Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 11:44:38 -0700 From: David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com> Cc: FreeBSD Advocacy <advocacy@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Perens' "Free Software Leaders StandTogether" Message-ID: <3B0AB396.1F4DC07A@acuson.com> References: <20010521114737.C96248@lpt.ens.fr> <4.3.2.7.2.20010522002724.017eab68@mail.threespace.com>
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Technical Information wrote: > > One of the biggest mistakes that anyone can make in this industry is to > assume that technical superiority is enough to assure the success of a > product. How many technologies have we seen fall by the wayside in the Pardon me for intruding with some pop sociological and political analysis of the Linux and BSD communities :-) This is all gross generalization and prone to bad logic. Hackers and geeks are fiercely independent They demand complete control over their personal domain. Unix is attractive to them because it places them in control of their computer. Open Source unices are even more attractive because it offers them even more control. Individualists tend to fall into two broad political types. One type is "hermit". They expect all other people to be equally individualistic. They have no desire to tell others what to do. "If I can do it, so can everyone else." They don't coalesce into communities very well. Warfare with other communities and individuals is rare. The other type is "tribal". They group everyone else into the ranks of "elder", "us" and "them". It is okay to tell lower ranks what to do, and it is accepted that lower ranks may very well tell the upper ranks to "shove off". Community(tribe) is central, but because they are still individualists, they choose their own tribe and sometimes change tribes. Warfare with other tribes is common. BSD land is mainly "hermit". It expects the newbie to be able to learn how to do stuff on his own. Help is available but hand holding is not. Warfare between the BSD systems is very rare. The BSD license fits perfectly. "Do whatever you want with the code." BSD users could care less what system other people use. Linuxland is mainly "tribal". There are tribes within tribes, and they all fight each other to some extent. If a newbie gets snubbed in one subtribe, they find another. The GPL license fits perfectly. "Contribute your code back to the tribe". Linux users often take great offense if some else isn't using the same extact distro. Just some random musings... David To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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