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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!gatech!destroyer!caen!hellgate.utah.edu!fcom.cc.utah.edu!gateway.univel.com!gateway.novell.com!terry From: terry@npd.Novell.COM (Terry Lambert) Subject: Re: Funding 4.4BSD Development Message-ID: <1992Jul2.205306.8731@gateway.novell.com> Sender: news@gateway.novell.com (NetNews) Nntp-Posting-Host: thisbe.eng.sandy.novell.com Organization: Novell NPD -- Sandy, UT References: <1992Jun28.204256.14620@uunet.uu.net> <1992Jul1.232031.15719@gateway.novell.com> <24318@dog.ee.lbl.gov> Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1992 20:53:06 GMT Lines: 60 In article <24318@dog.ee.lbl.gov> torek@horse.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek) writes: >(I see most of this as irrelevant---some of the postings are merely >idle speculation, some merely flamage, some merely points of view---but >I want to inject one fact into the discussion anyway.) > >In article <1992Jul1.232031.15719@gateway.novell.com> >terry@npd.Novell.COM (Terry Lambert) writes: >>I think the final answer must come from CSRG; we will certainly be impacted >>by whomever they "will" BSD to, if anyone. > >I find this statement most puzzling. [ ... Discussion regarding BSD availability, which is agreed to be moot ... ] >I do not believe that, even if CSRG were to anoint someone with the >Holy Oil of Berkeley, it would help much (if at all) in making that >group the New Leadership. Leadership is not something you hand off >like a torch in a relay race. To mix up the metaphor a bit, the front >runner is the one who *stays* out in front. > >In short, if you want BSD to develop in some direction: well, the code >is out there for the taking---go forth and develop! The real problem >is getting everyone else to take you seriously. The only way to do >that is to *be* serious about it, get some work done, and get it out >there. That is how BSD came about in the first place. I think this is the major point I was trying to make, that there is not a particular leadership to follow without CSRG, or, more correctly, that the leadership is about to change, for better or worse, and it is possible we will end up with nothing. One of the greatest contributions that CSRG has made, in my opinion, is what everyone has been calling "vision". I think that any new organization which we will look to for vision, or that will provide a centralized focus and distribution of what vision we are willing to contribute, will definitely need to overcome the barrier of not being taken seriously. I think HOB (Holy Oil of Berkeley) could definitely help any organization over the initial stages, and I think these stages are where our vision is most likely to fragment, spawning several "The Right Way"'s. This is what we need to avoid. Look at how long it took the UNIX International crowd to fall out in the wash. It is very necessary to do something about this before we get several groups duplicating effort at cross purposes, each proporting to have "The Right Way" stenciled on their foreheads, then finding that we've lost 2 years of effort by a large number of "Almost The Right Way"'ers in our effort to find "Really The Right Way". This would intimate that by that time, the majority of effort put forth would have been wasted. I have to disagree with the view that HOB would have little effect toward this end. If one or more CSRG staffers could be coerced into being part of the dubbing of the Knight Errant's of Berkeley, then so much the better. If not, there are other individials in the UNIX community who have not a little HOB themselves, Chris Torek among them; a critical mass of these people interested in furthering the vision of CSRG is all it would take. Terry Lambert terry_lambert@gateway.novell.com terry@icarus.weber.edu --- Disclaimer: Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.