From owner-freebsd-advocacy Fri Jun 23 8:27:29 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from smtp.smed.com (smtp.smed.com [12.20.51.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 419CF37B8C1; Fri, 23 Jun 2000 08:27:24 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from Joe.Warner@smed.com) Received: from smtpgate.shrmed.com (keymaster.smed.com [12.20.51.2]) by smtp.smed.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2CFCB16195; Fri, 23 Jun 2000 11:27:23 -0400 (EDT) Received: from iesa14.shrmed.com (iesa14.shrmed.com [10.1.99.114]) by smtpgate.shrmed.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id LAA05134; Fri, 23 Jun 2000 11:27:22 -0400 From: Joe.Warner@smed.com Received: from Deimos.smed.com (unverified) by iesa14.shrmed.com (Content Technologies SMTPRS 2.0.15) with SMTP id ; Fri, 23 Jun 2000 11:27:13 -0400 Received: by Deimos.smed.com(Lotus SMTP MTA v4.6.5 (863.2 5-20-1999)) id 85256907.0054D917 ; Fri, 23 Jun 2000 11:26:45 -0400 X-Lotus-FromDomain: SMS To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org, freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Message-Id: <85256907.0054D783.00@Deimos.smed.com> Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 09:28:12 -0600 Subject: Some questions re: FreeBSD MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I hope I'm sending this to the correct mailing lists. Please forgive me if I am not. I have a couple of questions regarding FreeBSD that I hope someone will help me address. After recently installing FreeBSD on a Compaq Deskpro 2000 at work and setting it up with various applications and servers, Apache and FTP to name a couple, I've had the opportunity to demonstrate to others that I work with a small portion of the vast amount of things this powerful operating system can do. The response has been tremendous and also, a little overwhelming. Most of my co-workers think it's awesome. They couldn't believe all the functionality built into FreeBSD and the huge number of applications that come with the CD ROM set. They also were surprised to learn that you can download the OS and most of the applications for free. Here's where I'm having some trouble --- Some of the most frequent questions I'm getting are: "If you can do all this with FreeBSD and get everything for free, why isn't everybody using it?" Another one is: "This is an excellent OS but if people can get it for free, how do the people that produce it make any money?" or.."How can they produce such an excellent product and support it without any profits?" I'm having trouble addressing these questions because my understanding of the current Open Source Movement is a bit limited and the topic seems fairly complex to me. I would be so grateful if someone could help me provide some good answers to these questions or point me to a related site? Thanks. Joe To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message