Ways to promote FreeBSD?

Sat Apr 28 00:06:35 UTC 2012

Greetings...

On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:18:47 -0400
Mehmet Erol Sanliturk <m.e.sanliturk at gmail.com> 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 :
> 
> 
> It is NOT possible to install and use a FreeBSD distribution directly
> as it is .
> 
> 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.
> ) .
> 
> 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

I'm wondering if spinning up a "live DVD" desktop version, using
GENERIC, and/or Gnome/KDE might be a good option to take FreeBSD
for a test drive. That'd give new ppl to FreeBSD an oportunity to
try-before-commit. I'd envision the DVD having links on the
desktop to all the important info regarding the setup, and use of
a *BSD system -- including the pre-requisits to setup/install. It'd
give them a "hands on" experience, so they'd know in advance, what
to expect. It might also be an image that'd permit something like
dd if=/path/freebsd9-kde.img of=/dev/hd/slice||partition
While I /know/ PC-BSD offers something similar, I just thought
something geared more towards a FULL FreeBSD experience, that
includes pointers to LEARNING FreeBSD -- everything you ever
wanted to know about FreeBSD, but were afraid || too lazy to ask. ;)

my $0.00 worth :-)

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