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Date:      Tue, 30 Mar 2004 10:26:10 -0500 (EST)
From:      John Von Essen <essenz@beck.quonix.net>
To:        freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: The Website
Message-ID:  <20040330101519.R2711@beck.quonix.net>
In-Reply-To: <40697A82.2070402@sitetronics.com>
References:  <002f01c4165c$a0c0d1d0$6f01a8c0@miter.local> <40697A82.2070402@sitetronics.com>

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This is an interesting point. Alot of big companies use FreeBSD, but under
the following conditions:

1. The lead/senior sysadmins are old FreeBSD guru's
2. The systems that have FreeBSD installed are low-profile and can't be
easily spotted (audited).
3. Management has loose control over their employees

I am working for a large insurance company right now. Because, I love
FreeBSD, I have made an attempt to "slip" FreeBSD into the network - on
some backend mail servers, intranet web servers, etc.,. However, I still
have no chance of getting FreeBSD into, say, our production web server
pool. Management is brain-washed and all they know is Solaris, Solaris,
Solaris, IBM, IBM, IBM.

And... It doesn't help when they go to freebsd.org. It makes FreeBSD seem
NON-enterprise. Personally, i think the site is fine, but Im a tech, not
a CTO. Maybe, freebsd.com can be redesigned have a suse.com or redhat.com
look-n-feel, and freebsd.org can retain - the developer community
look-n-feel.

-john

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, Devon H. O'Dell wrote:

> Paul Robinson wrote:
>
> > [snip; poor formatting]
> >
> >
> > Well, this is the problem FreeBSD generally has. A lot of people would
> > actually like to see more developers move to FreeBSD and contribute to
> > the project. It then follows that as the "product" improves, we are able
> > to see a rise in the number of users. Pedantic, yes, but I'm becoming
> > less convinced of the need for us to get FreeBSD onto the family PC. I
> > would like to see it on a lot more developer's desks though.
>
> And in more companies. FreeBSD is already used by many (large) companies
> (including those in the Fortune 500). I know that even MS uses FreeBSD
> for the SFU software.
>
> > [snip; poor formatting]
> >
> >
> > Won't you expect the competition's product to be a better alternative to
> > the one you currently use? Do you honestly believe that OS choice is
> > dependent on what the website looks like? If so, how did Mandrake ever
> > take off?
>
> I have to agree here.
>
>
> > [snip; poor formatting]
> >>	the moment it looks like a three column url listing with no
> >>	really strong visual cues to things important to capturing,
> >>	converting, and supporting new users.
> >
> >
> > Well, you know what the answer is then, don't you? You can grab the
> > source, talk to the web team, produce a better version. Remember it has
> > to be readable in text browsers, conform to WAI and Internationalisation
> > standards and everyone has to agree by mutual consent it's a better
> > design than the existing one.
>
> AMEN. This is a bikeshed that gets discussed every 6 or so months.
> Search advocacy@, doc@ and any number of other mailing lists for the
> amount of complaints about the webpage. As per the  suggestion always
> posted that the FreeBSD page is too ``simple,'' my answer remains:
>
> http://www.google.com
> http://www.sun.com
>
> Simple, huh?
>
> As I stated on your other thread regarding the post on the ZDNet.au
> site; if you can't put up, shut up. I say that in a coarse manner not to
> be obtuse, but to discourage you and others from continuing with a
> bikeshed that nobody seems to care to fix. If you want to make a new
> site for FreeBSD, make a template, see what you can do, but don't expect
> it to be used.
>
> > [snip]
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Devon H. O'Dell
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