Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 17:00:36 -0500 (EST) From: James Howard <howardjp@wam.umd.edu> To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Another advocacy opportunity Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.21.0001271635570.21923-100000@rac4.wam.umd.edu>
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Sitting in someone's office the other day, I happened to pick uo his copy of _InformationWeek_ and started sifting through it. I came upon an interesting article about caching dynamic web content. But the important part of the column was at the bottom where this text lie: In My Humble Opinion is an occasional column expressing the opinions of InformationWeek readers. Submissions of up to 750 words can be sent to imho@cmp.com. Only writers being considered for publication will be contacted. When I saw this, it felt like it was screaming write about FreeBSD! :) So to that end, I wrote the following, but first a few notes. I have not come up with a title yet, so it just reads "Foo Baz"; suggestions are welcome. Since _InformationWeek_ is the target, the audience are PHBs. I have tried to write with that in mind. Also, I want as close to 750 words as possible. Right now, it is at 569. So there is quite a bit of room to play with if anyone has ideas or suggestions. For statistics with both Hotmail and Yahoo!, I left the numbers as XX. I do not have them. I have called both companies but have not heard back yet. If anyone can fill me in, I would be most grateful. In the last paragraph, I try to "sell" it. I think this may need some work. Finally, I'd like a paragraph on security but feel unqualified to write it. If someone can give me a list of viable facts, I can put these into some kind of cohesive paragraph. Also, if you all think I have written this just too poorly, or it is well written but I should take it to someone else, or that I am simply an idiot, please feel free to say so. :) But enough yammering, please read it now: Foo Baz James Howard howardjp@glue.umd.edu With the recent hype surrounding open source software, an important project has gone unnoticed in the media. This project, FreeBSD, aims to create a rock-solid UNIX clone based on the 4BSD work from the University of California at Berkeley. Begun in 1977 , the BSD tradition of outstanding software design and innovation continues with FreeBSD. Today, FreeBSD supports a wide array of enterprise class components for the Intel x86 and Compaq Alpha architectures and is available at not cost via the Internet or for only $39.95 on CD from Walnut Creek. FreeBSD looks and feels like UNIX offering industry standard tools including a best of breed TCP/IP stack, the standard TCP/IP services, the X Windows System, the Perl scripting language, a C/C++ compiler and related development tools, an NFS client and server, and the customary array of UNIX utilities. The developers aim for POSIX compliance and maintaining compatibility with traditional UNIX environments. FreeBSD has clearly shown its strength as an industrial web server platform. Yahoo! uses FreeBSD to deliver XX million page hits a week, to its customers. Microsoft's Hotmail service uses FreeBSD as the front end to service XX million users. Walnut Creek's FreeBSD powered FTP server, ftp.cdrom.com, serves 750,000 users daily and set an Internet record transferring 1.39 terabytes of data in one day. FreeBSD also supports a wide array of applications software. FreeBSD maintains a database of over 3000 applications which can be optionally installed. This database, called the Ports Collection, contains just enough information that with a simple ``make install'' the application is downloaded, configured, built, and installed without user intervention. The Ports Collection contains applications like the web server Apache, the SQL database PostgreSQL, the web application server PHP, Sun Microsystem's Java Development Kit, Netscape Communicator, and Corel WordPerfect. The Ports Collection also contains traditional UNIX add-ons including Emacs, Tcl/Tk, tcsh, along with modern UNIX additions such as GNOME, KDE, MySQL, and AbiWord. Also included are many tools translated for Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Vietnamese speakers. And if that is not enough, most UNIX programs available in source form will compile on FreeBSD with little or no modification. FreeBSD is developed by a group of over 150 volunteers who work on an ongoing basis to ensure its reliability and stability. Two separate versions are developed simultaneously. The first, called FreeBSD-STABLE, is slowly moving, but more stable and reliable than the second. The second, called FreeBSD-CURRENT, is less stable and more prone to problems than -STABLE. -CURRENT also includes the latest drivers and features, but with less testing. All changes made to -CURRENT migrate to -STABLE after significant testing. With over 100 updates, additions, and bug fixes made to the two branches each day, several easy and simple means of keeping a FreeBSD installation updated have been developed, each with a distinct niche. Additionally, daily snapshots of both branches are released via the Internet for testing and usage, as well as regularly scheduled releases. FreeBSD can meet the needs of large and industrial servers for most potential users. The enormous number of available applications makes it attractive as a workstation as well. The rapid and stable development of FreeBSD to support new hardware, fix bugs, and improve performance shows no signs of slowing down. FreeBSD should be on your to do list. For more information about FreeBSD or to download it for free, point your web browser to http://www.freebsd.com. -- Jamie Howard To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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