Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 14:06:52 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: esr@thyrsus.com, Wes Peters <wpeters@xylan.com> Cc: "Justin T. Gibbs" <gibbs@narnia.plutotech.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Open Source Products Message-ID: <19980414140652.B343@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <19980413215647.37918@snark.thyrsus.com>; from Eric S. Raymond on Mon, Apr 13, 1998 at 09:56:47PM -0400 References: <199804131719.LAA21122@narnia.plutotech.com> <35326353.4E30451B@xylan.com> <19980413201541.65522@snark.thyrsus.com> <3532AD36.2968F8B6@xylan.com> <19980413215647.37918@snark.thyrsus.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Mon, 13 April 1998 at 21:56:47 -0400, Eric S. Raymond wrote: > Wes Peters <wpeters@xylan.com>: >> A third scenario that is less likely but would still help would be >> convergence of the disparate groups back into one organization. It's >> really too bad we have to have three web sites, three ftp server >> organizations, three differing (and more or less successful) CD-ROM >> programs, etc., for what are very similar products. > > That's the key thing, IMO. The fact that the BSD crowd is split into > squabbling spinoff-group-of-the-week factions, while Linux looks > pretty much like one big happy family united under benign Daddy > Torvalds, negates every single technical advantage you guys have. I don't think it changes the technical advantages. If anything, it outweighs them. I also wonder if your information is up-to-date. This sounds like a criticism out of the past, say about four or five years ago, when we had the Jesus and Jordan show, the Amancio and Thomas show, not to mention the sideshows between the main *BSD factions to which I didn't pay much attention. People have grown more mature (or maybe just tired? :-) since then. In any case, I can't agree with you that the unity of Linux outweighs the two and seventy jarring BSD sects. I can't see many of the FreeBSD people joining the Linux camp. A fusion of the *BSD sects is more likely. And there's no compelling reason to do so. Yes, you could be right that *BSD will lose ground to Linux, but I'm sure it will continue to grow nonetheless. >> At some time, once Linux starts getting really entrenched in a couple >> of highly visible businesses, somebody's going to hit a snag running >> a TurboLinux application on a RedHat server or some such silly bunch >> of rot, and they're going to tell some hare-brained "journalist" >> about it, and the PC rags are going to have a heyday. "See, we told >> you this Linux stuff was for the birds, trust Microsoft. Their >> products are perfect, and their dedicated support staff will take care >> of you." > > It would be *very* unwise to hope for this. For one thing, if your > story about BSD being preferable for highly-stressed, high-throughput > network servers is true, it's about as likely you'll get bit as a > Linux box will. And, in any case, if you think the pinheads who > inhabit the trade press wouldn't rush to interpret a conspicuous Linux > failure as a slam on *all* open-source/Unix OSs, you're dreaming. Correct. If there's one fault the *BSD people have, it's viewing Linux as the enemy. Linux reminds me more of my sister: we're closely related, and we'll defend each other towards the outside world, but we really don't get on that well with each other. FreeBSD's doing quite well, thanks. I don't know if people would be happy if it drew all the crowds of followers that Linux does. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19980414140652.B343>