Instead of freebsd.com, why not...

[dereck]

> So far, I have not seen one single valid argument
> against a 
> freebsd.com website or a new logo, so I side with
> the people that 
> wants some changes to happen in this one.
> 

I'm with Roger here.  It is time for a change, and
perhaps a smaller, but "business friendly" image on
the MAIN site.  The website as it is is much too busy
and confusing.  

Actually, I would not mind moving the current website
over to  "freebsd_tech_user" or something that clearly
targets BSD technical users.  But I work for a
medium-sized, proprietary software company.  I would
_NEVER_ send even competent WIN32 people to the
current FreeBSD site for them to evaluate the OS - the
confusing structure and "face" of the site is sure to
turn them off.  Even asking "basic" questions in the
Search function doesn't work cleanly - instead
hundreds of manual links are returned.  A clear and
short "Who is using it" and "Why it would help YOUR
business" page would be better than what we have now.

I just don't understand the arguments of those who
don't want change here.  Is this not a question of
"survival" in some sense?  OBSD went through a logo
change some time ago, and I would argue that this
change was very successful.  We've (IMHO) got to get
the businesses who are looking at Open Source to
consider FreeBSD.  This means making the website
"friendly."  This is simply so they'll move to the
next logical step to ask "who is using it already?". 
And this is getting critical, people - Sun is making
SOLARIS free and will release the OS for _anyone_ to
use in coming weeks.  In the case of "OpenSolaris" a
business doesn't even have to ask that "next
question", as millions of computers run Solaris
worldwide - Wall Street brokerages use it everywhere,
and MLB.com uses it prominently, to name a couple of
examples.

The heart of the matter is whether we will continue to
target the uber-geeks of the world and be happy with a
tiny niche, or whether we will make FreeBSD what it
should be - _the_ standard against which other *NIX OS
clones measure themselves.  Appearances do matter in
this case, and the current website should be moved
over to target the few of us who are already
committed.

My 2 cents.

dereck