favor

[David Gerard]

Anthony Atkielski (atkielski.anthony at wanadoo.fr) [050208 03:53]:
> David Gerard writes:
 
> DG> I go to a site called google.com and I enter error messages
> DG> verbatim, and often what comes back is a pile of mailing list posts.
> DG> They are far superior to nothing.

> No doubt, but they are far inferior to a formal, well-organized support
> system.


Actually, I most profitably apply it in my day job, which is administering
Solaris ;-) The purpose of vendors is to say to your boss that you have an
SLA; getting actual *support* out of anyone (with exceptions like NetApp)
is something best avoided IME.


> The lack of support and accountability is FreeBSD's greatest handicap
> for corporate and mission-critical use.  Certainly, the OS is solid and
> reliable; but if and when it fails, there's nowhere to turn.


Corporate arse-covering rather than actual support, but yeah. I am told the
horrible tale of a friend who is having to shift a pile of servers from
FreeBSD to Red Hat because Red Hat have SLAs and they couldn't find
sufficiently corporate-looking support for FreeBSD that did.


> This same problem afflicts just about all open-source software, and will
> prove to be a limiting factor in the adoption of open source for the
> forseeable future.


The trick will be to get organisations offering SLAs interested in the
program. Even then the fact that it's hard to undercut $0 is a powerful
factor in its spread.

That is, if fame is your interest; FreeBSD's is mostly to do a very nice
operating system. NetBSD's interest is even less oriented in this direction
- they want to produce a beautiful piece of computer science.


> DG> Of course. However, I am pointing out that the searchable archive on
> DG> the web is a fantastically useful thing and worth trying to
> DG> preserve, not a minor detail not worth considering in the search for
> DG> a resolution.
 
> You can preserve it if you place it in the proper framework.  But you
> must also recognize that you may not be able to organize it exactly as
> you wish without infringing the rights of others.


Of course.

However, I must also point out that avoiding what we at Wikipedia call
copyright paranoia is also important. Is someone *actually likely* to sue?
Will it be a lone nutter or will there be hundreds of people? What could be
argued to be the reasonable expectation? What constitutes fair use? When
can no harm no foul be likely to apply? These questions require actual
Combat Lawyers and aren't going to be sorted out in idle mailing list
chitchat.

Realistically: a FreeBSD mailing list copyright apocalypse is not likely.
If it seems likely, there are enough soft steps to take first. The sky is
not in fact falling.


- d.