Ways to promote FreeBSD?

[c.hutchinson0 at yahoo.com]

On Tue, 1 May 2012 09:26:30 +0200 (CEST)
Wojciech Puchar <wojtek at wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> wrote:

> >
> > Joe user, students, etc really don't care about the underlying
> > system as long as the GUIs obscure this.
> Indeed you are right. Actually they don't completely know what
> happens. This is normal, but the poor word in your sentence is
> "students". Unfortunately, from my observations, this is completely
> true.
> 
> >OSX is a prime example of this (the OSX CLI has sucked for a long
> >time).
> > Only sysadmin and CLI power users care how things like this are 
> >organized. I think this is the usability boat that's been missed for
> >a while on *nix.
> 
> True. And my point is - don't promote FreeBSD in that area. Mac OS X, 
> Windows, "Modern" linux distros will always be "better" than FreeBSD
> when judged by joe user who "owns" computer.
> 
> Yes i used parantheses in "owns" because he/she don't really own her 
> computer, just paid for it and is enslaved.
> 
> FreeBSD can be great when used by "joe user" BUT when joe user does
> not install it, configure it or know root password at all, but
> QUALIFIED sysadmin configured everything for joe.
> 
> "Joe" may use thin client to connect to timesharing server with 
> FreeBSD and this is my favourite example.
> 
> (actually i use X terminal made from obsolete PCs line pentium
> 133-500MHz PII, which are intentionally downclocked and fans removed,
> disks removed - SILENCE, low power).
> 
> Even with trendy GUI (but configured by root user, not joe user) it
> works quick, fast and predictable with cost of servicing close to
> zero.
> 
> This is right target for FreeBSD "advertising" IMHO, but not
> "personal computer" market.
> 
> Again i used parantheses for "personal computer" as for many years
> users don't completely know what is going on on "their" computers and
> are owned by them.

I think "The power to serve", pretty much sums it up nicely. :-)
> 
> 
> 
> Do you now finally understood what i mean and why i am against your
> kind of "promotion"?
> 
> You won't promote Ferrari for people that now use everyday small city
> car. Inexperienced driver can only kill him/herself given top line
> Ferrari, and trying to make Ferrari to by "easy to use" will badly
> reduce it's performance.
> 
> >
> >> Solaris 11 was just an example of overadvertised things that are
> >> just useless.  Linux is "trendy" and quality is second thing, but
> >> it had to be everywhere including things that should not have OS
> >> at all, like VoIP gateway.
> >
> > Sun isn't Oracle, so I don't expect them to put forth a decent
> > general purpose OS offering. As far as Linux is concerned, in some
> > ways it's good Linux has become a niche OS, and in some ways it's
> > bad, but you can't take back the fact that it is what it is right
> > now.
> 
While I know this probably seems pointless, based on your
observation(s). I can't help but wonder if initiating a
"BSD awareness day", might not be a bad idea. I can see
where, if targeted at students, this might be especially
effective -- this IS where BSD all started, wasn't it? :-)

just my $0.02 :-)

> Sun IS Oracle from some time.
Right you are!.

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