Ways to promote FreeBSD?

[Jerry McAllister]

On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 05:18:47PM -0400, Mehmet Erol Sanliturk wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 4:31 PM, Jerry McAllister <jerrymc at msu.edu> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 08:27:07PM +0200, Wojciech Puchar wrote:
> >
> > > >After using Linux for almost 15 years, I only recently started using
> > > >FreeBSD. I own an internet startup and was looking for a solution for
> > >
> > > Those who need FreeBSD already use it. no need to promote. Or maybe need
> > > to promote bigger donations to FreeBSD community from big users.
> > >
> > > Those who actually need high performers and have servers that are loaded
> > > and are working not toying around - use FreeBSD.
> >
> > Not really true and kind of a poor attitude.
> > Yes. many people needing high performance already use FreeBSD, but
> > there are lots of services that could benefit from FreeBSD who are
> > not very aware of it.  They may have heard the name, and even know
> > that it is an OS, but have heard it passed off as a non-entity in
> > the field and do not know better than that.
> >
> > Sure, if people take the time and come to the web site and then
> > download and use it and learn it, they know and don't need to
> > be told much.  But, most others are not yet in that situation.
> > They might appreciate the help.   Of course, some may be too
> > lazy or prejudiced to go through that, but many just need some
> > more information and encouragement I would guess.
> >
> > ////jerry
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> My opinion is that most important obstacle in front of FreeBSD is its
> installation structure :
> 

There, you are wrong.   If you choose to take the defaults, you can
breeze through installation just setting IP and hostame and nameserver
the same as on any Lunix I have ever installed.

But, FreeBSD does make options much more plentiful than Linux and
that is one of the things that makes FreeBSD so powerful and
useful.

> 
> It is NOT possible to install and use a FreeBSD distribution directly as it
> is .

Completely not true.

> 
> In Linux distributions , when a distribution is installed , the user , NOT
> root ,
> can use its facilities WITHOUT setting a ( large ) number of parameters
> which it is approximately ZERO .
> 
> Contrary to this , when a FreeBSD is installed , an ordinary user can NOT
> use USB , CD/DVD , etc. , and even key board / mouse in X without setting
> MANY parameters in MANY files ( loder.conf , rc.conf , etc. ) .

I never set anything special for using USB or CD, etc.  I just put in
some media and mount them and use them.   I don't need to do anything 
special in installation.

I have always had to muck with rc stuff and especially the horrid iptables
every time I have installed a Lunic.   

Enough, though.   I doubt you will be convinced.

////jerry     

> 
> This point is a very important difficulty for the beginners and a really
> very tiring for experienced users .
> 
> The first thing for FreeBSD to promote its use is to be done is to remedy
> this obstacle .
> 
> 
> All over the years , this fact is ignored , and left as it is , with a
> counter argument that FreeBSD is for servers .
> 
> If we stick into this idea indefinitely , FreeBSD user base will not exceed
> a few with respect to number of desktop users because number of servers
> with respect to number of desktop users may be considered very small . Such
> a small user base is not sufficient supply a "breath" to FreeBSD to make it
> live .
> 
> 
> An important example is www.wikipedia.org which I mentioned many times .
> In yearly campaigns , they are collecting more than 15 MILLION US dollars
> as donations where average donations being around 5 US dollars per donation
> .
> 
> Contrary to this , www.freebsdfoundation.org has a yearly budget less than
> HALF a MILLION US dollars .
> 
> If the news I read is correct , Mozilla Foundation is getting 300 MILLION
> US dollars from Google for specifying its name in its search bar .
> 
> 
> Failure point for the FreeBSD is its usage difficulty and a small number of
> user base .
> 
> Another point is that server installers are highly educated with respect to
> desktop installers and their numbers are small with respect to desktop
> users .
> 
> For them , it is very easy to "harden" FreeBSD after installation if ever
> it is needed , because during installation , it is a simple question to ask
> :
> 
> Will  this be used as a Server ?
> 
> With respect to answer to this question , even during installation a
> "hardened" FreeBSD may be installed .
> 
> Another , for me , irrespective , idea is to mention PC-BSD in place of
> FreeBSD .
> 
> With a more than FORTY years of computing experience , my idea about PC-BSD
> is that it is "complete failure" and mentioning it in front of FreeBSD is
> only to create another obstacle for it .
> 
> Trouble for PC-BSD is that , for me , it is an untested ( as even as a
> simple installation on a bare hardware ) distribution .
> 
> Thank you very much .
> 
> Mehmet Erol Sanliturk