From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Apr 13 17:11:09 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA29360 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Mon, 13 Apr 1998 17:11:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from snark.thyrsus.com (esr@[192.190.237.102]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id AAA29347 for ; Tue, 14 Apr 1998 00:10:49 GMT (envelope-from esr@snark.thyrsus.com) Received: (from esr@localhost) by snark.thyrsus.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) id UAA15189; Mon, 13 Apr 1998 20:15:42 -0400 Message-ID: <19980413201541.65522@snark.thyrsus.com> Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 20:15:41 -0400 From: "Eric S. Raymond" To: Wes Peters Cc: "Justin T. Gibbs" , chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Open Source Products Reply-To: esr@thyrsus.com References: <199804131719.LAA21122@narnia.plutotech.com> <35326353.4E30451B@xylan.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.85e In-Reply-To: <35326353.4E30451B@xylan.com>; from Wes Peters on Mon, Apr 13, 1998 at 01:11:15PM -0600 Organization: Eric Conspiracy Secret Labs X-Eric-Conspiracy: There is no conspiracy Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Wes Peters : > Justin T. Gibbs wrote: > > Pluto Technologies did over 4 million in sales last year and that number > > is growing rapidly this year (we sold .5 million in product at NAB last > > week). I'd be happy to send Mr. Raymond information about our product > > if you can give the me appropriate contact info. > > Thanks, Justin. I tried to remember your name, your company name, and > your product name, but couldn't come up with any of them. I'm glad you > responded. > > I've CC'd this message to Eric S. Raymond so he can add > your company to the OpenSource vendors page as well. I've also CC'd the > FreeBSD chat list so other FreeBSD organizations will be inspired by it. > > Honestly, folks, I don't know if this will help FreeBSD, but I don't see > how it can hurt. As W. C. Fields (or was it Mae West?) used to say, > "There's no such thing as bad press, as long as they spell your name right." A 4 mil run rate is enough to at least keep VCs from laughing at us. So I'll happily carry whatever product this is, despite my personal belief that all of the the BSD variants are basically doomed to be eaten by the giant expanding blob that is Linux. (Can anyone convince me I'm wrong? Don't bother getting indignant at me because I'm not at all happy about believing it. And don't bother trying to convince me that BSD is in many ways technically superior to Linux, because (a) I believe you, and (b) it doesn't matter. I think I saw "Mene, mene, tekel, uparshin" on your wall when you guys failed to outgrow Linux 0.99 back in 1994. But if anyone can spin a plausible scenario under which the BSDs survive the next three years, I'd really love to hear it.) -- Eric S. Raymond "One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms." -- Constitutional scholar Joseph Story, 1840 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message