From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 12 17:43:26 2010 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 0F52F1065672 for ; Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:43:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (gate6.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:2001:8b0:151:1::1]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8880E8FC12 for ; Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:43:25 +0000 (UTC) Received: from seedling.black-earth.co.uk (seedling.black-earth.co.uk [81.187.76.163]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id o5CHhKYj015669 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:43:20 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Message-ID: <4C13C737.6050400@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:43:19 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman Organization: Infracaninophile User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100317 Thunderbird/3.0.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <86eigdx6vl.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> <4C13320C.5090700@infracaninophile.co.uk> <20100612153813.GA53180@guilt.hydra> In-Reply-To: <20100612153813.GA53180@guilt.hydra> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.0.1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.96.1 at lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,DKIM_ADSP_ALL, SPF_FAIL,TO_NO_BRKTS_DIRECT autolearn=no version=3.3.1 X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.1 (2010-03-16) on lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk Subject: Re: freebsd - for the win 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: Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:43:26 -0000 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 12/06/2010 16:38:13, Chad Perrin wrote: > On Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 08:06:52AM +0100, Matthew Seaman wrote: >> >> Absolutely. Especially when you compare it to MacPorts and consider the >> disparity in numbers of users between MacOS and FreeBSD. Given that the >> ports is maintained by a bunch of volunteers basically in their spare >> time, the fact that it is consistently of good quality and that the >> popular packages are generally updated to the latest available versions >> within a couple of weeks -- frequently within a few hours -- >> it's a pretty astonishing accomplishment. > > I don't mean to belittle anyone's accomplishments, of course, but I don't > find it astonishing at all. FreeBSD's development model is one that > encourages people to develop what they use, and to use what they develop, > and it doesn't exclude people for rules of arbitrary hiring practices. > When your software is developed and/or maintained by way of a more > meritocratic system in which people are "eating their own dog food" and > the developers/maintainers are self-selected in large part because of > their *interest* in what they develop or maintain, it would be surprising > to me if something like FreeBSD *didn't* end up doing better than > something like MacOS X, which is developed and maintained under an > autocratic model wherein many of the developers and maintainers were > assigned to their respective projects (regardless of interest) after > being hired due to their resume bullet points (regardless of actual > ability). > > That's just my perspective. I suppose yours may differ. > You are entirely correct, as far as MacOS X itself goes, although I suspect that Apples' core developers are equally as interested in what they do as FreeBSD's. (Not least because there is quite a bit of overlap between those groups.) MacPorts however is not an official Apple controlled thing (although it does have Apple's full support). It's a volunteer project with maintainers and committers in very much the same roles as the equivalents for FreeBSD ports. Given that MacOS X has, what, about 5.8% of the entire world desktop userbase (compare: Linux 1.2%, FreeBSD not even on the graph according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems) they have so many more potential volunteers that even if their volunteering rate is an order of magnitude less, they'd still come out ahead. Cheers, Matthew - -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.14 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkwTxzcACgkQ8Mjk52CukIxFdQCfUhFjfSJEQeItQTfTNzB3VB7q Z6oAniJgNZty/3pGatCqYlFrs5PnIJ0Z =FIZn -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----