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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ufo!octopus!kaleb From: kaleb@octopus (Kaleb Keithley) Subject: Re: 386BSD Participation Message-ID: <1993Jun25.140526.1385@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov> Sender: usenet@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (For NNTP so rrn will be able to post) Nntp-Posting-Host: octopus.jpl.nasa.gov Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) Not! Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1993 14:05:26 GMT Lines: 63 Press 'n' now to avoid more mindless drivel :-) conklin@kaleida.com (J.T. Conklin) writes: >bj> The "greed" battle for control, or "cold" war begins. 386bsd >bj> florishes, as real people finally get a chance to participate with >bj> BSD, something they have waited for ten years for. > >I don't see that anyone has had a chance to participate. I am sure >that lots of people have contributed their work to you, but that is >not the same as _participation_. > I agree with J.T. It seems like the vast majority of "us" weren't "real" enough to participate. My fledgling attempts to participate were met with official silence, and unofficial flames from self-important nobodies and thinly veiled threats. Life's too short to put up with that, and I've got other things to do too, so if it seems like I didn't try very hard, you're absolutely right. If 386BSD is a truly public effort, the coordinators need to make the time in their busy schedules to do some coordinating. A simple 'yes we need that, and no one is currently working on it' or 'no, someone else is already on it, contact them' would suffice. If it's a club, and only members are allowed to participate, then at least you could have made that clear at the outset. It's certainly admirable to release software like 386BSD into the domain of freely redistributable software. But let's cut through the altruistic bullshit -- you're being handsomely rewarded for your efforts, both tangibly and intangibly. DDJ pays for the articles they print. I'd wager the publisher of "the book" ponied up a healthy advance. Are you counting your royalties yet -- I doubt you'll be selling as many copies as Jurassic Park? And to top it all off, you have your place in the sun along with Stallman and Torvalds. In the meantime, HURD, Mach BNRSS, and BSD4.4 all ooze closer to reality at their normal snail-like pace. Linux may reach a state of equalibrium some day, and there's certainly a whole raft of commercial UNIX products too. If you want to cry in your beer in the corner of a bar somewhere, that's your priviledge and your business. If you want to whine in public about some wrong that someone has done to you, real or imagined, then take your snivel rag and go home, because we don't want to hear it. Just my $0.02 (adjusted for inflation) worth. -- Kaleb -- Kaleb Keithley kaleb@devvax.jpl.nasa.gov