From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 17 21:57:59 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5C9911065675 for ; Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:57:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jrhett@netconsonance.com) Received: from mail.netconsonance.com (mail.netconsonance.com [198.207.204.4]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3B86C8FC1F for ; Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:57:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jrhett@netconsonance.com) Received: from [10.66.240.106] (public-wireless.sv.svcolo.com [64.13.135.30]) (authenticated bits=0) by mail.netconsonance.com (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id m8HLvWCx002251; Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:57:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jrhett@netconsonance.com) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at netconsonance.com X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Spam-Score: -1.013 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.013 tagged_above=-999 required=3.5 tests=[ALL_TRUSTED=-1.44, AWL=0.427] Message-Id: From: Jo Rhett To: Matthew Seaman In-Reply-To: <48CF6292.7050909@infracaninophile.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v928.1) Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:57:26 -0700 References: <1219409496.10487.22.camel@bauer.cse.buffalo.edu> <593618A3-56DA-4891-A4A0-690E9A9C5B32@netconsonance.com> <20080904133604.GB1188@atarininja.org> <47d0403c0809051319r3c82f87bhdb15ce5b0167987a@mail.gmail.com> <2742CAB1-8FF2-425D-A3B6-0658D7DB8F4D@netconsonance.com> <48CF5282.10608@modulus.org> <20080916065657.GB12295@soaustin.net> <48CF6292.7050909@infracaninophile.co.uk> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.928.1) Cc: Mark Linimon , freebsd-stable , Andrew Snow Subject: Re: Upcoming Releases Schedule... X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:57:59 -0000 On Sep 16, 2008, at 12:38 AM, Matthew Seaman wrote: > On 'long term support of release branches' -- a volunteer project is > always > going to struggle to provide this without some form of income to > support the > necessary hardware and personnel resources needed. Or in other > words, if > FreeBSD users want the same sort of support structure as they can > get from a > commercial vendor, it's going to take a commercial vendor to supply > it. > > FreeBSD Corporation anyone? I disagree. The entire advantage of open source is the advantage provided by shared interest in a working product. Each party can put in a little and the product is improved for everyone. If we remove the factors that hamstring companies from providing more resources to assist, then you can get more resources working on the problem - to everyone's benefit. I'm not kidding when I say that nearly everyone I know who uses FreeBSD in their company spends a lot of time managing their internal distribution. (And every reply to this topic on this mailing list has echoed the exact same statement.) None of the ones I know personally have any interest in doing this, and would be happier focusing their effort on the mainstream release. A bunch of us made proposals to our $EMPLOYERs to make this happen, but there was no apparent interest from the release team so the effort was abandoned. -- Jo Rhett Net Consonance : consonant endings by net philanthropy, open source and other randomness