FreeBSD gear (Clothes, machines)

[Allen]

I'm wondering how many people here buy FreeBSD stuff. Like for example, 
I have a FreeBSD teeshirt, a pair of FreeBSD boxers (very comfy by the 
way) and I also purchase a lot of the things I find about FreeBSD 
because, quite frankly, the quality of products are very high, and I 
think Patrick Volkerding of Slackware Linux said it best when he said 
"If you're trying to learn Linux / Unix, just read the BSD stuff, it 
doesn't have the PR crap most Linux tech stuff has and gets to the 
point". I think he's mostly right about that. If you've ever tried 
reading over some of the Linux stuff other than Slackware, Debian, and 
some of the SUSE stuff, you've probably noticed it's mostly PR and not 
very technically and leaves you wondering sometimes why there aren't as 
many answers. You read FreeBSD, and they have the PR stuff in the PR 
section, and the tech stuff in the part it should be.

I think Slackware and FreeBSD must be pretty close; when I made an order 
of a Slackware 4 CD-ROM set and a Slackware Mouse Pad, I also the same 
day ordered a FreeBSD mouse pad, a FreeBSD CD-set, and a copy of EACH of 
the FreeBSD books you can get on the FreeBSDMall page (It was a big 
order, I got one of every book they sell except for the third edition of 
"The Complete FreeBSD because I already had it, so I bought the newer 
one available) and for the FreeBSD stuff I paid for overnight shipping. 
I hate waiting a week to get stuff and I really wanted to see what was 
in the books and see what the CDs were like, so I decided I'd try 
overnights.

I was also not planning on waiting forever for my Slackware Store order 
either and got second day shipping. I was shocked to see that 17 hours 
later a huge package was on the porch with not only my FreeBSD stuff, 
but the Slackware stuff too, in the same box. I only paid overnight on 
BSD, but got Slackware too. It's like it came from the same place and 
they noticed I had two orders and paid more for faster shipping.

I also noticed that the Slackware CDs and FreeBSD CDs look a lot alike, 
and that the Slackware Book is a lot like a FreeBSD book (Font and all 
that are very similar). Are the Slackware store and BSD Mall in the same 
place?

Anyway, I love the books I got. I've read a lot of BSD stuff like NetBSD 
and OpenBSD, but I've always been very partial to FreeBSD which is in my 
eyes the better choice. That's why I'm on the Advocacy Mailing List, I 
like spreading the word.

I actually got a phone call the day after my order came from a woman 
asking of my order arrived OK, because she said one order had come back 
and they were checking to see if it was mine, so I went over what I 
ordered with her and she was actually shocked to see how much money I 
spent and I almost chuckled because it's no where near the first time. I 
basically said "Hey, as long as some of this gets back to the people who 
make FreeBSD and it helps them in some way I'll keep making orders of 
this size. Of course you'll need new products, but I don't mind helping 
financially when I can".

I'm sort of wondering how much of any given order gets back to the 
people who make FreeBSD, and spend their time doing it. I read somewhere 
it was a certain percent, so I'm Hoping they do get something back.

I'm a persona who stands by what I like. I take crap for it sometimes, 
we all do or will when we believe in something. When I was in college a 
few years ago and my Professor was teaching Linux, I made sure my class 
saw how neat my SUSE, Slackware, and FreeBSD installs looked and how 
easy they were to make things happen.

I also got my teacher to talk about BSD a little more to show everyone 
there were choices. I also made a card on the board that showed how to 
do things in BSD VS Linux since there are a few differences here and there.

I tried to get a BSD class for the school, but my teacher admitted I 
knew more about it than he did as he learned his Unix skill on HP-UX and 
I have always been a more Linux / BSD guy. I wear my Slackware shirt and 
my FreeBSD tee, and my Slackware and BSD buttons, and I spread the word 
to people I think may try it out.

I also help out with tech stuff in my local area, and I'm also one who 
offers to install FreeBSD, for free, to anyone who wants.

Basically, I do actually go out and not only promote FreeBSD, I help 
make it happen, and I'm more or less wondering what other things people 
on here do to get the word out.

As Marshall Kirk McKusick said "The Linux guys go out there and they do 
things and they have more market share, and I think it's important we do 
the same". I'd love to meet him, he's great. And a damn good speaker. :)

-Allen

PS; not to sound weird, but does anyone here have any neat hardware 
configurations? Like a machine running FreeBSD that has like CD/DVD/Tape 
/Cool hardware you're proud of? Thanks!