and the free software movement
in general, both of  which deserved it, I think.  As for FreeBSD coverage,
I think Mr. Nader was considerably generous in including FreeBSD as much as
he did in his letter considering he (most likely) only recently became
aware of FreeBSD and hasn't had enough time to research it and come to the
obvious conclusion that everything deserves a FreeBSD bias ;).  Nowhere in
his letter did he discuss superiority of one free OS over another, so I
don't think it's fair to say there was a "linux bias".  Coverage != bias.
Besides, the FreeBSD coverage was fine!  Take the FreeBSD user base.  Take
the Linux user base.  If you look at those, and then look at how many times
"FreeBSD" and "Linux" are mentioned in the letter, you'll see that FreeBSD
is _grossly_ over-represented.  This letter is about _consumers_; keep that
in mind.


>James Love, assistant to Ralph Nader, has published a draft of a letter to
>be sent to the Justice Department regarding alternatives to Microsoft OSes.
>The letter shows a heavy bias toward Linux and makes some incorrect
>statements about FreeBSD. We should send feedback urging them to be less
>Linux-centric, mention the other *BSDs, correct the information on FreeBSD,
>and include commercial OSes (such as BSDI, QNX, BeOS, etc.) as well as just
>the free ones as alternatives to Microsoft's products. The draft can be
>found at
>
>http://www.essential.org/antitrust/ms/jkjun151998.html



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