Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 21:43:54 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Swan song Message-ID: <4.2.0.32.19990325203830.00a2b440@localhost> In-Reply-To: <85720.922223339@zippy.cdrom.com> References: <Your message of "Tue, 23 Mar 1999 10:57:21 MST." <4.2.0.32.19990323104122.009e8c70@localhost>
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Everyone: After pondering, silently, what to do about the attitudes I've seen expressed on this list, I've decided that I'd best save my time, bandwidth, and effort by resigning from it. Ironically, my first attempt to resign (which failed because it somehow went to the list instead of the listserv) brought several responses prompting me not to do so. They almost changed my mind.... UNTIL I read the following from Jordan Hubbard, the FreeBSD project's nominal "leader:" >Frankly, I don't see any benefits these days which outweigh >the disadvantages of multiple-day flamewars on -advocacy. You're >clearly on the debit side of the ledger and if you now propose to get >out before you get any further into the red, I can't argue with the >wisdom of that. Happy trails, dude! :) Spoken like a true leader. Oh, and this same "leader" is steering developers away from the FreeBSD platform by telling them to "do Linux first" -- and, effectively, FreeBSD never. Nor have others been more encouraging. My attempts to lay out tactics and strategies for FreeBSD advocacy have met with scorn, derision, and personal attacks. This is the one sure way to kill any enthusiasm that a potential contributor might have. And -- congratulations, guys -- you've done it. As for the specific project I most recently proposed: I still firmly believe that making other platforms emulate FreeBSD -- NOT the other way around -- is the only tactic which can save FreeBSD from being smothered by Linux. If FreeBSD does not establish itself as the ABI and API of choice, it will die -- its best code co-opted and released under the GPL as part of Linux, the rest discarded due to an insufficient user base to keep up with Linux's progress. To see this, one must only look at history. As I've mentioned earlier, OS/2, like FreeBSD, was technically superior to the more popular Windows, but lost all vendor support because it emulated a product with the larger installed base. (Yes, there were other reasons; however, this was THE nail in the coffin.) OS/2 couldn't track Windows forever (just as FreeBSD's Linux emulation may not always be able to track Linux), and application vendors saw no reason to add a new SKU it when they could write only for Windows. Without applications, a platform dies -- and so it was with OS/2. Now, let's contrast this with Java. Java doesn't emulate anything else; rather, the Java Virtual Machine makes other platforms run Java binaries and emulate the Java API and ABI. As a result of this, it is succeeding despite the fact that it is awkward, clunky, and slow to load. AND despite the fact that it has been badly marketed. AND despite the fact that it has borne the full force of Microsoft's endless PR dollars, which have been spent liberally on a campaign to defame, fragment, and marginalize it. (Just the hiring of J++ architect Anders Hejlsberg from Borland cost Microsoft a 7 figure sum, according to reports from his former co-workers.) AND despite the fact that Java has to add security to platforms that don't have it. AND despite the fact that Java started with an installed base of zero long after Windows was dominant. AND despite the fact that developers had to learn an entire new language, application framework, and class hierarchy in order to use it. AND despite the fact that many key parts of the application framework were late or missing. AND despite the fact that Java to this day isn't really "write once, run anywhere" unless you're very good and very, VERY careful. FreeBSD emulation for Linux (and, for that matter, other UNIX-like OSes and even NT) would not have anywhere near this many hurdles to overcome. It would encourage the development of hundreds -- even thousands -- of native applications and become a stabilizing force in the raucous UNIX world. And developers could do what they could not do with Linux: Use the time-tested code of the utilities as the foundation of their own applications. We must therefore ask ourselves : Is FreeBSD to be an OS/2 or a Java? I was interested, strongly, in trying to make it the latter. But since at least some people on this list seem not to be able to learn from the past nor to develop a version from the future, it will likely be fruitless to try. Now, I'll readily stand up to flames from all sides when advocating a product (and believe me, I've had asbestos underwear handy ever since I first used Usenet more than 15 years ago). But when you encounter total negativism from the person or persons, you are trying to do doing advocacy FOR, it's time to leave. So, farewell. I'm sure you'll manage to run FreeBSD into the ground without me. --Brett Glass To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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