Please don't change Beastie to another crap logo suchasNetBSD!!!

[Anthony Atkielski]

Ted Mittelstaedt writes:

> This depends on your definition of survival.
>
> As long as FreeBSD runs on some hardware, and people still use it,
> it's surviving.

No doubt, but to some extent the enthusiasm of the volunteers that work
on the OS is a function of how many people they know to be using the
software.

> The only real issue I see to FreeBSD's survival that requires
> corporate attention is device drivers for new hardware. And this is an
> issue that harms all operating systems even Windows. There are just as
> many older versions of Windows being made unrunnable by new hardware
> that lacks drivers for it, as BSD versions.

Don't hardware manufacturers publish specs detailed enough to allow
third parties to write drivers?

> but beyond this, the computer industry itself is in a real growth
> slump anyway.  The 8080 IBM PCjr architecture is still at the core
> of new PC hardware.  What growth we are seeing is the increasing
> commoditization of hardware.  Unfortunately this is stunting the
> introduction of newer and possibly better ways to build a computer,
> all it does is just make the hardware cheaper and cheaper, and
> less and less innovative.  (not that I'm complaining about the
> cheaper part, of course)

I don't expect this to change.  Computers are increasingly like washing
machines or cars.  Don't expect any huge innovations in the near future.

Linux is a great case in point.  What a pity that when people finally
looked at something like UNIX, it turned out to not be UNIX at all, but
someone cooked up in a schoolkid's garage.  A perfect example of a
product sold on hype alone, even though technically superior solutions
already existed (but had no hype behind them).

-- 
Anthony