Desktop FreeBSD

[Willie Viljoen]

On Wednesday 10 March 2004 08:36, someone, possibly Mike Hoskins, wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Mar 2004, Narvi wrote:
> > Windows is not a fringe server OS - do you know what percenatge of
> > worldwide servers - whetever web or not are running windows? This is not
> > 1995 any more.

This isn't 1995 anymore, nor is it still 1999, go check on the survey at 
http://www.netcraft.com/, you'll notice how many servers are running Apache. 
Now, I concede that Apache does run on Windows, but I can guarantee that if 
you e-mail every single sysadmin of every single Apache listed there, they 
won't say it's Windows.

According to that survey anyway, your argument goes down the drain. How can 
Windows not be a fringe OS in the server market if two thirds of all web 
servers run UNIX?

If you feel that Windows 2003 or what ever, doing MS Exchange and some file 
sharing, is a server, then you're welcome to continue living under your very 
comfortable rock, just don't complain about things you've lost touch with 
then, alright?

>
> i've got over 700 servers in production.  none are windows.  i have many
> friends with similar setups...  so his point remains valid.  m$ is loosing
> market share, that's why they've had to start directly targeting linux in
> enterprise mags and on large billboards in the valley.  that costs money,
> i wonder why billy boy bothers?  because he's loosing customers.  so don't
> waste time arguing something that's obvious by looking around...  get back
> to writing that dream installer/desktop.
>
> and if you can't write it...  that's OK.  not everyone's a developer, or
> has oodles of free time.  put together some requirements (ones that won't
> be laughed at by real developers would be nice), and start a paypal
> fund...  then you'll actually be helping the project, which you seem to
> care so much about.  (great, but just talking a lot doesn't help anyone.)


Mike, an excellent point.

Just recently somebody on this list brought up the same point (although the 
author will have to remind me about who they were...)

It's sad that people are willing to pay large amounts of money to Microsoft 
for their inferior technology, just because it has a reasonably nice looking 
GUI, and at the same time, want the nicest, glitteriest, easiest, 
"everything-est" GUI on UNIX, but always want it for free.

I wish these people would remember that people who develop free software very 
often don't get paid for their effort, and when they do, it's only for the 
man-hours, they contribute the valuable IP they generate to the public 
domain, free of charge.

The mentality among these people astonishes me, they're happy to go on using 
something that they have to pay an obscenely large amount of money for, but 
they give them something better, for free, and they will complain about it as 
if its presence alone is enough to start a world war.

Getting back to the previous thread, I still say I don't consider FreeBSD a 
fringe OS, not from my perspective anyway. If being acceptable to Joe Schmo 
is the only criteria by which the usefullness of an OS can be judged, then, 
yes, let FreeBSD be a fringe OS.

Narvi, if you don't like FreeBSD the way it is, then either stop using it, and 
stop complaining about something good that you get for free, or, start 
contributing.

Will

-- 
Willie Viljoen
Freelance IT Consultant

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