Advocacy on ZDNet

[Devon H. O'Dell]

Charon wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 30, 2004 at 01:42:25PM +0200, Devon H. O'Dell wrote:
> 
>>I'm sorry, but you're totally full of shit.
> 
> 	You and I both know this guy is full of shit but I can't come
> 	out and say that. Abusive ad hominem is the weakest possible
> 	way of dealing with this kind of FUD. Look at whats happening
> 	in c.o.l.a. and the bsd section of slashdot and you will see
> 	what I mean. Leave AH to the Linux guys - it demonstrates how
> 	polarized these groups have become and devalues their arguments
> 	and the forums they inhabit.

No, I prefer to reserve my right to express my opinions in a legal form. 
I must also argue that this post was not composed of ``FUD'' (as defined 
by the Slashdot buzzword that people tend to use anywhere they think it 
looks good), but of misinformation.

>>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.
> 
> 	DIY is not something a business or new user wants to hear. Its
> 	fine in forums like this but in the zdnet case the target
> 	audience is just going to take this as a sign that FreeBSD
> 	as a whole is in some sense incomplete or inferior.

I don't care what they want to hear. FreeBSD isn't for the businesses 
and new users that don't want that. If they can't do it, can't stand to 
find/fund (with money or resources) developers to do it, or just don't 
want it that bad, then they shouldn't be using FreeBSD (or any other 
_*FREE*_ OS).

Yes, much emphasis on FREE. You get what you pay for.

I'm big on advocacy of FreeBSD, and I will provide personal and 
professional support for it, but I won't mind if somebody who doesn't 
have the time/money/energy/know-how to get some serious work done on 
FreeBSD sits back and does nothing. I certainly find that more pleasant 
than reading Yet Another Thread on current@ or hackers@ about how ``this 
or that feature would be useful.''

My counter: Call up Microsoft and state your useful feature. See how 
fast they implement it.

>>found on Slashdot. The submitter obviously has no idea what he's talking 
>>about.
>>Research before you open your mouth and make yourself look like a fool.
> 
> 	The trick is to convince the zdnet readers of that in a way
> 	that doesnt require going into OS details. As far as the audience
> 	is concerned hes a tech making a valid point.
> 

Interestingly enough, I checked out www.zdnet.com.au and didn't find 
anything recent on FreeBSD. Could you please inform us as to which 
thread in which forum you are referring?

Assume that you know nothing (or very little) about water. You state, as 
a fact, that water reflects light at a ``pink'' wavelength. You can 
state this, be certain, and making a ``valid point'' to others who also 
have no idea (i.e. said ``audience''). But water reflects at a mostly 
``blue'' wavelength, which is why oceans and such get colored that way.

Thus, I would suggest that, any audience stupid enough to take advice 
from a single post by a ``tech'' which is found on a forum on a ``tech 
site'' isn't smart enough to get past sysinstall in the first place.

Then again, I'm just a tech making a valid point.

Kind regards,

Devon H. O'Dell