From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 2 18:50:12 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 9249016A421 for ; Wed, 2 Jan 2008 18:50:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from deb.guy@gmail.com) Received: from rv-out-0910.google.com (rv-out-0910.google.com [209.85.198.190]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1D5CE13C455 for ; Wed, 2 Jan 2008 18:50:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from deb.guy@gmail.com) Received: by rv-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id l15so5818522rvb.43 for ; Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:50:06 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=a/p0xthlLIPaE330lXMmIJEvdugZCqqwBzh+iftSSZ8=; b=r30LbNabSLnat//OdrNIIXedEgmQuzYE6F+FsFRsZOJaaBpU7KBLiVLu/QoYY3EnliNXI//cVNJGCYJwnnsg0muOjG1orrUx44baM5aDYt9yM6nkNFq9UDFxTaHIHIaEuaHZFWUU4/kELuGUGHNvsEqa5Du/tiGltI0UFFZ8+pQ= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=TbJND+AZCzCE5itpUyNNZ8EgpMPFIH0qJFTI7L3dkXYkA7jn4NU8Za10aiIf73y8CdQhaP18wBoeOHuyv2+tKzhiEvuCQRlQb6ajpN/hRvm+oX2vwGkX5dHzxSSFhuH5yOTSaoBwUqBk7+/lbXNGi3oDwxU0PbVgBM/ffNonndM= Received: by 10.140.185.19 with SMTP id i19mr7514389rvf.296.1199299806594; Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:50:06 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.141.163.2 with HTTP; Wed, 2 Jan 2008 10:50:06 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <10f7864f0801021050n587e4a52o6c822fd5c31574ef@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 12:50:06 -0600 From: "Gary Smithe" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <10f7864f0712311010x2497409ava350991ccebf3ae2@mail.gmail.com> 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 18:50:12 -0000 On Jan 2, 2008 4:56 AM, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > > > > -----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 > > Thank you all for the responses. I've tried to track down ways to contribute funds, as my programming skills are just above that of an intoxicated monkey. I found the FreeBSD foundation, which seems like the best place to start. I can't find, however, that any book, T-Shirt, or CD purchase from any vendor (including BSDmall) will send money back to the project. I understand there is value in evangelism from promoting FreeBSD via T-Shrits, stickers etc., as well as showing the profitability of books on BSD related topics to publishers (like No Starch). Have I missed an avenue of getting monetary support to FreeBSD? Thanks again. GS