Where is FreeBSD going?

[Brett Glass]

At 04:37 AM 1/6/2004, Timothy Beyer wrote:
  
>Brett Glass wrote:
>>FreeBSD also keeps falling farther and farther behind Linux in the area of
>>advocacy (and, hence, corporate adoption)
>
>Granted, this is true.  However, you should be more specific when you 
>refer to advocacy.  When I think of the term "advocacy," blind, relentless 
>loyalty comes to mind. 

That's not the accepted definition. Though there is, of couse, some of that.

>Yes, you are correct that more people need to promote *BSD, the BSD license,
>etc, but I think the term "advocate" implies the wrong emphasis.

"Advocate" literally means, "To speak in favor of." In other words, promotion.

But let's not get tied up in definitions here.

>>Many of the developers actually have an antipathy toward advocacy,
>>since they dislike answering newbie FAQs and don't want too manypeople to
>>adopt the OS for fear that it'll overcrowd their "sandbox."
>
>Yes, thats quite true of FreeBSD developers.  While these individuals are
>typically rational, productive individuals, they most likely don't produce
>the required volume of noise to give a name to FreeBSD. However, it is nice
>to know that people exist who put money where their mouth is;  I don't see
>that in some other free software communities.

Alas, the problem is that the FreeBSD developers do not attach appropriate
value to advocacy. Contributions in the form of advocacy are virtually
unvalued relative to contributions in the form of code. Linux is more
successful than FreeBSD, in part, because it values both.

--Brett