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Date:      Thu, 29 Jul 1999 04:40:32 -0500 (EST)
From:      "John S. Dyson" <dyson@iquest.net>
To:        rfotescu@idsrom.com (Radu-Cristian FOTESCU)
Cc:        seth@freebie.dp.ny.frb.org ('Seth'), freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG ('freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG')
Subject:   Re: What to tell to Linux-centric people?!
Message-ID:  <199907290940.EAA57255@dyson.iquest.net.>
In-Reply-To: <C1F3617BDC52D21185E40000214C247C154069@id-bucharest.idsrom.com> from Radu-Cristian FOTESCU at "Jul 26, 1999 04:34:19 pm"

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Radu-Cristian FOTESCU said:
> 
> I'm trying to adapt to FreeBSD addicts philosophy 'cause I'm not satisfied
> with the way Linux evolves. But I'm coming from Linux, and I develop for
> Win32 [hey! I have to live, ok?], so it _might_ be that I see things
> somewhat differently. 
> 
> Maybe you should _try_ to see things from an "outsider" point of view and
> see which are the weak points of FreeBSD propaganda.
> 
Opinion:

When leaving the FreeBSD project, and looking from the outside inward,
I became aware of some serious problems with the project that I had never
previously been aware of.  In some cases, problems perceived as 'minor'
when I was in core became major in reality, and some 'serious' problems
became non-issues for the general user.

At this point, I have virtually no time to work on FreeBSD (regrettably),
but each of us has to spend time in ways to be advantageous for the
contributor or developer.  Also, I have full freedom as to which OS to
run, and am NOT known to lock myself in to a single solution being the
answer to every problem.   As it is today, there is little rational
reason (except in exceptional cases) to migrate from FreeBSD to Linux,
yet relatively more often, moving existing work from Linux to FreeBSD
could be advantageous.  The *only* strategic advantage for Linux that
seems to be hard for FreeBSD to overcome is the destructively strong
herding (bandwagon) instinct.  FreeBSD still doesn't seem to have the
'magic' that triggers that instinct, and for that reason, it is wonderful
that FreeBSD has done so well, given the lack of the frothing-at-the-mouth
or pseudo-relgious advocates.

Given the criteria of minimal maintenence requirements, easier porting,
lots of software already ported, and very good stability, I have found
that of the two fairly popular free U**X clones, and the non-free, but
source available U**X clone, that FreeBSD still wins in the unix utility
and server box type application.  The biggest argument against FreeBSD is
that it has less effective SMP than the source-available, but NON-free
U**X clone (the other predominant FREE U**X clone doesn't effectively
have SMP at all yet -- so for that, it is a non-issue.)

-- 
John                  | Never try to teach a pig to sing,
dyson@iquest.net      | it makes one look stupid
jdyson@nc.com         | and it irritates the pig.


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