Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 10:31:04 +0200 From: Hans Drexler <drexler@geotax.nl> To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Cc: advocacy@freebsd.org, GB <gbrooks@blue-mouse.com> Subject: Re: Answering the Questions (was Re: FreeBSD PR (long, rambling -- bear with me)) Message-ID: <20020918103103.A68568@mail.geotax.nl> In-Reply-To: <20020916084359.B20974@blackhelicopters.org>; from mwlucas@blackhelicopters.org on Mon, Sep 16, 2002 at 08:44:00AM -0400 References: <20020913143941.A2346@blackhelicopters.org> <006c01c25b71$9adf6940$6e01a8c0@CITYMOUSE> <20020916084359.B20974@blackhelicopters.org>
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On Mon, Sep 16, 2002 at 08:44:00AM -0400, Michael Lucas wrote: [...] Please let me add my $0.02 for identifying BSD's audiences. There are a lot of small to medium sized companies in the world that can benefit from BSD for day-to-day jobs: . handling e-mail . handling the web-site . file-serving . other business tasks This market is huge, and there are a lot of firms that just don't know there is a good solution for them that will not cost them lots of money. I am not thinking about the desktop applications, although we could add pointers to MacOS X for that! The strenghts of BSD in this market: . reliable . cheap . stable environment (the project will not dissappear next month and has a well thought out development and release cycle.) . easy administration. (even I can do it). If we can make a nice presentation targetted at admins and/or management of these companies, a lot of new users can be coming our way! We should add a few business cases. These should not be techy in style. They should just present a solution to some business needs that are common. This could lead to the development of deployment scenarios that can be implemented by such companies easily. I would be interested in thinking about these issues some more and contributing to efforts in this direction. But english is not my native language... Hans Drexler bsd-advocacy@geotax.nl > On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 05:04:59PM -0500, GB wrote: > > Think of communicating about FreeBSD as a process rather than an event > > -- handling PR, communications or whatever you want to call it as a > > one-shot is sort of like thinking about network security as a one-time > > event: Such efforts are largely destined to fail. > > OK. So, we need some sort of process and checklist for things. PR > event happens, do X, Y, and Z. This checklist should be available as > part of our PR-internal web site. > > The following are my suggestions for answers to Greg's questions. > Please discuss and clarify. > > > Things to define include: > > > > * Who are our key audiences? By this I mean those most likely to adopt > > FreeBSD or influence the decision process. (Having said that, I > > recognize that focusing on potential adopters and their influencers is > > just my gut instinct -- can anyone identify other groups we should be > > reaching out to? Standards-setting bodies? Other *nix communities? Tim > > O'Reilly so he'll send us free books?) > > Our key audiences: > > 1) ISPs: ISPs have long been fans of FreeBSD > 2) Systems Administrators > 3) Security-conscious networks > 4) Embedded systems producers (no GPL to worry them, hurrah!) > > > * What makes FreeBSD different/better for the newbie? For the person > > with a little Linux experience under his/her belt? For the I.T. pro? > > And, while we're at it, what does FreeBSD suck at? (Granted, we may > > think it sucks at nothing, but someone is going to identify weaknesses > > with the OS, and it's sound communications practice to have an answer > > for ever assertion likely to come up.) > > Better for the newbie: > > Better for the Linux convert: > --documentation: there is one true FreeBSD, none of this "this tutorial only good under Purple Snot Linux" crud. > --centralized design team > --ports system > > Better for the professional: > --high performance > --very secure > --simple upgrade process > --very, very debugged > --designed and coded by highly experienced computing professionals > > Places of suckage: > --lack of "wizards" > > > * What are we out in front on? Linux has a foothold in the corporate > > I.T. world, OpenBSD has security and NetBSD has portability. What's our > > niche? Related question: Out of this niche and our identified strengths, > > what's our "elevator story?" (The 1-2 minute spiel what says what > > FreeBSD is, why it's good and why it matters.) > > We are the "friendly BSD". > > Niche: Here, I'm stuck. I use FreeBSD damn near everywhere, except my > crash lab. > > > So far, I've heard mentions of posters and some other materials. Any > > thoughts on how effective (if at all) any of the following might be: > > > > * Professionally formatted white paper comparing FreeBSD-based solutions > > to Windows/Linux in various situations. > > These would be excellent tools for systems administrators seeking to > use FreeBSD. > > > * FAQs or introductory documents directed at specific groups (again, I > > keep thinking of utter newbies, those who've dabbled in Linux and the > > I.T. professional, but there are likely other groups as well). In a > > perfect world, of course, everyone finds Perfect Wisdom by R-ingTFM -- > > but we don't live in a perfect world, so every bit we do to make the > > learning curve easier helps make inroads. > > These FAQs could be kept as "sub-divisions" of the current FAQ. > Perhaps we could somehow "tag" FAQ entries as ones that should be > included in a particular FAQ. > > > * Some standard press materials/backgrounders that the media could > > download, such as: > > > > -- FreeBSD vs. Linux vs. Windows vs. Mac OS (a one-page table) > > -- Major sites running FreeBSD > > -- Uptime/reliability stats > > etc... > > Yes! > > ==ml > > -- > Michael Lucas mwlucas@FreeBSD.org, mwlucas@BlackHelicopters.org > http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/q/Big_Scary_Daemons > > Absolute BSD: http://www.AbsoluteBSD.com/ > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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