From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 2 10:55:40 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 95F1F16A41A for ; Wed, 2 Jan 2008 10:55:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5120213C468 for ; Wed, 2 Jan 2008 10:55:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from TEDSDESK (nat-rtr.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.197.130]) by mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with SMTP id m02Atc1e094236; Wed, 2 Jan 2008 02:55:39 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" To: "Gary Smithe" , Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 02:56:47 -0800 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1914 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <10f7864f0712311010x2497409ava350991ccebf3ae2@mail.gmail.com> Cc: Subject: RE: corporate backers of freebsd X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:55:40 -0000 > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Gary Smithe > Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 10:11 AM > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: corporate backers of freebsd > > > Good Day All and Happy New Year, > > I'm not looking to incite anyone, but here comes a BSD vs Linux > question. Yes, I tried searching the archives and found nothing. > > I used FreeBSD back in 2000 for a few firewalls, but due to certain > influences I switched to Linux after a couple of years. > > I'm interested in getting back to the BSD's but have just one big concern. > > As most users Unix and it's clones, I prefer the "free as in beer" > licensing model, but want to know that someone else is paying the big > bills. > > In short, here's my question: > > Canonical, RedHat, IBM, Novell, and a slew of others are funding / > supporting Linux development and pushing some of that development into > the free community, so that all can benefit from full-time developers > and the money that supports them. > > I've seen where Cisco and Juniper are using FreeBSD, and assuming > there are other big names, do they directly fund or contribute to the > community? > Gary, FreeBSD USED TO HAVE a single large corporate sponsor. Walnut Creek. Well, while the upside of this is that you have a pot of money that can be used to fund advertising ventures, fund a position to act as the "public" face of the project, etc. the downside is that this ties the project to the fortunes of that big money pot. When Walnut Creek went downhill it caused a LOT of people who were using FreeBSD very much consternation. This is why today the project basically operates as a completely distributed project. You might as well ask who the corporate sponsor of the Gnutella network is. Nobody, and Everybody. Yet, that network carries billions of bytes of pirat... I mean, valuable video data, and is dependended on by many bootleggers.. I mean enterprenuers. ;-) People look at Linux and say "how great it is that Linux has RedHat to make Linux look "legitimate" to the corporate world. They forget that as RedHat is a corporation, it is under a mandate to make a profit every year. Well, what happens if the day ever comes that RedHat starts losing money? Don't you think that people will suddenly start thinking that Linux has run out of steam? I do. There is no single corporation that is ever guarenteed to exist forever, last forever, and remain profitable forever. History is littered with large, rich companies that people once upon a time thought would never ever go out of business - yet they did anyway. By contrast, MOVEMENTS in history NEVER run out of steam. There are still, today, billions of people dumping billions of dollars every year into the Catholic Church - despite it's sordid history and current coverups of pedophiles - and that particular religious movement has been around more than 2000 years. We want to keep FreeBSD operating as a movement. As long as 1 person still believes and maintains it, it won't die. No matter how profitable or unprofitable it is to run. Ted