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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!solace!nntp.uio.no!news.cais.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!nntp.crl.com!reason.cdrom.com!usenet From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@FreeBSD.org> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX) Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 23:06:12 -0700 Organization: Walnut Creek CDROM Lines: 32 Message-ID: <3175DBD4.167EB0E7@FreeBSD.org> References: <NELSON.96Apr15010553@ns.crynwr.com> <4l2fl2$7hk@sidhe.memra.com> <NELSON.96Apr17101252@ns.crynwr.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: time.cdrom.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b2 (X11; I; FreeBSD 2.2-CURRENT i386) CC: nelson@crynwr.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:21800 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:701 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3337 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3177 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:17695 comp.os.linux.advocacy:46313 Russell Nelson wrote: > system can claim this. The *BSD* people have abandoned the desktop. > Fine, let them have a hobby operating system. We're going to go for > the big bucks. Not going for the desktop hardly equals "Hobby operating system", you've simply got this weird (and wholly naive) obsession that the "desktop is the computer", like some Sun marketing droid who took too much LSD during the 60's and is now having a flashback to end all flashbacks. Believe it or not, Russell, there are other markets for UNIX. This is something which I shall not even attempt to explain to you given your already well-established myopia on the topic, but it's nonetheless true whether you care to acknowledge it or not. General purpose computing and file servers, WEB servers (and other forms of Internet service provision), packet routing and firewalls, you name it and FreeBSD's being used for it. THESE are the areas I'm focusing on and, given that the Internet is projected to continue an almost explosive growth curve right up through the year 2000, I'd say there are PLENTY of "big bucks" to be made there too (though this is hardly our #1 goal in life - many of us are, surprise surprise, doing it because we _enjoy_ it). FreeBSD is being used at Netscape, Yahoo and a host of other Internet companies who are focused squarely on the *network*, not the desktop, and I aim to continue pushing aggressively in that direction. Go to your doom fighting ancient and already-lost battles if you really wish, but I can only hope for the Linux camp's sake that few of them choose to follow you and fight instead for UNIX's "glorious future", not its "checkered past." -- - Jordan Hubbard President, FreeBSD Project