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From: dillon@flea.best.net (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: New BSDI Pricing
Date: 22 Apr 1997 18:10:09 -0700
Organization: BEST Internet Communications, Inc.
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References: <E8ssJ8.Mqr@news.interactive.net> <5ji52o$mje@news.Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.DE> <5jj3ko$3t4$1@mark.ucdavis.edu> <E922t8.A8@news.interactive.net>
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:6727 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:39564
:In article <E922t8.A8@news.interactive.net>,
: <ritz@interactive.spamthis.net> wrote:
:>In comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc ~{#@HNNRRy#@~} <cweng@garlic.engr.ucdavis.edu> wrote:
:>:P~Thomas Weihrich (Thomas.Weihrich@Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.DE) wrote:
:>:P~: It's all a matter of stability and availability.
:>:P~: My NT machine crashed 8 times during installation and then every 5
:>:P~: minutes.
:>:P~: It's been running BSD/OS for 15 months now without a single hardware
:>:P~: related crash (2.1 with no crash at all)
:>
:>:P~How come you had so much trouble installing NT, it is easy! It didn't
:>:P~crash when I installed it. Don't try to install NT on a 386, try it on a
:>:P~pentium and you will see when it crashed 8 times.
:>
:>We haven't had any real problems with NT deployments for customers
:>(other than the shoddy performance). BSDI is clearly a better
:>performer, but with Microsoft practically giving away all the
:>internet goodies I suspect it will become all but impossible to
:>sell folks on BSDI boxes (especially with the new pricing).
:>
:>Chris
:>--
:>Christopher Mauritz | For info on internet access:
:>ritz@interactive.net | finger/mail info@interactive.net OR
:>IBS Interactive, Inc. | http://www.interactive.net/
I think BSDI is making a mistake too, but for different reasons...
they are obviously trying to break into the corporate world, but they
seem to be willing to loose smaller customers to do it. Getting such
customers in at the ground floor is important, because if you have a
good product the customers will continue to use it as they grow.
Trying to break into a mature customer base that is gunning for NT
big time is a great way to go out of business.
The other serious problem they face is the lack of any real value-add
to BSDI other then tech support. When you compare FreeBSD to BSDI,
what few differences there are technically insignificant. And what they
want extra money for tech support wise most FreeBSD'ers can get help
for on the USENET for free.
We've learned the hard way that source code is an absolute requirement
if one wishes to be able to tune a system and make it reliable.
Relatively minor OS hacks have allowed us to provide scaleable services
to our customers that simply are not possible on an NT box. We have
*tried* using NT to provide internet services. It was a disaster.
Microsoft's idea of a 'user base' is *maybe* a few dozen accounts on
an NT box and *maybe* one or two 'services'. They are clueless.
NT will almost certainly gain major market share, but NT is one of
the worst OS designs I've ever seen... second only to MSDOS. One part
of me cringes that blind greed can drive such a worthless piece of
crap, but the other part of me rejoices because the people that DO go
with NT are going to be running at a *distinct* disadvantage from me.
Not only do you not get the source code to NT, but you have to deal with
the microsoft juggernaught, their extreme lack of the basic security
precautions in their systems (a ground-up design problem), shoddy software,
extreme hardware requirements for simliar performance, inability to
tune the system or fix bugs, lack of robust software (which will take
microsoft YEARS and many $25 updates (:-)) to fix, and will likely
cost-extra in any case (just as they separate their NT server product
out from their NT client... excuse me?).
All in all, I feel pretty good about my prospects as a UNIX guru.
-Matt