Advocacy on ZDNet

[Devon H. O'Dell]

Charon wrote:
> Anyone care to comment on this at www.zdnet.com.au
> 
> 	To anonymous FreeBSD user. 
> 
> 	Due to its licence, FreeBSD cannot become an enterprise platform
> 	from the vendor's perspective. They all fear heavy proprietisation
> 	and forking of any non-GPL codebase. 
> 
> 
> 	The only OS that can fly to where the Open Source world wants it to
> 	fly is Linux, FreeBSD is now 5+ years behind in terms of enterprise
> 	readiness. Please keep up with the times and avoid this whole OS
> 	pissing contest thing. 
> 
> 	Remember, we're not talking single-CPU internet servers anymore.
> 	FreeBSD cannot scale to 64 CPUs nor does it have the hardware support
> 	necessary to breach the enterprise space.

My comment:

I'm sorry, but you're totally full of shit.

You've obviously not looked at the amount of LARGE companies that use 
FreeBSD. These include Yahoo, Juniper, NASA and MANY others.

Additionally, unless you're contributing code, don't say things like 
this unless you're willing to take these things up. Want to get SMP 
support ``enterprise ready'' (as you term it per buzzwords)? DIY.

FreeBSD 5.x can and will scale on servers with multiple CPUs. If there's 
a problem with hardware, get specifications. If you can't due to 
whatever reason, DIY. If you can't do it, shut up and use something 
else. The FBSD developers are already busy doing MANY other things to 
make FBSD a better operating system and environment for multiple 
applications.

Additionally, I think that companies should APPRECIATE the BSD license 
_MORE_ than the GPL for ``proprietary'' drivers. It allows them to 
release code should they wish, but to also keep their own development 
closed.

This post ranks all the way up there with the *BSD is Dead trolls to be 
found on Slashdot. The submitter obviously has no idea what he's talking 
about.

My suggestion:

Research before you open your mouth and make yourself look like a fool.

My summary:

A favorite quote from flynn in #FreeBSD on Freenode: ``Send patches or 
shut up.''

Kind regards,

Devon H. O'Dell