FreeBSD Culture

[Murray Taylor]

On Tue, 2005-04-19 at 07:24, Stine Madsen wrote:
> FreeBSD Culture
> We are four undergraduate students (1st year) who have chosen Organizational
> Culture and FreeBSD as the subject for our major written project. The
> underlying assumption for our project is that the FreeBSD community can be
> viewed and described within the framework of the theory for Organizational
> behavior and culture - that is; as a 'virtual' organization. To investigate
> and clarify this, we would like to confer with participants of the FreeBSD
> community who are well-informed of the how's and why's of FreeBSD. 
> 
> The following non-exhausting list holds examples of questions we would like
> to clarify:
> 
> - Does there exist myths, 'legends' and stories concerning FreeBSD, which
> are common knowledge in the community.
> - How does one get to be a member of '-core'? Or more accurately, how does a
> member advance in the FreeBSD community?
> - Is the language described in the 'jargon file' used and understood by all
> members of the community?
> - What motivates people to join the FreeBSD community and to contribute to
> the common course?

While not a contributor to FreeBSD per se, 
I could add that joining this community
on my part was due to me wanting to 'look under the hood'
(I have contributed some minor patches to a couple of ports,
some made it in as is, some prompted a better solution by 
the maintainer)
And as 'payback' I have now been able to pass on some of my learning
and experience to the next batch of newbies.
 
Knowing that I can peek, and learn _how_ it all works is a 
great motivating force. And being a believer in using the right tool
for a job (like I loath the combination 'multitools' you can buy too)
I am willing to spend the time to choose the tool.
Or if the tool is not available I like to be able to use the 
existing resources to build the requred tool.

As part of this I also go with the concept of 'elegant software'

http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/readings/software_elegance.html

For me FreeBSD fits the bill. 
And I too dont really care about what colour the bikeshed is!
And POLA too! no surprises!

Google "bikeshed freebsd"
Google "POLA freebsd"


> - Is it possible to improve the structure of the FreeBSD community?
> 
> We are not sure where to post questions like these - and if freebsd.org as a
> suitable forum for those kind of questions. Suggestions and thoughts about
> this will be much appreciated.
> 
> All communication will be by mail, and all participants will be anonymous
> should the prefer so. 
> 
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-- 
Murray Taylor
Special Projects Engineer
---------------------------------
Bytecraft Systems & Entertainment
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