From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 29 09:58:18 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 99491106566B for ; Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:58:18 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (smtp6.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:2001:8b0:151:1:3cd3:cd67:fafa:3d78]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 141A68FC17 for ; Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:58:17 +0000 (UTC) Received: from seedling.black-earth.co.uk (seedling.black-earth.co.uk [IPv6:2001:8b0:151:1:fa1e:dfff:feda:c0bb]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id q1T9w60N017057 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:58:06 GMT (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) X-DKIM: OpenDKIM Filter v2.4.3 smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk q1T9w60N017057 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=infracaninophile.co.uk; s=201001-infracaninophile; t=1330509489; bh=4R8GaheygrDG0GuC6DCTrV0AgJI43eu0hyQcvSxwb2I=; h=Message-ID:Date:From:MIME-Version:To:Subject:References: In-Reply-To:Content-Type:Cc; b=tu9ChlgpuIEAGHmlZYmVixhuf0gAh82w0a04AnEGHk/fPmhiT/84Rw2NkiPJ4Oezs goIJikbKviO7xrGsXNRK3FuwmoLn+RXXQbls2hm4AByAxUEuZbZrhYQSvz4Y9FQkiV 2H8DR300qbDoo2zqqWdAzWU7KSh0GXpXpBVSM39g= Message-ID: <4F4DF6AE.3010903@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:58:06 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20120216 Thunderbird/10.0.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <2A6E4B6A-8FE7-4AAC-93C6-B5FDD02ADB18@my.gd> In-Reply-To: <2A6E4B6A-8FE7-4AAC-93C6-B5FDD02ADB18@my.gd> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.3.5 OpenPGP: id=60AE908C Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig0B8DF8801BDF964A49E606C8" X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.97.3 at lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.8 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU autolearn=ham version=3.3.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.2 (2011-06-06) on lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk Subject: Re: request a quote X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:58:18 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig0B8DF8801BDF964A49E606C8 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 29/02/2012 09:23, Damien Fleuriot wrote: > This does, however, raise an interesting question. >=20 > Do you guys know of any company whose business model is freebsd support= and engineering ? > Like, a la RHEL or SLES. None that I know of. People have tried to set up such things in the past, and unfortunately have failed miserably. The closest thing is iXSystems -- but their primary business is supplying hardware, and while they do provide FreeBSD support, their offering is US centric -- maybe even US-West Coast focussed. Personally I think that having a commercial entity behind FreeBSD in this way would be a good thing. As a central provider that will help promote FreeBSD commercial usage and fund a deal of development that nowadays either doesn't happen, or that takes far too long, and provide employment for FreeBSD developers and admins, it certainly has some obvious benefits. Setting up such an entity and making it work as a profitable concern is an entirely different matter. It's a competitive market out there, an a new company would be going up against the likes of RedHat, Microsoft, Oracle and other well established behemoths. While I think that FreeBSD and FreeBSD people have the technical quality to succeed, what is missing is the business capability -- people who can go out and sell FreeBSD and that can attract investors and make them feel confident that they can invest. That's pretty rare to find in combination with the sort of technical expertise the FreeBSD project (unconciously) selects fo= r. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW --------------enig0B8DF8801BDF964A49E606C8 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.16 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk9N9q4ACgkQ8Mjk52CukIypwwCeMRS3pRB4Vd9r/7Vd8vflgA8n 43cAoIIXVclv9FH8CeUHLLIakfGphQ1j =NMnk -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig0B8DF8801BDF964A49E606C8--