On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween memo...

To: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween memo...
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 08:21:56 -0800
Message-ID: <709.910110116@time.cdrom.com>
From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" < jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
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[ caution - this is a bit long.  Lots of points here I've been
  wanting to cover for awhile and now seems as good a time as any.. ]

OK, so we've all seen this latest bit of Linux leaping about and
shouting from the rooftops and some of us have even gone "agh!"  and
run around a bit ourselves, but now that we've all hopefully calmed
down again I'd like to say a few words about this and the state of
FreeBSD advocacy in general.

First off, just to cover the Halloween memo in brief, yes it appears
to be genuinely from Microsoft and yes, it appears to be genuinely
full of statements culled from various Linux evangelists who feel no
pangs at making blatantly false pronouncements like "Linux is the only
OS experiencing growth" or "Linux is the only contender for the x86
platform."  These types of statements are pure hooey, of course, and
FreeBSD is currently doing better than it has at any previous point in
its history.  Our releases are starting to finally hit their stride,
it seems (and try to remember back to the days when it was more like:
"My god!  We did it!  A release!"), and our rate of innovation and
self- improvement hasn't been higher since the 2.0 days - it's very
encouraging to see that we can spur ourselves to such heights of
productivity *without* legal injunctions staring us in the face! :-)

Second, we have to keep sight of the fact that none of this is
particularly new or even interesting.  We know that Linux is the
current poster child of the press and we also know about the press's
irritating predilection for focusing on one and only one champion
rather than looking more in depth at the situation.  We can yell and
scream all we like, but we're not going to change the fact that for
many journalists investigating "Open Source", Linux is the first and
possibly only thing they're going to look at.  It simply has the right
sized hype-bubble surrounding it where we do not.
We also have to accept the fact that ISVs are going to target their
products at the much more obvious Linux market and try to strike deals
with it, going "FreeBSD?  What's that?" when asked about a native
port.  The same goes for investment, selling shares in Red Hat, Inc.,
etc.  Money always goes after the visible markets first.

What you have to ask yourselves, looking at the dynamics of this
situation as dispassionately as possible, is whether all of this is
necessarily as bad a thing as some of the gloom-n-doomers would have
us believe.  Looking at only the superficial indicators, it's easy to
say that "Linux is winning and we're losing", pointing to the stacks
of Linux books and magazines in the bookstores, the Clinton
transcripts where he mentions Linux, the Goodyear blimp circling
overhead with Linus's smiling face shining from it, etc etc.  It's
especially easy to say that when you hold Linux and FreeBSD in your
mind as equivalent products, started at the same time and with the
same overall development mentality.

The fact of the matter is that Linux and FreeBSD are NOT equivalent
products with identical user and developer communities surrounding
them, however.  We've *always* been lower key about things, preferring
to quietly focus on the business of steadily turning out quality
products to only moderate fanfare.  It's no use screaming for teams of
FreeBSD fan dancers to come out and start singing the praises of
FreeBSD in full 4-part hyperbole with some grinning, cigar-chomping
promoter standing in the background - that's just not us.  The
nay-sayers will also say that "this not being us" will surely be our
downfall since you gotta sing and dance now if you want to be noticed,
but I'm really not so sure about that.  To my way of thinking, we have
our style and we have our niche and they're both respectable in their
own way.  Not everyone buys toilet paper because a team of singing
rabbits (to paraphrase the great Rod Serling) suggested it on
television, and some people DO react positively to the somewhat less
superficial attributes of quality, consistency and a focus on the
technology rather than on standing in front of the cameras and saying
things like "open source validates the concept of a basic human
sociological tropism towards cooperation and the free and open
exchange of .." to some vapid blond on Technology Week.

That kind of approach might also get all the sound bites this week,
but remember the old "15 minutes of fame" effect and the fact that the
press is going to get bored with Linux eventually and go off in search
of other things they don't understand to dissect.  When that
inevitably happens, it's going to be back to quality and those groups
who remained true to their basic operating principles and didn't get
sucked in and destroyed by excessive growth or hype.  The
opportunities for wandering off and getting lost in the woods in
pursuit of some bright and shiny object have never been higher than
they are now, and somebody's bound to panic and go off and do
something stupid in an effort to differentiate themselves.  I don't
think we have any need to panic at all and should simply keep doing
what we're doing and try to do it as best we can.

I'm not saying that there's no room for improvement, and some
alliances *are* being made with various artist/marketing types whom we
think can help us get the attention we deserve, but it's not the same
as saying that we're going to drop everything and go play Linux's game
now.  That would be the wrong move and I can only point to the history
of BSD itself when searching for good examples of technologies which
have remained viable long after "losing" a war to a competitor.  BSD
"lost" to SYSV over a decade ago, but did that kill it?  Quite
apparently not and it appears to be doing better today than it ever
did even back in its heyday, when it ran on a large collection of
VAXes but hardly any of the commodity (68K) hardware at all (you had
to buy an obscure 32016 based machine if you wanted to run BSD at home :-).
The situation today is vastly improved by comparison and most people
don't even stop to think about that.

In any case, I didn't mean this posting as a fluffy "we're fine!"
sorta thing, though I do think that people sometimes lose sight of our
own growth rate and notable successes when furrowing their brows over
the latest Linux PR victory, I do have a summary of points I think we
can and should improve:

1. Keep pushing the magazine articles out.  These seem to be easier for
   people than books and I've largely given up on trying to incite a
   FreeBSD book to happen - I guess that will just occur in its own
   good time.  Walnut Creek CDROM is still paying a bounty for magazine
   articles (matching funds for your fee) and has enabled more than one
   person to buy a new machine for the price of one weekend's writing
   for a good cause.  Pick a target publication and go for it, folks!
   I've done about 3 of these so far (maybe more, I forget :) and can
   say that it's not that hard.  You generate a simple article outline and
   you submit it to the editor along with your proposal for what
   you're trying to accomplish with the article (just a paragraph or
   two of text, not a thesis).  If they're interested, they'll send you
   back details on how long they want the article to be (generally
   500-1000 words) and how much they're willing to pay.  When they
   pay, send us a photocopy/FAX of your royalty check and we'll pay
   too.  It's that simple, and it good for FreeBSD to appear in print
   like this since it reaches outside the somewhat closed audience of
   the mailing lists.

2. Look at Linux as a door opener, not a threat.  I mean this, folks,
   even you rabid Linux haters out there.  Consider very carefully the
   fact that if customer A needs a PC to do server job B, customer A is
   going to do one of four things:

	 A) Buy NT
	 B) Buy a commercial Unix
	 C) Buy Linux
	 D) Buy *BSD

   Those really are about the only 4 options for building a department
   fileserver or gateway box with cheap, commodity hardware (we'll assume
   the people who don't want cheap buy Cisco gear, Suns and NetApp filers
   anyway) and let's look at them in turn:

   A) If they buy NT, you can pretty much write them off.  By the time
   they realize what they've gotten themselves into, the investment
   (or embarrassment) is generally too great to back out of anyway and
   it's actually very few IS shops that seem to claw their way back from
   NT and install a free OS instead.  Sure, you hear widely trumpeted
   stories whenever some large ISP does make it back from NT, but its
   very rareness is what makes it something to trumpet about.  NT is
   Darth Vader here and we must fear his control of the dark side
   (marketing) and the fact that "everybody knows NT" when the issue
   of personnel comes up with most pointy-haired managers.

   B) Is a much better option since at least the customer has accepted
   Unix as their savior and can potentially be won over at
   some point by OSS, but the fact that they chose a commercial Unix
   probably also means that they have deep-seated needs for tech support
   or inter-operability with other parts of the IS shop and you'll probably
   have to work on them for awhile to win them over.

   C) Here now we've at least accomplished two things:  We've got the
   customer admitting that they want Unix and that they want a free Unix.
   Furthermore, they've chosen a solution which we think we can beat
   in all the taste tests if we can just get the CD in front of their
   faces.  All in all, this has got to be the easiest conversion of the
   three and a definite win if their only other options were A or B.

   D) Yay!  Of course we like this one, but if it's not FreeBSD then
   we still have a bit of a conversion job to do and it might even require
   something like a SPARC port to be able to offer the same cross-platform
   inter-operability that the user has chosen the other *BSD for.  It's
   something to think about, and certainly no better than the Linux
   scenario in some ways (again, if you're just thinking about this from
   the pure, mercenary "how do we get more FreeBSD users" perspective).

3. Hold your advocacy to a higher standard, and by this I mean that
   if we're to weather this whole PR blitz period with our reputation
   for being "the calm and level-headed ones" intact, we can't stoop
   to the level of some Linux advocates when trying to make short-term
   gains against their PR blitzes.  Sometimes you just have to be Gandi.

   When the press have gone away, believe me, people will remember
   which groups stuck to their guns and didn't compromise their
   identities or ideals and which went sort of nuts and participated
   in a few raping and pillaging sessions.  I'd far rather be the
   group still standing there when the smoke clears going "Yup, we're
   still here and still doing good software without the fanfare or
   fancy costumes.  Have a look!"

   To put it another way:  If FreeBSD were a respected musical
   entertainer, I would want her to be the one who stuck to doing
   the kind of music she liked and always did it well rather than
   horrifying us during the disco years by suddenly putting on spandex
   pants and lip-syncing to formulaic, song-factory material or
   shrieking out heavy-metal lyrics in heavy makeup with Axel Rose 10
   years later. :-)   Sometimes the price of "success" is too high.

- Jordan

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Message-ID: <19981103234933.A19042@shale.csir.co.za>
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1998 23:49:33 +0200
From: Jeremy Lea < reg@shale.csir.co.za>
To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" < jkh@time.cdrom.com>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween memo...
References: <709.910110116@time.cdrom.com>
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In-Reply-To: <709.910110116@time.cdrom.com>; from Jordan K. Hubbard on Tue, Nov 03, 1998 at 08:21:56AM -0800
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Hi,

On Tue, Nov 03, 1998 at 08:21:56AM -0800, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
> First off, just to cover the Halloween memo in brief, yes it appears
> to be genuinely from Microsoft and yes, it appears to be genuinely
> full of statements culled from various Linux evangelists who feel no
> pangs at making blatantly false pronouncements like "Linux is the only
> OS experiencing growth" or "Linux is the only contender for the x86
> platform."  These types of statements are pure hooey, of course, and
> FreeBSD is currently doing better than it has at any previous point in
> its history.

Something that really concerns me is the Linux advocates myth,
perpetuated by this memo, that FreeBSD is a closed development project. 
We all know this is untrue, and that in fact, we have a more open model
than the Linux kernel, since we can (and frequently do ;) have conflicts
about the correctness of checkins.

This stems from the mantle of cathedral style development forced upon
us by ESR and is something that needs active fighting IMHO.  An
observation:

How come the cathedral has no god, but the bazaar seems to have a shrine
at every corner?

Bow to the penguin,
 -Jeremy

-- 
  |   "In this world of temptation, I will stand for what is right.
--+--  With a heart of salvation, I will hold up the light.
  |    If I live or if I die, if I laugh or if I cry,
  |    in this world of temptation, I will stand." -Pam Thum

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To: Jeremy Lea < reg@shale.csir.co.za>
cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween memo... 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 03 Nov 1998 23:49:33 +0200."
             <19981103234933.A19042@shale.csir.co.za> 
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 1998 06:31:42 -0800
Message-ID: <5456.910189902@time.cdrom.com>
From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" < jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
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> Something that really concerns me is the Linux advocates myth,
> perpetuated by this memo, that FreeBSD is a closed development project. 

For as long as it's up, please point anyone suffering from this myth
at: http://www.performance-computing.com/features/9810of1.shtml

Not blowing my own horn here, but I did cover this exact topic in
my article.

- Jordan

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Message-ID: <19981104214106.45111@nothing-going-on.org>
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 21:41:06 +0000
From: Nik Clayton < nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk>
To: Jeremy Lea < reg@shale.csir.co.za>,
        "Jordan K. Hubbard" < jkh@time.cdrom.com>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween memo...
References: <709.910110116@time.cdrom.com> <19981103234933.A19042@shale.csir.co.za>
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In-Reply-To: <19981103234933.A19042@shale.csir.co.za>; from Jeremy Lea on Tue, Nov 03, 1998 at 11:49:33PM +0200
Organization: Nik at home, where there's nothing going on
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On Tue, Nov 03, 1998 at 11:49:33PM +0200, Jeremy Lea wrote:
> Something that really concerns me is the Linux advocates myth,
> perpetuated by this memo, that FreeBSD is a closed development project. 

This is message I've been meaning to send out, but I haven't finished
it, and other things have got in the way. Should anyone want to pick
this up and run with it, please feel free;

==========================================================================

I'm thinking of putting together a 'FreeBSD Myths' web page, either on my
own site or as part of the FreeBSD site, to dispell some of the myths
about FreeBSD, particularly in relation to other OS's. This is prompted
(partly) by yet another posting on SlashDot from someone proclaiming 
that Linux follows the Bazaar development model, while FreeBSD is 
strictly Cathedral. I think there are a number of these myths out there,
and a page or two countering them is probably a good thing.

Possibly this might be better served as a 'Myths' section in the FAQ, but
I haven't got that far yet.

So I'm after myths about FreeBSD. Like the following.

    Myth: FreeBSD's development model is 'closed'. Only a select few can
          contribute code. It's 'Cathedral' style, where Linux follows
          the 'Bazaar' model.

 Reality: FreeBSD's development model is probably *more* Bazaar than 
          Linux's.

          * The current, bleeding edge, source code for FreeBSD is 
            available for anyone to download, 24 hours a day. There's
            no need to wait for someone to roll a release every few
            days. You can use this source code in conjunction with
            an existing system to stay up to date.

          * A snapshot is automatically generated every 24 hours. This
	    snapshot can be installed in the same way as you would install
	    every other released version of FreeBSD.

          * The CVS tree, with *all* versions of *every* file in the 
	    FreeBSD codebase is available for anyone to download, 24 hours
	    a day.

          * Anyone can submit patches, bug reports, documentation, and so
            on, either from their FreeBSD machine or using a CGI program
	    on the FreeBSD web site. Anyone can view the current list
	    of these reports (and details) on the web.

          * Becomming a committer (someone who can make changes to the 
	    source tree without needing to submit a patch) typically 
	    happens after you've submitted several good patches or shown
	    a willingness to work on an area of the system that's been
	    neglected. Much like Linux.

          * There's a core team of 12 (?) people who have overall 
	    architectural control of where FreeBSD is heading. Just like
	    Linus has overall control of the Linux kernel.

    Myth: You can't make your own distributions or derivative works of 
          FreeBSD.

 Reality: Yes you can. You just need to say in the documentation and source
          files where the code is derived from (see the BSD license for
          more details).

          For example, PicoBSD is a tailored distribition of FreeBSD that
          fits on a floppy. Great for turning a diskless 386 into a 
          router or network print server. Or look at the Whistle Interjet
          (< URL:http://www.whistle.com/>) which uses FreeBSD as the 
          underlying OS in their 'network appliance'. Whistle have 
          contributed many of their enhancements back to the FreeBSD 
          codebase.

    Myth: FreeBSD makes a great server, but a poor desktop machine.

 Reality: FreeBSD makes a great server. It also makes a great desktop. The
	  requirements for a server (responsiveness under load, stability,
	  effective use of system resources) are the same requirements for
	  a desktop machine.

    Myth: The BSD codebase is old, outdated, and dieing.

 Reality: < fill this in: things like softupdates, the VM system, and so on>

    Myth: You can't do clustering (parallel computers) with FreeBSD.

 Reality: < fill this in>

    Myth: There's no commercial support for FreeBSD.

 Reality: < fill this in>

    Myth: Linux is better than FreeBSD.

 Reality: Mu.

    Myth: FreeBSD is better than Linux.

 Reality: Mu.
-- 
	    C.R.F. Consulting -- we're run to make me richer. . .

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To: Nik Clayton < nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk>
cc: Jeremy Lea < reg@shale.csir.co.za>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween memo... 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 04 Nov 1998 21:41:06 GMT."
             <19981104214106.45111@nothing-going-on.org> 
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 1998 15:10:40 -0800
Message-ID: <16298.910221040@time.cdrom.com>
From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" < jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
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> I'm thinking of putting together a 'FreeBSD Myths' web page, either on my
> own site or as part of the FreeBSD site, to dispell some of the myths

Please do!  This looks like a very good start and I think you should
just convert what you have to SGML immediately and let others
contribute to an active page rather than waiting for "completion"
before releasing it.

- Jordan

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Message-ID: <19981104235147.52127@nothing-going-on.org>
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 23:51:47 +0000
From: Nik Clayton < nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk>
To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" < jkh@time.cdrom.com>,
        Nik Clayton < nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk>
Cc: Jeremy Lea < reg@shale.csir.co.za>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween memo...
References: <19981104214106.45111@nothing-going-on.org> <16298.910221040@time.cdrom.com>
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On Wed, Nov 04, 1998 at 03:10:40PM -0800, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
> > I'm thinking of putting together a 'FreeBSD Myths' web page, either on my
> > own site or as part of the FreeBSD site, to dispell some of the myths
> 
> Please do!  This looks like a very good start and I think you should
> just convert what you have to SGML immediately and let others
> contribute to an active page rather than waiting for "completion"
> before releasing it.

With the Handbook conversion ongoing, I haven't got time to do this now.
As I say, if anyone else wants to pick this up and run with it, feel
free. Otherwise, I'll get to it sometime next week no doubt.

N
-- 
	    C.R.F. Consulting -- we're run to make me richer. . .

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Message-ID: <19981105200431.62325@nothing-going-on.org>
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 20:04:31 +0000
From: Nik Clayton < nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk>
To: Nik Clayton < nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk>,
        "Jordan K. Hubbard" < jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Cc: Jeremy Lea < reg@shale.csir.co.za>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween memo...
References: <19981104214106.45111@nothing-going-on.org> <16298.910221040@time.cdrom.com> <19981104235147.52127@nothing-going-on.org>
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In-Reply-To: <19981104235147.52127@nothing-going-on.org>; from Nik Clayton on Wed, Nov 04, 1998 at 11:51:47PM +0000
Organization: Nik at home, where there's nothing going on
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On Wed, Nov 04, 1998 at 11:51:47PM +0000, Nik Clayton wrote:
> With the Handbook conversion ongoing, I haven't got time to do this now.
> As I say, if anyone else wants to pick this up and run with it, feel
> free. Otherwise, I'll get to it sometime next week no doubt.

Oh sod it, I didn't want a lunch hour today anyway :-)

    < URL:http://www.freebsd.org/~nik/myths.html>

Comments appreciated. I've also got in touch with the NetBSD and OpenBSD
advocacy groups -- the next revision of this document won't be FreeBSD
specific. Oh, FWIW I've mailed Eric Raymond a copy of the first section
and asked him whether or not he thinks I've mis-represnted his position.
His reply will no doubt be interesting. . .

If I don't get any complaints, I'll add the successor to this to the
FreeBSD web site at some point over the weekend.

My thanks to opsys@mail.webspan.net and grog@lemis.com, both of whom
were quick to the mark with their own HTML versions.

N
-- 
	    C.R.F. Consulting -- we're run to make me richer. . .

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To: Nik Clayton < nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk>
cc: Jeremy Lea < reg@shale.csir.co.za>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween memo... 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 05 Nov 1998 20:04:31 GMT."
             <19981105200431.62325@nothing-going-on.org> 
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 15:28:03 -0800
Message-ID: <26583.910308483@time.cdrom.com>
From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" < jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Precedence: bulk

> Oh sod it, I didn't want a lunch hour today anyway :-)
> 
>     < URL:http://www.freebsd.org/~nik/myths.html>

Looking good!  The graphic at the top is hosed, though I imagine
you knew that.  Also, ADRIAN Filipi-Martin < adrian@ubergeeks.com>
posted some stuff about the true nature of the "splits" in BSD;
you might want to suck that in.

All in all, a very good start and something which needed to be said.
I wonder if we want to also drag my posting out of the advocacy
archives and attach it to this doc as a link under "our position on
the hallowwen document" or something?  Just a thought.

Thanks for giving up your lunch hour, anyway. :)

- Jordan


> 
> Comments appreciated. I've also got in touch with the NetBSD and OpenBSD
> advocacy groups -- the next revision of this document won't be FreeBSD
> specific. Oh, FWIW I've mailed Eric Raymond a copy of the first section
> and asked him whether or not he thinks I've mis-represnted his position.
> His reply will no doubt be interesting. . .
> 
> If I don't get any complaints, I'll add the successor to this to the
> FreeBSD web site at some point over the weekend.
> 
> My thanks to opsys@mail.webspan.net and grog@lemis.com, both of whom
> were quick to the mark with their own HTML versions.
> 
> N
> -- 
> 	    C.R.F. Consulting -- we're run to make me richer. . .


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