From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 6 03:37:41 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9EDFE16A4CE for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 03:37:41 -0800 (PST) Received: from sentry.ucr.edu (sentry.ucr.edu [138.23.226.224]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8CD8643D2D for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 03:37:37 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from beyert@cs.ucr.edu) Received: from aeonrem (adsl-67-114-244-79.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net [67.114.244.79]) by sentry.ucr.edu (Mirapoint Messaging Server MOS 3.3.8-GR) with ESMTP id AUJ59384 (AUTH tbeye001) for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 03:37:36 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <002a01c3d449$727cd2b0$650a0a0a@aeonrem> From: "Timothy Beyer" To: Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 03:37:20 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4927.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4927.1200 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.1 Subject: Re: Where is FreeBSD going? X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 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, 06 Jan 2004 11:37:41 -0000 Brett Glass wrote: >FreeBSD also keeps falling farther and farther behind Linux in the area = of >advocacy (and, hence, corporate adoption) Granted, this is true. However, you should be more specific when you=20 refer to advocacy. When I think of the term "advocacy," blind, = relentless=20 loyalty comes to mind. This is one of the things that bothers me about=20 Linux in particular, since it seems to have the most "advocates" of any = OS=20 that I have used. Linux Users and Developers [in the "advocate" = category]=20 insist Linux is "superior" to other offerings, (usually windows, when in = actuality, its strengths are quite different) quite often without = stating, or even=20 understanding what exactly constitutes these "superior" qualities of the = operating system. This comes across to most people as zealotry, and as = a=20 result, people will think less of the hard work done by the developers, = many=20 of whom would only express an opinion that they fully understood. Quite = frankly, it was this type of behavior in the Linux community that kept = me=20 away from using non-proprietary operating systems for a long, long time. Yes, you are correct that more people need to promote *BSD, the BSD = license, etc, but I think the term "advocate" implies the wrong emphasis. Keep = the elitism at the minimum, or else the majority will take it the wrong way. Blind faith could potentially hinder corporate acceptance, though it = would be unlikely to encourage it. >Many of the developers actually have an antipathy toward advocacy, >since they dislike answering newbie FAQs and don't want too manypeople = to >adopt the OS for fear that it'll overcrowd their "sandbox." Yes, thats quite true of FreeBSD developers. While these individuals = are typically rational, productive individuals, they most likely don't = produce the required volume of noise to give a name to FreeBSD. However, it is = nice to know that people exist who put money where their mouth is; I don't = see that in some other free software communities. --Tim