diff --git a/en/advocacy/index.sgml b/en/advocacy/index.sgml new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..3dab420924 --- /dev/null +++ b/en/advocacy/index.sgml @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ + + + %includes; +]> + + +&header; + +

Much of the success which surrounds FreeBSD is due to people advocating its use to + their friends, colleagues, and employers.

+ +

This page provides links to more information to help you do this.

+ +

Mailing lists

+ + + +

Web resources

+ + + +

Sites using FreeBSD

+ + + + &footer + + + diff --git a/en/advocacy/letter.sgml b/en/advocacy/letter.sgml new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..656f8cf16a --- /dev/null +++ b/en/advocacy/letter.sgml @@ -0,0 +1,261 @@ + + + %includes; +]> + + +&header; + +

On October 31st 1998 (Halloween) Eric Raymond posted a leaked memo from + Microsoft.

+ +

This prompted Jordan Hubbard to write the following response. This text + is unchanged, except for the HTML formatting.

+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
To:advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween + memo...
Date:Tue, 03 Nov 1998 08:21:56 -0800
Message-Id:<709.910110116@time.cdrom.com>
+
+
+ +

[ caution - this is a bit long. Lots of points here I've been + wanting to cover for awhile and now seems as good a time as any.. ]

+ +

OK, so we've all seen this latest bit of Linux leaping about and + shouting from the rooftops and some of us have even gone "agh!" and + run around a bit ourselves, but now that we've all hopefully calmed + down again I'd like to say a few words about this and the state of + FreeBSD advocacy in general.

+ +

First off, just to cover the Halloween memo in brief, yes it appears + to be genuinely from Microsoft and yes, it appears to be genuinely + full of statements culled from various Linux evangelists who feel no + pangs at making blatantly false pronouncements like "Linux is the only + OS experiencing growth" or "Linux is the only contender for the x86 + platform." These types of statements are pure hooey, of course, and + FreeBSD is currently doing better than it has at any previous point in + its history. Our releases are starting to finally hit their stride, + it seems (and try to remember back to the days when it was more like: + "My god! We did it! A release!"), and our rate of innovation and + self- improvement hasn't been higher since the 2.0 days - it's very + encouraging to see that we can spur ourselves to such heights of + productivity *without* legal injunctions staring us in the face! :-)

+ +

Second, we have to keep sight of the fact that none of this is + particularly new or even interesting. We know that Linux is the + current poster child of the press and we also know about the press's + irritating predilection for focusing on one and only one champion + rather than looking more in depth at the situation. We can yell and + scream all we like, but we're not going to change the fact that for + many journalists investigating "Open Source", Linux is the first and + possibly only thing they're going to look at. It simply has the right + sized hype-bubble surrounding it where we do not. + We also have to accept the fact that ISVs are going to target their + products at the much more obvious Linux market and try to strike deals + with it, going "FreeBSD? What's that?" when asked about a native + port. The same goes for investment, selling shares in Red Hat, Inc., + etc. Money always goes after the visible markets first.

+ +

What you have to ask yourselves, looking at the dynamics of this + situation as dispassionately as possible, is whether all of this is + necessarily as bad a thing as some of the gloom-n-doomers would have + us believe. Looking at only the superficial indicators, it's easy to + say that "Linux is winning and we're losing", pointing to the stacks + of Linux books and magazines in the bookstores, the Clinton + transcripts where he mentions Linux, the Goodyear blimp circling + overhead with Linus's smiling face shining from it, etc etc. It's + especially easy to say that when you hold Linux and FreeBSD in your + mind as equivalent products, started at the same time and with the + same overall development mentality.

+ +

The fact of the matter is that Linux and FreeBSD are NOT equivalent + products with identical user and developer communities surrounding + them, however. We've *always* been lower key about things, preferring + to quietly focus on the business of steadily turning out quality + products to only moderate fanfare. It's no use screaming for teams of + FreeBSD fan dancers to come out and start singing the praises of + FreeBSD in full 4-part hyperbole with some grinning, cigar-chomping + promoter standing in the background - that's just not us. The + nay-sayers will also say that "this not being us" will surely be our + downfall since you gotta sing and dance now if you want to be noticed, + but I'm really not so sure about that. To my way of thinking, we have + our style and we have our niche and they're both respectable in their + own way. Not everyone buys toilet paper because a team of singing + rabbits (to paraphrase the great Rod Serling) suggested it on + television, and some people DO react positively to the somewhat less + superficial attributes of quality, consistency and a focus on the + technology rather than on standing in front of the cameras and saying + things like "open source validates the concept of a basic human + sociological tropism towards cooperation and the free and open + exchange of .." to some vapid blond on Technology Week.

+ +

That kind of approach might also get all the sound bites this week, + but remember the old "15 minutes of fame" effect and the fact that the + press is going to get bored with Linux eventually and go off in search + of other things they don't understand to dissect. When that + inevitably happens, it's going to be back to quality and those groups + who remained true to their basic operating principles and didn't get + sucked in and destroyed by excessive growth or hype. The + opportunities for wandering off and getting lost in the woods in + pursuit of some bright and shiny object have never been higher than + they are now, and somebody's bound to panic and go off and do + something stupid in an effort to differentiate themselves. I don't + think we have any need to panic at all and should simply keep doing + what we're doing and try to do it as best we can.

+ +

I'm not saying that there's no room for improvement, and some + alliances *are* being made with various artist/marketing types whom we + think can help us get the attention we deserve, but it's not the same + as saying that we're going to drop everything and go play Linux's game + now. That would be the wrong move and I can only point to the history + of BSD itself when searching for good examples of technologies which + have remained viable long after "losing" a war to a competitor. BSD + "lost" to SYSV over a decade ago, but did that kill it? Quite + apparently not and it appears to be doing better today than it ever + did even back in its heyday, when it ran on a large collection of + VAXes but hardly any of the commodity (68K) hardware at all (you had + to buy an obscure 32016 based machine if you wanted to run BSD at home :-). + The situation today is vastly improved by comparison and most people + don't even stop to think about that.

+ +

In any case, I didn't mean this posting as a fluffy "we're fine!" + sorta thing, though I do think that people sometimes lose sight of our + own growth rate and notable successes when furrowing their brows over + the latest Linux PR victory, I do have a summary of points I think we + can and should improve:

+ +
    +

  1. Keep pushing the magazine articles out. These seem to be easier for + people than books and I've largely given up on trying to incite a + FreeBSD book to happen - I guess that will just occur in its own + good time. Walnut Creek CDROM is still paying a bounty for magazine + articles (matching funds for your fee) and has enabled more than one + person to buy a new machine for the price of one weekend's writing + for a good cause. Pick a target publication and go for it, folks! + I've done about 3 of these so far (maybe more, I forget :) and can + say that it's not that hard. You generate a simple article outline and + you submit it to the editor along with your proposal for what + you're trying to accomplish with the article (just a paragraph or + two of text, not a thesis). If they're interested, they'll send you + back details on how long they want the article to be (generally + 500-1000 words) and how much they're willing to pay. When they + pay, send us a photocopy/FAX of your royalty check and we'll pay + too. It's that simple, and it good for FreeBSD to appear in print + like this since it reaches outside the somewhat closed audience of + the mailing lists.

    2. +

  2. Look at Linux as a door opener, not a threat. I mean this, + folks, even you rabid Linux haters out there. Consider very + carefully the fact that if customer A needs a PC to do server job B, + customer A is going to do one of four things:

    + +
      +
    1. Buy NT
      2. +
    2. Buy a commercial Unix
      3. +
    3. Buy Linux
      4. +
    4. Buy *BSD
      5. +
    +

    Those really are about the only 4 options for building a + department fileserver or gateway box with cheap, commodity hardware + (we'll assume the people who don't want cheap buy Cisco gear, Suns + and NetApp filers anyway) and let's look at them in turn:

    + +
      +

    1. If they buy NT, you can pretty much write them off. By the + time they realize what they've gotten themselves into, the + investment (or embarrassment) is generally too great to back out + of anyway and it's actually very few IS shops that seem to claw + their way back from NT and install a free OS instead. Sure, you + hear widely trumpeted stories whenever some large ISP does make + it back from NT, but its very rareness is what makes it + something to trumpet about. NT is Darth Vader here and we must + fear his control of the dark side (marketing) and the fact that + "everybody knows NT" when the issue of personnel comes up with + most pointy-haired managers.

      2. +

    2. Is a much better option since at least the customer has + accepted Unix as their savior and can potentially be won over at + some point by OSS, but the fact that they chose a commercial + Unix probably also means that they have deep-seated needs for + tech support or inter-operability with other parts of the IS + shop and you'll probably have to work on them for awhile to win + them over.

      3. +

    3. Here now we've at least accomplished two things: We've got + the customer admitting that they want Unix and that they want a + free Unix. Furthermore, they've chosen a solution which we think + we can beat in all the taste tests if we can just get the CD in + front of their faces. All in all, this has got to be the + easiest conversion of the three and a definite win if their only + other options were A or B.

      4. +

    4. Yay! Of course we like this one, but if it's not FreeBSD + then we still have a bit of a conversion job to do and it might + even require something like a SPARC port to be able to offer the + same cross-platform inter-operability that the user has chosen + the other *BSD for. It's something to think about, and + certainly no better than the Linux scenario in some ways (again, + if you're just thinking about this from the pure, mercenary "how + do we get more FreeBSD users" perspective).

      5. +
    +
    3. +

  3. Hold your advocacy to a higher standard, and by this I mean that + if we're to weather this whole PR blitz period with our reputation + for being "the calm and level-headed ones" intact, we can't stoop + to the level of some Linux advocates when trying to make short-term + gains against their PR blitzes. Sometimes you just have to be + Gandi.

    + +

    When the press have gone away, believe me, people will remember + which groups stuck to their guns and didn't compromise their + identities or ideals and which went sort of nuts and participated + in a few raping and pillaging sessions. I'd far rather be the + group still standing there when the smoke clears going "Yup, we're + still here and still doing good software without the fanfare or + fancy costumes. Have a look!"

    + +

    To put it another way: If FreeBSD were a respected musical + entertainer, I would want her to be the one who stuck to doing + the kind of music she liked and always did it well rather than + horrifying us during the disco years by suddenly putting on spandex + pants and lip-syncing to formulaic, song-factory material or + shrieking out heavy-metal lyrics in heavy makeup with Axel Rose 10 + years later. :-) Sometimes the price of "success" is too + high.

    4. +
+ +

- Jordan

+ +
+ + &footer + + diff --git a/en/advocacy/myths.sgml b/en/advocacy/myths.sgml new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..9c085dfa37 --- /dev/null +++ b/en/advocacy/myths.sgml @@ -0,0 +1,392 @@ + + + %includes; +]> + + + &header; + +

As the BSD projects (FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD) have grown in size, + a number of persistent myths have grown up around them. Some of these are + perpetuated by well meaning but misguided individuals, others by people + pursuing their own agendas.

+ +

This page aims to dispel those myths while remaining as dispassionate + as possible.

+ +
Note: Throughout this page, ``*BSD'' refers to all + three of the BSD Projects. Where a myth or response is specific to a + particular project it is indicated as such.
+ +
If you are aware of an omission or error on this page, please + let the maintainer, Tom Rhodes <darklogik@Pittgoth.com> + know.
+ +

Index

+ + + +

Myths

+ +

*BSD has a closed development + model, it's more ``Cathedral'' than ``Bazaar''

+ +

Eric Raymond wrote an influential paper, ``The + Cathedral and the Bazaar'' in which the Linux development model + (and the model Eric used for fetchmail) is held up as an + example of how to do ``open'' development. By contrast, the model + employed by *BSD is often characterized as closed.

+ +

The implicit value judgment is that ``bazaar'' (open) is good, and + ``cathedral'' (closed) is bad.

+ +

If anything, *BSD's development model is probably + more akin to the ``bazaar'' that Eric describes than + either Linux or fetchmail.

+ +

Consider the following;

+ + + +

Also, see this article written by Jordan Hubbard in Performance + Computing, titled What is FreeBSD?

+ +
+ +

You cannot make your own distributions + or derivative works of *BSD

+ +

You can. You just need to say in the documentation and source + files where the code is derived from.

+ +

For example, PicoBSD is a tailored distribution of FreeBSD that + fits on a floppy. It's great for turning a diskless 386 PC into a + router or a network print server.

+ +

The Whistle Interjet is a ``network appliance'' that acts as a + router, web server, mailhost (and other functionality), can can be + configured using a web browser. The underlying operating system is + FreeBSD, and Whistle have contributed many of their code + enhancements back to the FreeBSD project (while keeping enough of + them proprietary that they can stay in business).

+ +

The OpenBSD project started as a spinoff from the NetBSD project, and + has since evolved its own distinctive approach.

+ +
+ +

*BSD makes a great server, but a poor + (Unix) desktop

+ +

*BSD makes a great server. It also makes a great desktop. Many of + the requirements for a server (responsiveness under load, stability, + effective use of system resources) are the same requirements as for a + desktop machine.

+ +

*BSD has access to the same desktop tools (KDE, GNOME, + windowmanagers) as Linux. And ``office'' applications such as + WordPerfect or StarOffice work under BSD's Linux emulation + layer.

+ +
+ +

The BSD codebase is old, outdated, and + dieing

+ +

While the BSD codebase may be more than 20 years old, it is neither + outdated or dieing. Many professional users like the stability that years + of testing has provided FreeBSD.

+ +

Technological enhancements continue to be added to *BSD, including, + but not limited to;

+ + + +
+ +

The *BSD projects are at war with one another, + splinter groups form each week

+ +

No. While occasional advocacy may get a touch heated, the *BSD flavors + continue to work with one another. FreeBSD's Alpha port was initially + heavily based on the work done by the NetBSD team. Both NetBSD and + OpenBSD used the FreeBSD ports collection to bootstrap their own port + sets. FreeBSD and NetBSD both integrate security fixes first discovered + by the OpenBSD team.

+ +

This cooperation extends to the commercial company BSDi, who graciously + donated their DOS emulation layer to FreeBSD.

+ +

The FreeBSD and NetBSD projects separated more than five years + ago. OpenBSD is the only new BSD project to split off in the last five + years.

+ +

The *BSD projects cooperate in other areas as well. For example, the + monthly publication DaemonNews + is a collaborative effort by members of all three projects.

+ +
+ +

You can't cluster *BSD systems (parallel + computing)

+ +

The following URLs should disprove this;

+ + +

In addition to this, Tom Rhodes is currently writing an article designed to walk a user through setting up + a Parallel Computing environment using FreeBSD and other utilities. Keep an eye out for this article in late + 2002 early 2003.

+ +
+ +

There's no commercial support for *BSD

+ +

FreeBSD: The FreeBSD + Commercial Consulting Page lists companies that offer commercial + support for FreeBSD.

+ +

The FreeBSD + Mall also offer commercial support.

+ +

For training, one might try BSDMall.com, but they sell + other items too, like shirts, hats, books and software! Defiantly worth a look.

+ +

OpenBSD: The OpenBSD Commercial + Consulting Page lists companies that offer commercial support for + OpenBSD.

+ +
+ +

There are no applications for *BSD

+ +

The free software community started running on predominantly BSD + systems(SunOS and similar). *BSD users can generally compile software + written for these systems without needing to make any changes.

+ +

In addition, each *BSD project uses a ``ports'' system to make the + building of ported software much easier.

+ +

FreeBSD: There are currently more than 6,000 + applications ready to download and install in the FreeBSD ports + collection. The Linux emulation layer will also run the vast majority of + i386 Linux applications.

+ +

NetBSD: The Linux emulation layer will run the vast majority of + i386 Linux applications, and the majority of SunOS4 applications can be + run on a SPARCStation.

+ +

OpenBSD: There are currently slightly more than 400 applications + ready to download and install in the OpenBSD ports collection. The Linux + emulation layer will also run the vast majority of i386 Linux + applications, and the majority of SunOS4 applications can be run on a + SPARCStation.

+ +

Both NetBSD and OpenBSD are able to use applications in FreeBSD's ports + collection with minimal effort. Their lower number of ported + applications reflects this.

+ +

It is true that most companies when porting to PC Unix will choose Linux + first. Fortunately, *BSD's Linux emulation layer will run these + programs (Mathematica, WordPerfect, StarOffice, Quake, ...) with + few, if any, problems.

+ +

As a historical note, the first version of Netscape Navigator that ran + on FreeBSD with Java support was the Linux version. Now, of course, + Netscape have produced a FreeBSD native binary (and have done for some + time).

+ +
+ +

*BSD uses the a.out executable format, which is + outdated technology

+ +

FreeBSD: Until recently (September 1998) FreeBSD used the a.out + format by default. There were no pressing reasons to switch earlier. In + particular, FreeBSD did not (and does not) have the problems building + shared libraries that spurred the Linux conversion from a.out to ELF. As + of FreeBSD version 3.0, FreeBSD uses the ELF executable format.

+ +

Check out the wonderful article that Tom Rhodes wrote about upgrading + an a.out to ELF system, it has information on the way FreeBSD uses a.out and + ELF, along with tons of other useful information. The html version can be found here: + + http://www.Pittgoth.com/~darklogik/aout/article.html, but its also available in + the PDF (article.pdf), dvi (article.dvi), postscript (article.ps), sgml (article.sgml), + and TeX (article.tex) versions. Just change the extension as appropriate.

+ +
+ +

*BSD is better than (insert other system)

+ +

This is user opinion only.

+ +
+ +

(insert some other system) is better than *BSD

+ +

This is user opinion only

+ +
+ +

Contributors

+ +

Members of the FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD projects have contributed + to this page;

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Nik Clayton + <nik@FreeBSD.ORG>Jordan Hubbard + <jkh@FreeBSD.ORG>
Ian F. Darwin + <ian@DarwinSys.com>
Adrian Filipi-Martin + <adrian@ubergeeks.com>
Tom Rhodes + <darklogik@Pittgoth.com
+ + + &footer + +