Where is FreeBSD going? (fwd)

[Devon H. O'Dell]

>>High on my wish list of marketing materials are some 2-page "white papers"
>>on deploying FreeBSD.  Particular, short 2-pagers on FreeBSD as a network
>>appliance or storage appliance base, as a firewall, and as a database
>>server.  Nicely laid out, business-like, and appropriate for distribution
>>as PDF or on paper at conferences.

Well you might just have some luck. We're using FreeBSD as the base of some of 
our appliances, and I'm charged with the wonderful task of writing papers for 
investors. Indeed, these papers contain information that we don't necessarily 
_want_ everyone to see, but they also contain a good bit of information about 
why FreeBSD is the ideal platform for such an appliance. If you have a few 
months, I can probably extract the main ideas from them and get them into a 
good, logical order.

> 
> I think a starting point should probably be "generic" 2- and 4-pagers that
> give information about freebsd. The 4-pager could go into more depth as to
> what exactly 5.x has technology and benefits wise. It will also need to be
> targeted at an audience - what you want to tell ISV / white box maker /
> PHB / embedded developer / sysadmin / wannabe hacker / etc (not saying all
> should be covered or covered from start) would be necessarily different,
> possibly quite a lot. The non-generic, application specific 2-pagers would
> then be sort of companions to the 4-pager I guess to showcase a specific
> application.

I think lengths of papers should not be determined by their content.

>>Another thing I'd like to see is a retrofit on the "Power to server"
>>brand, which I think was one of our more effective slogans.  A nice logo
>>and slogan can go a long way, because people stick them on everything. One
>>of the ideas I've been poking at is moving to a logo that slightly
>>deemphasizes the Daemon, and instead connotes "power and reliability" --
>>perhaps some sort of train-based logo.  Something like:
>>
>>      F  r   e  e   B  S   D
>>      [train in motion logo]
>>      The  Power  to   Serve

Good pictures of trains in motion are _very_ hard to come by. Especially 
shiny, neat, very fast and good looking trains. Although I'm sure that a 
cartoon-ish, vector-art version is available somewhere, but I don't think it 
promotes the idea as well as something in live-motion. Logos are very 
difficult things to come by.

> Looks ok.
> 
> Traditionaly, the "lets have a contest" thing around such has given quite
> bad results (rather, usualy none) - going back all the way to 96/97.
> Having an art crew is probably a very tough.
> 
> Or maybe i'm mistaken - the FreeBSD/gnome splash screen is quite nice.I
> can't personaly draw at all.

I can't really draw either, but I can piece stuff together in most (decent) 
graphics programs. Anybody willing to provide me with a nice picture of a 
moving train will get something back :)

--Devon