The Website

[dereck]

John,
1. I agree with you that it is hard to get management to accept FreeBSD
- perception is poor, though I'm not quite sure why.

2. I disagree that the website is to blame.  I think it could use work,
but as far as OSS software goes, it is pretty solid.  (The search sucks,
though :-) .)  However, if you can do an alternative one there will be
ways to get the people to use it.  I for one encourage you to work on an
alternative if you have time.

3. You management uses Solaris (!) - count your blessings.  It could be
FAR FAR worse!!!  From my experience with [shall remain unnamed] *NIXES
I'd rather deal with Solaris than any others apart from *BSD.  But if
your management moves to Linux, get another job :-).

best,
dereck




On Tue, 2004-03-30 at 10:26, John Von Essen wrote:
> This is an interesting point. Alot of big companies use FreeBSD, but under
> the following conditions:
> 
> 1. The lead/senior sysadmins are old FreeBSD guru's
> 2. The systems that have FreeBSD installed are low-profile and can't be
> easily spotted (audited).
> 3. Management has loose control over their employees
> 
> I am working for a large insurance company right now. Because, I love
> FreeBSD, I have made an attempt to "slip" FreeBSD into the network - on
> some backend mail servers, intranet web servers, etc.,. However, I still
> have no chance of getting FreeBSD into, say, our production web server
> pool. Management is brain-washed and all they know is Solaris, Solaris,
> Solaris, IBM, IBM, IBM.
> 
> And... It doesn't help when they go to freebsd.org. It makes FreeBSD seem
> NON-enterprise. Personally, i think the site is fine, but Im a tech, not
> a CTO. Maybe, freebsd.com can be redesigned have a suse.com or redhat.com
> look-n-feel, and freebsd.org can retain - the developer community
> look-n-feel.
> 
> -john
> 
> On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, Devon H. O'Dell wrote:
> 
> > Paul Robinson wrote:
> >
> > > [snip; poor formatting]
> > >
> > >
> > > Well, this is the problem FreeBSD generally has. A lot of people would
> > > actually like to see more developers move to FreeBSD and contribute to
> > > the project. It then follows that as the "product" improves, we are able
> > > to see a rise in the number of users. Pedantic, yes, but I'm becoming
> > > less convinced of the need for us to get FreeBSD onto the family PC. I
> > > would like to see it on a lot more developer's desks though.
> >
> > And in more companies. FreeBSD is already used by many (large) companies
> > (including those in the Fortune 500). I know that even MS uses FreeBSD
> > for the SFU software.
> >
> > > [snip; poor formatting]
> > >
> > >
> > > Won't you expect the competition's product to be a better alternative to
> > > the one you currently use? Do you honestly believe that OS choice is
> > > dependent on what the website looks like? If so, how did Mandrake ever
> > > take off?
> >
> > I have to agree here.
> >
> >
> > > [snip; poor formatting]
> > >>	the moment it looks like a three column url listing with no
> > >>	really strong visual cues to things important to capturing,
> > >>	converting, and supporting new users.
> > >
> > >
> > > Well, you know what the answer is then, don't you? You can grab the
> > > source, talk to the web team, produce a better version. Remember it has
> > > to be readable in text browsers, conform to WAI and Internationalisation
> > > standards and everyone has to agree by mutual consent it's a better
> > > design than the existing one.
> >
> > AMEN. This is a bikeshed that gets discussed every 6 or so months.
> > Search advocacy@, doc@ and any number of other mailing lists for the
> > amount of complaints about the webpage. As per the  suggestion always
> > posted that the FreeBSD page is too ``simple,'' my answer remains:
> >
> > http://www.google.com
> > http://www.sun.com
> >
> > Simple, huh?
> >
> > As I stated on your other thread regarding the post on the ZDNet.au
> > site; if you can't put up, shut up. I say that in a coarse manner not to
> > be obtuse, but to discourage you and others from continuing with a
> > bikeshed that nobody seems to care to fix. If you want to make a new
> > site for FreeBSD, make a template, see what you can do, but don't expect
> > it to be used.
> >
> > > [snip]
> >
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Devon H. O'Dell
> > _______________________________________________
> > freebsd-advocacy at freebsd.org mailing list
> > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-advocacy
> > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-advocacy-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
> >
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-advocacy at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-advocacy
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-advocacy-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"