Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 23:55:51 -0400 From: Lee Cremeans <lcremeans@erols.com> To: chat@freebsd.org Subject: On PR Wars and a Plea for Peace Message-ID: <19990415235551.A99992@erols.com>
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Over the past week, I've watched this thread mutate from a freindly thread about FreeBSD being used in a hit movie into yes another BSD-vs.-GPL thread...or more appropriately, a Brett Glass-vs.-everyone thread. I know that some people just won't ever get it, but here's where we stand: * It has been stated over and over again that "FreeBSD will die because it's not being marketed properly". Of course, this usually means "it's not in a nice pretty box next to Red Hat and Caldera, on a shelf at CompUSA/Fry's/etc.". I, personally, don't see this as a problem. People _are_ discovering FreeBSD in spite of all this, and usually by word-of-mouth (which is the best advertising you can get). I see at least 2 or 3 people a night in the two main #freebsd IRC channels that have come from Linux, and are asking for help -- say what you want about tech support over IRC, but people ARE finding us. * The GPL and "deferring" to Linux. All right, so Linux is GPL'd, and we as a general rule prefer BSD-licensed code to GPL. But the level of fervor I see Brett putting forth is rather scary; it's almost reminiscent of the Red Scares of the past 100 years, with Linux and the GPL people as the "dirty pinko Commies". I honestly don't see it that way; sure, RMS would like to see all software be free, but look at it like this: Red Hat, Caldera, hell, even Walnut Creek _itself_ make a killing on free software, of both sorts. I don't see good American software business (which btw has really only existed since 1976, when Microsoft Basic for the Altair came out) going down the tubes just yet. As for licensing, yes, I do prefer the BSD licensing, but let's keep an open mind about this. And deferring to Linux, given the current climate, is a _good_ thing because, let's face it, there's a lot more Linux users, at the moment, than FreeBSD users, and companies want to sell to the largest common denominator. If we get enough users, we can do a native version, but we need the critical mass to do that. Don't put the cart before the horse. * Finally, the fervor: I find all the frothing at the mouth and ad-hominem attacks VERY disturbing. As I said in my last post, people that get yelled at "your OS sucks! try this one or we'll beat the crap out of you!" will tend to either write you off as a lunatic, call the police, or both. The fact is, people prefer logical, calmly-stated arguments to why something is bad/something else is better, rather than ranting, screaming, insulting tirades. Also, things like posting private email to the lists and such are VERY rude, and IMO, that should have warranted a ban from the lists. I think that, at this point, everyone needs to back off this and get back to life. Spending time arguing about this, especially with someone who refuses to back down, is utterly pointless, and this will be my LAST post on the matter. -lee...flames to /dev/null. by procmail, if necessary. -- +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Lee Cremeans -- Manassas, VA, USA (WakkyMouse on WTnet) | | lcremeans@erols.com | http://wakky.dyndns.org/~lee | To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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