Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 19:53:22 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@u.washington.edu> To: John Kelly <jak@cetlink.net> Cc: FreeBSD-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Newbies and advocacy Was: FreeBSD vs YouKnowWho Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980501193142.918I-100000@s8-37-26.student.washington.edu> In-Reply-To: <354a6373.45359939@mail.cetlink.net>
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On Sat, 2 May 1998, John Kelly wrote: >Linux is a good as a UNIX learning tool and a place for newbies to >start. If they cut their teeth on Linux, we won't be inundated by a >horde of newbies who know next to nothing about UNIX. Just about two years ago I was one of those newbies. After learning 'ls' on the school account, I downloaded FreeBSD. That is just how fresh I was. Man that is kind of funny. All I knew was 'ls'' one day. The next day I was a "sysadmin" (sic). I do not intend to denigrate your position. We should be cheering to be inundated with newbies. I would just like you to realize that part of the reason I am a supporter of free software and FreeBSD is because of the help I have received from the community when I was a newbie. If someone gave me an attitude like "RTFM, or I am to busy to help because I am inundated with newbies." I would have felt unwelcome. Instead, I got an answer, "You really should use vipw to change your default shell. OBTW, read 'man vipw'" The difference to a newbie in these two approaches is IMMENSE. (Mind you I am not inredibly supportive of the person who says "FreeBSD sucks. It wiped out everything..... I get these types at work too.) It did not take me long to realize that I was more correct in calling FreeBSD a community that an OS. This is something that MS absolutely cannot offer. It is something that FreeBSD should continue to capitalize on. (You can also visit Mr. Lehey's web page for another testimonial as to why I like FreeBSD.) -Doug White has helped me numerous times. -Greg Lehey has helped me numerous times. Greg even had to take me down a notch one time when I got a bit "cheeky" on a reply I made that included one of his answers. I ended up apologizing. -Jordan Hubbard has helped me. He also also put up with a couple extraneous send-prs from me. His patience is extraordinary. -David Greenman has been supportive as well. -Countless others. All of these guys are super-stars. They all had time to help _me_. I know that the time these gentleman have spent helping me along has distrated them from more important things. This is precisely one of the reasons that I am a supporter of FreeBSD. You cannot _buy_ a better vehicle for advocacy then supporting newbies patiently. The best way to help advocate FreeBSD that anyone can do is to get on -questions and provide a "community" with which newbies can associate. They will appreciate _us_ for it. We will win their support in return. Thank you, | Try some of this. It will show you where you're at. Jason Wells | http://www.freebsd.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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