Post about BSD's alleged demise on /.

[John Mills]

Freebies -

On Thu, 10 Jul 2003, Peter Elsner wrote:

> The person who posted this on /. is nothing more than a troll...
> 
> The same bunch of trolls that repeat that *BSD is dying (or dead) about 
> once every
> couple of months...
> 
> It's not true, it's just there to see how much panic can be caused.
> 
> FreeBSD is NOT dying, and will be around for many years to come.
> 
> Peter

In fact there was an editorial suggestion in a recent _eWeek_ 
(should be [http://www.eweek.com], but I can't confirm that just now.)
to the point that managers concerned about SCO's litigation should 
actively test and evaluate the *BSD family, specifically mentioning 
FreeBSD's excellent reputation for server quality.

 - JMM

> At 11:55 AM 7/10/2003 +0200, you wrote:
> >Hi
> >
> >I saw this post on /. today, under the announcement about a FreeBSD 5.1
> >review.
> >
> >Is there much truth is this?
> >How many FreeBSD servers are out there? And is there number declining?
> >
> >I really hope that BSD will be arround for a long time to come...
> >
> >Kind regards
> >
> >Guy
> >
> >
> >http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=70502&cid=6404771
> >
> >It is now official - Netcraft has confirmed: *BSD is dying
> >
> >Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *BSD community when
> >recently IDC confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of 1
> >percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft
> >survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this
> >news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing
> >in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
> >[samag.com] in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
> >
> >You don't need to be a Kreskin [amazingkreskin.com] to predict *BSD's
> >future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In
> >fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying.
> >Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware,
> >*BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of
> >blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of
> >its core developers.
> >
> >Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
> >
> >OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How
> >many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus
> >NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there
> >are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about
> >half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users
> >of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD
> >market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users.
> >This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
> >
> >Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD
> >went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another
> >troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet
> >another charnel house.
> >
> >All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share.
> >*BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If
> >*BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyist dabblers. *BSD
> >continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this
> >point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
> >
> >Fact: *BSD is dead
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
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> 
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> 
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-- 
 John Mills
 john.m.mills at alum.mit.edu