Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 11:37:27 -0700 From: Donald Wilde <dwilde1@thuntek.net> To: Brian Adkins <brian@lojic.com> Cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD Support (was Re: Netscape browser ) Message-ID: <36F7DF67.FBBB9AA8@thuntek.net> References: <4.2.0.32.19990322181857.03eb8d90@localhost> <4.1.19990322230145.00f92480@mailbox.iwaynet.net> <4.1.19990323101745.01513a50@mailbox.iwaynet.net>
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Brian Adkins wrote: > > At 08:04 AM 3/23/99 -0700, Donald Wilde wrote: > >> At 06:58 PM 3/22/99 -0700, Brett Taylor wrote: > >> >... > >> >Chris Coleman and I, with others, started Daemon News. > >[snip] > >> When I was evaluating FreeBSD (just last week), one of the things that > >> *really* impressed me was the response time on answers to my newbie > >> questions. I was stuck on something at 4:00 am. EST and I fired off a > >> question to freebsd-questions and got several responses that solved the > >> problem in less than an hour! I've had technical support contracts from > >> IBM when I worked on mainframes and from Microsoft and I've *never* had > >> such timely support. In fact, even though my company was paying something > >> like $16,000 per year to Microsoft for support, I inevitably solved the > >> problem through much pain before Microsoft would get back to me with > >> someone that had any degree of clue. > > > >Can we use this as a 'testimonial' quote, Brian? > > Sure! > > >> Maybe I should ask a fundamental question. What is the goal of the > >> advocacy group specifically, and the FreeBSD organization in general? Is > >> it to attract as many ISV's as possible? Is it to run on the widest > >> variety of hardware? If it is, then I totally misread the philosophy of > >> this group and probably picked the wrong OS ;) > >> > >FreeBSD is specifically optimized for i86 hardware. There are two ports > >in development for others, but we leave portability to our NetBSD > >_friends_. We are looking for ISV's to port, of course, and we are > >looking for hardware suppliers, _of_course_, but the primary job of all > >of us is to get the word out about one of the greatest gifts mankind has > >ever given itself. Raising visibility is a major effort, and very few > >get any compensation beyond gratification (and a better OS) from adding > >to the user base. > > It seems to me that if the type of people who have the skill and motivation > to improve the operating system are attracted to it, and gain a sense of > corporate "ownership" from investing blood, sweat and tears into it, then Yes, and the best people will be attracted to the 'technically best' platform which FreeBSD (IMHO and others') most definitely is. > the general user base will continue to follow. Some might offer the > argument of Betamax vs. VHS, but I don't think the commercial analogies > always apply well here. No, they really don't. What does Joe Linux' choice have to do with mine? FreeBSD will remain free as long as people care to keep it up, and there's no sign that that support is going to go away. I personally am not concerned, for example, that I can't get Oracle 8 on my FreeBSD. I know that I can run Oracle 7 if I need to, and that has most of the commercial app base. I also know that I can (and do) run PostgreSQL, which is arguably as good and some ways better, besides being BSD licensed. The VHS vs. Beta would apply if we had a 'bottom line' and payroll to worry about. We don't, therefore we can make our choice on the basis of merit. Betamax _is_ better, but it's gone because Sony couldn't justify supporting it. We have no such problem. As you said, the rules of the game are totally different, and _we_ are Bill Gates' worst nightmare, even if he doesn't know it yet. -- Donald Wilde "Bringing the Internet to everyone!" Wilde Media 1380 Rio Rancho Blvd. SE #117 voice: 505-771-0709 Rio Rancho, New Mexico 87124 e-mail: dwilde1@thuntek.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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