From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 13 04:26:39 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AE76285B; Tue, 13 Nov 2012 04:26:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from tower.berklix.org (tower.berklix.org [83.236.223.114]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3B8D88FC0C; Tue, 13 Nov 2012 04:26:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mart.js.berklix.net (pD9FBED7C.dip.t-dialin.net [217.251.237.124]) (authenticated bits=0) by tower.berklix.org (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id qAD4QTbr002094; Tue, 13 Nov 2012 04:26:29 GMT (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from fire.js.berklix.net (fire.js.berklix.net [192.168.91.41]) by mart.js.berklix.net (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id qAD4QHar031352; Tue, 13 Nov 2012 05:26:17 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from fire.js.berklix.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by fire.js.berklix.net (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id qAD4Pks6026374; Tue, 13 Nov 2012 05:25:52 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from jhs@fire.js.berklix.net) Message-Id: <201211130425.qAD4Pks6026374@fire.js.berklix.net> To: "Greg 'groggy' Lehey" Subject: Re: Unified BSD? From: "Julian H. Stacey" Organization: http://berklix.com BSD Unix Linux Consultancy, Munich Germany User-agent: EXMH on FreeBSD http://berklix.com/free/ X-URL: http://www.berklix.com In-reply-to: Your message "Tue, 13 Nov 2012 12:14:50 +1100." <20121113011450.GB85693@eureka.lemis.com> Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 05:25:46 +0100 Sender: jhs@berklix.com Cc: Robin =?iso-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rklin?= , misc@openbsd.org, users@dragonflybsd.org, netbsd-users@NetBSD.org, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 04:26:39 -0000 > - Then came the Unix wars, where AT&T sued BSDI (a commercial variant > that no longer exists) over perceived copyright infringement. The > free BSDs weren't really directly involved, but the suit would have > been just as relevant, and people were worried. > > This was the time that Linux was in the ascendancy. Users had the > choice of a free GPL system or one which might land them in > trouble. Most chose the safe option. I know the view from Germany as to why Linux was taken up so readily, most people read about it later, & repeat relayed wisdom, but I was here & know: (& BTW though I'm British but in Germany, Germany is far more signifcant in this regard than eg UK of GB, eg Linux mag. has 3 times the circulation in Germany as UK, & whenever I'm in UK I never see Linux mags in book shops etc (& of course no BSD) just MS, whereas here in Munich there's some choice of Linux mags, even in food supermarket (Tengelmann) I recall. Most newbies were clueless or didnt give a toss about FSF v BSD licensing then (or now), or some firm called AT&T across the pond breathing hot air. (Only us BSD people cared, not many of us). Old Unix hands like me were earning good money fully employed doing consultancy, (plenty of work then). Although I thought I maybe should help spread BSD, & considered knocking out batches of 30/40+ floppies per mail order, it was Very unattractive, labour intensive formatting, dd'ing, checking for media errors, at a very low pay rate compare with mich higher paid & more interesting consultancy. Plus also if one did that under German tax law (I checked with my Steuer Berater = accountant I recall) it would be subject to Gewerbe Steuer, & not just for the trivial amount earned on floppies shipped, but could imperil imposing the extra tax on the Whole of consultancy income, Very Expensive mistake to risk that. So I didn't & others didnt; most other consultant friends here were also happy earning at commercial rates, & didn't want to touch floppy reproduction. BUT ... meanwhile there was a whole new load of students on low or no income, & no tax issues to worry about, & young student mode enthusiasm & time to evangalise their new free software ... Linux ... so one saw adverts for stack of floppies in eg CT Magazine (http://www.heise.de/ct/ & others. & then CDs came on the scene, even easier for the students to push out & again I wondered whether I should push out some BSD CDs, & again colleagues were too busy to reduce their consultancy income by doing grunt disk jockey work producing & mailing CDROMs at cheap prices. & Again I was scared of German Gewerbe Steuer ... So I decided to just do software bundling (safe consultancy work) & let a commercial firm do manufacture, bulk distrib, German language correspondence, & German gewerbe Steuer issues etc - Ughh) So I mastered a combination Live + Install FreeBSD CDROM years before freebsd.org did theirs, & approached german Linux Mag & Heise (I think) & (English language, German based) BSD Mag (whatever, the one from Rosa Riebl) to see if anyone would bundle it stuck to front page of magazines (to really shift a lot & have BSD make a big impact in the OS scene. I didnt get anywhere with that, but I got further with Dr Dobbs USA mag, & negotiations were going OK, then they decided it would be too expensive to glue a CD on each cover, & they just wanted to feature my CD in their library of CDs for sale ... at which point I lost interest cos: - It would fail to impact the market if not sent in bulk 1 per mag. (I'd have accepted very low payment for that, as it would have helped push BSD significantly) - If not on Mag. cover & just in library for sale per individual order, I was scared of low sales, & not worth the bother to polish the master & maintain it maybe through new releases for low income. Actually, I still see a market opportunity for someone: For BSD (or Linux) shipped on memory sticks. But I wont touch that, especially not in Germany with this tax system, & having to deal with thousands of customers at low profit per unit, plus a lot of german correspondence (German grammar not nice IMO) ... but its still a market BSD or Linux students could exploit (if not already ... I havent read CT mag & ads. lately to know if it's being done). Cheers, Julian -- Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultant, Munich http://berklix.com Reply below not above, like a play script. Indent old text with "> ". Send plain text. Not: HTML, multipart/alternative, base64, quoted-printable.