Where is FreeBSD going?

[Robert Watson]

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Narvi wrote:

> On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Robert Watson wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, David Schwartz wrote:
> >
> > > 	FreeBSD does need more advocacy if it wants to get the kind of
> > > visibility and credibility that Linux has in the public perception.
> > > Frankly, I'm kind of baffled that it doesn't. I've always found the two
> > > OSes more or less interchangeable and tend to install whichever one
> > > whose CD I can find first.
> >
> > The best advocacy FreeBSD can get is to have happy users explain to the
> > rest of the world how much they like our cool aid.  Or rather, one of the
> > greatest contributions end-users can make to FreeBSD is to tell their
> > friends (and then help them get up and going :-).  It's also one of the
> > greatest compliments you can give.  Developers are typically fairly bad at
> > advocacy, and perhaps it's better that the developers work on what they're
> > good at (since it always seems a few more hands can help).  So if you (in
> > the general sense, not you specifically) like FreeBSD, and feel like
> > documentation or code aren't your fortes, go out and give a talk at your
> > local Linux user group about FreeBSD.  Or explain to the people at your
> > company that they could go out and buy Windows, Solaris, or Linux with
> > support, or they could rely on your own expertise in-house and get the job
> > done at a fraction of the cost.
> 
> i'm not quite sure this is a replacement for a postgersql / gnome /
> openoffice style marketing team though. 

Agreed.  It's just a starting point, but one particular benefit of it as a
starting point is that it would bring to people's attention the people
who's contributions to advocacy are most effective, as well as build a
base of marketing materials and volunteers.

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.

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

Robert N M Watson             FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects
robert at fledge.watson.org      Senior Research Scientist, McAfee Research