Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 10:54:52 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: jgrosch@MooseRiver.com Cc: jmutter@netwalk.com, "Viren R. Shah" <viren@rstcorp.com>, Steve Kargl <sgk@troutmask.apl.washington.edu>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: PCWeek article by Anne Chen -- Comments Message-ID: <4.2.0.37.19990505102722.00c748f0@localhost> In-Reply-To: <19990505081901.B24172@ontario.mooseriver.com> References: <4.2.0.37.19990504223819.00c28c30@localhost> <199905041651.MAA23567@jabberwock.rstcorp.com> <Pine.BSF.4.05.9905042357120.402-100000@insomnia.local.net> <4.2.0.37.19990504223819.00c28c30@localhost>
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At 08:19 AM 5/5/99 -0700, Josef Grosch wrote: >Yes, you have said many times before that the marketing of FreeBSD is >lackluster at best and the response has always been the same; go and do a >better job. >No on is holding a gun to your head Brett. If you are that >unhappy with the current marketing effort you are invited to do a better >job. Yes, that's right, just go a do it. No on is stopping you. Doing a better job would take a great deal of time and effort. If I could arrange, somehow, to generate enough of an income stream from it, I'd do it. Ideas? >I am growing very tired of this little game of yours Brett. Every couple of >weeks you show up telling us how wrong we are and how we are completely >fucking this up and we should do this and that. Who is "we?" I have not criticized you as a developer; in fact, I think that the Core Team is doing a good job. Its main problem is that it is short on people, and this is what's hurting the project badly. (It is a tragedy that there are no CAM drivers for the most common Adaptec ISA SCSI host adapters, for example -- but this stems not from a lack of competence so much as a lack of hands and brains.) The problem about which I'm sounding off is PR. Since FreeBSD's PR problems are actually a major cause of the manpower shortage, I would hope and expect that the Core Team members, wanting to see progress, would be very much on my side on this issue! >Notice, of course, you >never lift a finger yourself. I've been discouraged from contributing code by Jordan, in particular, and also a few others. These people don't recognize the severity of the marketing problems or understand how to deal with them -- in fact, they actively FIGHT AGAINST the sort of marketing that's needed. I think that one reason why Jordan may be motivated to reject my proposed technical contributions is that influence within the group seems to stem (rightly or wrongly) from the extent to which one has contributed code. If he doesn't like the way I would advocate FreeBSD, the most effective way of making sure that my ideas about advocacy are rejected is -- perversely -- to prevent me from gaining respect as a coder. The ability to do marketing and advocacy shouldn't correlate with coding; they're two different areas. But the current tie between the two virtually guarantees that techies -- who are often bad at it -- will make marketing and advocacy decisions. This is one of the maladaptive traits of the current FreeBSD organizational structure. >Everyone gets in an uproar over that latest >round of Brett bullshit, then you stomp off in a huff, promising never to >darken our doorstop again. Sorry, but I can't "stomp off in a huff;" I have to read and participate in the mailing lists because I administer and customize some systems that run FreeBSD. I *did* resign from the advocacy list because it appeared that attempting to turn the self-destructive tide there was a lost cause. >A few weeks go by and you are back. Have you >ever been diagnosed as a manic-depressive? No, I've been diagnosed as an effective designer who falls behind on mailing lists while he builds custom hardware and does programming. ;-) Not to mention my work as a musician, writer, carpenter, and rental property manager. I have a time budget for online discussions, and it runs out quickly when I'm being flamed. So, I have to drop out. >I've said this before and I'll say it again. If you are that unhappy with >our efforts then get up off your dead ass and do something about it. Prove >us wrong. Time to put up or shut up. Again, how would you suggest that I invest this massive amount of time and effort (and it would be massive; there's a LOT of work to do and many things to UNdo) and not go broke? While I *would* like to see FreeBSD succeed, I certainly couldn't martyr myself financially for it. --Brett Glass To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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