Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 22:36:45 -0600 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: love@cptech.org Cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Draft of letter to DOJ Message-ID: <3585F65D.CA47C812@softweyr.com>
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Mr. Love,
This evening I read your draft letter to Mr. Klein et al with great
interest. This is a topic I have some interest in, as I have been
a user and occasional contributor to the FreeBSD project since its
early days. I am also a user of and developer of software for the
BeOS.
Please allow me to express my thanks for your carefully reasoned
letter. I have a few small suggestions which I believe will help
to clarify your letter somewhat; please feel free to contact me
if I can be of assistance in any way.
Your mention of BeOS in Section III is well placed. I fear, however,
the mention of only one commercial alternative to Windows may not
impress the target audience at first blush. While BeOS is a marvel,
it does not yet have a large, established user base, though many
software developers such as myself are working to establish one. It
may be beneficial to your argument to mention other commercially
successful operating systems such as BSDi, Solaris x86, and UnixWare.
In Section IV, your mention of both Linux and FreeBSD covers the
largest installed base of users of "free" operating systems. As I
am sure you are aware, other alternatives including NetBSD and OpenBSD
also exist.
The characterization of FreeBSD as "a non-copyleft Unix system that is
in the public domain" is somewhat inaccurate. FreeBSD is copyrighted;
the copyright allows the user to use FreeBSD in any way so long as
credit is given to the creators of the code. It would please me, and
others in the FreeBSD community, to see a more accurate representation
of the FreeBSD license given.
I also feel strongly that mention of the free availability of source
code to BIND, the server that implements the Domain Name System, would
enhance your argument. Not only is BIND the heart of the DNS, which
in turn drives the World Wide Web, it is also arguably the worlds
largest distributed information system, and is maintained primarily on
the goodwill and cooperation of its users throughout the world.
Again, please allow me to thank you, Mr. Nader, and your organization
for your activities on the behalf of myself and my fellow computer
users throughout the world. As you say, competition benefits users of
computers everywhere, and ironically, would benefit Microsoft if they
would only shed their cloak of paranoia and begin to compete in the
marketplace. If I can help in any way to clarify or expand your know-
lege of the free source software market, please contact me at:
mailto:wes@softweyr.com
I have sent a copy of this letter to the FreeBSD Advocacy mailing list,
as there has been a lively discussion of your draft on this list. The
general "sense of the list" was thankful that you and Mr. Nader are
taking up this cause, and appreciation for the heightened awareness of
free source products in general and FreeBSD in particular.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr wes@softweyr.com
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