Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 21:59:23 -0600 (MDT) From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: jkb@best.com, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Advocates, speak up! (re: just something to say) Message-ID: <199807040359.VAA02226@softweyr.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980703190810.21406A-100000@shell6.ba.best.com> References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980703190810.21406A-100000@shell6.ba.best.com>
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My hidden microphone recorded Jan B. Koum (jkb@best.com) saying:
%
% Hi all,
%
% I just wanted to say something here since this list has been quite
% lately. Basically, many of you already know this, but anyway.
% Whenever I have to convince someone who is not very technical why
% they should use FreeBSD, I usually try not to bore them with how great our
% vm is, or why is it better to have centralized and hence better controlled
% code. I usually tell people something like this:
% "Look, here is an example: yahoo. Their stock is skyrocketing and
% they are doing excellent. Yes, they are using FreeBSD. They have in house
% support for it, but still, they must know what they are doing - their
% whole operation is FreeBSD based. Another example is Hotmail. Even though
% they got bought by MS, they are still using FreeBSD on the front end to
% run their servers since NT couldn't' handle the load. Want another
% example? Take a look at Best Internet -- they jut filed for IPO".
% Something in the lines of the above paragraph usually gets a
% message through to the suits that to have successful company you don't
% need NT or Solaris. You just need to have people with a clue. But that is
% another subject.
Frank Pawlak called me yesterday to chat about what is happening, and
what isn't, in FreeBSD-Advocacy. As we talked, we decided success
stories like the above are *exactly* what we need to convince business
people (i.e. "suits") that FreeBSD is a suitable choice for *their*
business.
Managers may not be the smartest people in the world -- if they were,
they'd be kernel VM developers -- but they are extremely risk averse.
In other words, they don't want to stick their necks out. In order
for them to say yes to using FreeBSD, they want to see two things:
1) A business case. How will using FreeBSD improve their bottom line,
versus say NT or Linux on a server, or Linux, VxWorks, QNX, LynxOS,
etc. in an embedded system?
2) A success story (or 20). They want to make sure they're NOT breaking
new ground; that is "risk taking," which is severely punished in most
(US, at least) companies.
Frank and I agreed that an outline for a prototypical success story would
be helpful to this group, and an EXAMPLE success story would be even more
helpful. Since I volunteered to write one a while ago, he *encouraged*
me to get on with it. ;^)
I'll be doing that this weekend, as long as my life doesn't intrude.
(See below).
Please, folks, if you have any contributions to make in this discussion,
hop in now. Take the initiative like Frank did - find another Advocate,
or someone who should be an Advocate, call him or her on the phone, send
direct email.
% Anyway, happy 4th to those who celebrate (I don't, I just enjoy
% the day off) and lets make some noise on this list.
*I* spent the afternoon riding a steam train with my family, including my
two-year-old daughter, who walked up and down the train several times going "choo
choo choo." She charmed the other passengers nearly as much as she charmed
me; they would make whistle sounds "woo woo" as we passed. We also got to
meet Karl Malone, of the Utah Jazz NBA (pro basketball) team; he had rented
the caboose for a family outing.
We learned a bit of American history, too: the rail route for this train,
through Provo Canyon in north-central Utah, was first surveyed by the US Army
Corps of Engineers as a possible route for the transcontinental railroad in
1839, by a young engineering officer named Jefferson Davis. Mr. Davis was
later the first (and only) president of the Confederate States of America,
near whose capitol I was born, as was my father and older brother.
Happy Birthday, America!
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr wes@softweyr.com
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