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From: Terry Lambert <terry@cs.weber.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux vs. FreeBSD
Date: 22 Jun 1995 19:16:09 GMT
Organization: Utah Valley State College, Orem, Utah
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Message-ID: <3scfhp$sno@park.uvsc.edu>
References: <3qfhhv$7uc@titania.pps.pgh.pa.us> <3sb2sr$rl8@pandora.sdsu.edu>
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I'm going to tone this down, because Larry asked me to. 8-).
larryr@saturn.sdsu.edu (Larry Riedel) wrote:
]
] Terry Lambert (terry@cs.weber.edu) wrote:
] > The correct place for the networking questions is the mailing list
] > questions@freebsd.org; the people who maintain that code don't have
] > a lot of news-reading time and probably won't respond.
]
] Usually I don't see why anyone would say that FreeBSD is more like an
] exclusive club than Linux, but this looks like one very good reason.
]
] I don't think the average user wants to have to subscribe to a mailing
] list if they have a question about the product for which they would
] like to get an authoritative answer - or more importantly to know that
] someone who could answer the question is at least reading it. I would
] agree with anyone who chose Linux over FreeBSD because they knew that
] the people who develop FreeBSD don't have time to read its newsgroup.
Uh, you don't have to join the mailing list to send questions
or to get responses.
The question was sufficiently involved that only one or two
people I could think of could answer it authoritatively.
] If I post a question to comp.lang.perl.misc, I know Larry Wall is there
] to read it; if I post to comp.lang.c++, I know Bjarne Stroustrup is
] there; if I post to comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains, I know Paul Vixie
] is there; if I post to comp.mail.sendmail, I know Eric Allman is there;
] if I post to news.software.nntp, I know Rich Salz is there. The list
] go could on and on of people who are associated with the subject of
] the newsgroup who seem to be able to have enough "news-reading time".
The last time I posted something to comp.lang.c and got a response
from Dennis Richie was pre-X3J11 ratification. 8-). BTW, what I
had posted was a diatibe against certain aspects of the proposed
ANSI C standrad, and what DMR posted was a defense of many of my
points that he had already sent to the X3J11 committee as comments.
I still have the thing, actually.
] I don't see any good reason why the people involved with the
] development of FreeBSD should not be reading comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
] and answering questions. The traffic in this group is relatively quite
] light, but then again, maybe that is because the word is out that if
] a person wants to use a Unix that is directly supported on USENET by
] the developers, then they should use Linux, because the developers of
] FreeBSD just don't have the time to read the questions posted here.
]
] This is not to say that I think the developers SHOULD read the newsgroup,
] because they can do whatever they want to as far as I'm concerned, but
] with a policy that the "correct place" for questions about FreeBSD is a
] mailing list because the developers don't have time to read the newsgroup,
This is a bit overboard. A lot of people are not fully net
connected: they are limited to email, etc. This includes some
of the developers, especially those in Eastern Block countries.
Expecting a news feed as the price of admission to "the kindom of
the developers" is a little elitest.
Unfortunately, those developers that do have the ability to read
and respond to news had their clear delineation of "relevance"
removed in the recent news group reorganization that resulted
in the misuse of the unix trademark in the newsgroup name. As
a result, they can't quickly scan the groups for questions by
group, and so they now have a choice between developing code
and searching combined groups for questions to answer.
While this may not be a problem for some people (for instance,
those who have time to read both the group comp.os.linux.advocacy
and the unrelated group comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc 8^)), for
others it *is* an issue of a time tradeoff.
I don't think that anyone can successfully argue that a trade
of question answering time for additional developement time is
a tradeoff against the user.
Meanwhile, there are people like me, who will answer the
question as best they can, then point the person at the more
authoritative source (even if it isn't, God forbid, a newsgroup)
if they want further answers.
Other people actually take repeated questions and post them to
the questions list on their own behalf (repetition is the only
sure way to distinguish between a qeustion that has been answered
in private email and one that has not been answered when a posting
with an answer has not taken place). They then take the answers
and post them here (a lot of the mass of information I have at my
fingertips for remailing comes from the mailing lists).
Much of the Linux developement discussions, questions, and answers
take also place on a totally private news heirarchy:
linux.act.680x0:
linux.act.admin:
linux.act.apps:
linux.act.bbsdev:
linux.act.c-programming:
linux.act.chaos_digest:
linux.act.compression:
linux.act.configs:
linux.act.debian:
linux.act.dec_alpha:
linux.act.doc:
linux.act.fido:
linux.act.fsf:
linux.act.ftp:
linux.act.gcc:
linux.act.hams:
linux.act.ibcs2:
linux.act.interviews:
linux.act.japanese:
linux.act.kernel:
linux.act.laptops:
linux.act.linux-bbs:
linux.act.linuxbsd:
linux.act.linuxnews:
linux.act.linuxss:
linux.act.localbus:
linux.act.lugnuts:
linux.act.mca:
linux.act.mgr:
linux.act.mips:
linux.act.msdos:
linux.act.mumail:
linux.act.net:
linux.act.new-channels:
linux.act.newbie:
linux.act.normal:
linux.act.nys:
linux.act.oasg-trust:
linux.act.oi:
linux.act.pkg:
linux.act.postgres:
linux.act.ppp:
linux.act.promotion:
linux.act.qag:
linux.act.scsi:
linux.act.serial:
linux.act.seyon:
linux.act.sound:
linux.act.svgalib:
linux.act.sysvpkg-project:
linux.act.tape:
linux.act.term:
linux.act.tktools:
linux.act.userfs:
linux.act.uucp:
linux.act.wabi:
linux.act.word:
linux.act.x11:
linux.appletalk:
linux.apps.bbsdev:
linux.apps.flexfax:
linux.apps.linux-bbs:
linux.apps.seyon:
linux.apps.seyon.development:
linux.apps.xword:
linux.bbs.rocat:
linux.debian:
linux.debian.announce:
linux.debian.user:
linux.dev.680x0:
linux.dev.admin:
linux.dev.apps:
linux.dev.atm:
linux.dev.bbs:
linux.dev.c-programming:
linux.dev.config:
linux.dev.debian:
linux.dev.diald:
linux.dev.doc:
linux.dev.fido:
linux.dev.fsf:
linux.dev.ftp:
linux.dev.gcc:
linux.dev.hams:
linux.dev.ibcs2:
linux.dev.interviews:
linux.dev.ipx:
linux.dev.japanese:
linux.dev.kernel:
linux.dev.laptop:
linux.dev.linuxbsd:
linux.dev.linuxnews:
linux.dev.linuxss:
linux.dev.localbus:
linux.dev.lugnuts:
linux.dev.mca:
linux.dev.mgr:
linux.dev.msdos:
linux.dev.net:
linux.dev.new-lists:
linux.dev.newbie:
linux.dev.normal:
linux.dev.nys:
linux.dev.oasg:
linux.dev.oi:
linux.dev.pkg:
linux.dev.ppp:
linux.dev.qag:
linux.dev.raid:
linux.dev.scsi:
linux.dev.serial:
linux.dev.seyon:
linux.dev.sound:
linux.dev.standards:
linux.dev.svgalib:
linux.dev.tape:
linux.dev.term:
linux.dev.uucp:
linux.dev.wabi:
linux.dev.word:
linux.dev.x11:
linux.fido.ifmail:
linux.free-widgets.announce:
linux.free-widgets.bugs:
linux.free-widgets.development:
linux.i18n:
linux.jobs:
linux.largesites:
linux.local.chicago:
linux.local.nova-scotia:
linux.local.silicon-valley:
linux.motif.clone:
linux.motif.clone.lesstif:
linux.new-tty:
linux.news.groups:
linux.ports.alpha:
linux.ports.hp-pa:
linux.ports.powerpc:
linux.postgres:
linux.samba:
linux.samba.announce:
linux.sdk:
linux.sources.kernel:
linux.test.moderated:
linux.wine.users:
linux.test:
This is functionally no different than mailing lists; one
private distribution mechanism is no more egalitarian than
another. One could argue that a private news heirarchy was
just as clubbish as a set of mailing lists for the same
purposes (just a different OS).
] I don't think anyone should be surprised if the day comes soon when the
] number of FreeBSD users can be stored in an unsigned char.
An ISO 10646 (32 bit) unsigned character, I presume... 8^).
Regards,
Terry Lambert
terry@cs.weber.edu
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.