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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!library.ucla.edu!info.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!nic-nac.CSU.net!newshub.sdsu.edu!saturn!larryr From: larryr@saturn.sdsu.edu (Larry Riedel) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Linux vs. FreeBSD Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Date: 23 Jun 1995 21:39:33 GMT Organization: San Diego State University, College of Sciences Lines: 92 Message-ID: <3sfcam$12n@pandora.sdsu.edu> References: <3qfhhv$7uc@titania.pps.pgh.pa.us> <3s323f$87p@agate.berkeley.edu> <3sa7tg$fu9@park.uvsc.edu> <3sb2sr$rl8@pandora.sdsu.edu> <3sc9t4$2eh@bonnie.tcd-dresden.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: saturn.sdsu.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] j@bonnie.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch) wrote: > Larry Riedel <larryr@saturn.sdsu.edu> wrote: > >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 - [...] > > Umm, did Terry advise you to *subscribe* to that mailing list? Nope. No, he did not advise that I do anything since I didn't ask the question. > He simply told you to mail the question to questions@freebsd.org. Of > course, when somebody's replying to your question, he _will_ send you > a copy! (Or rather just the opposite: he will send you the answer and > a copy to the list.) My point was that I think if FreeBSD wants to have as good a reputation for convenient access to technical support of the users by the developers as Linux, then a newsgroup should be considered the "correct" place for asking questions which will be read by the developers. > >If I post a question to comp.lang.perl.misc, [etc.etc.etc.] > > If you're posting a question here, you'll see Jordan Hubbard, Terry > Lambert, Peter da Silva, Brian Tao, Stefan Esser (in case you've got > the regexp [Pp][Cc][Ii] in the subject), ..., and me answering it. And that is great, but my article was a response to a statement that the "correct" place for the question is in the mailing list because some significant developers do not have enough news-reading time. > Usenet round-trip times are usually longer than mailing list rtt's, so > expect your question being answered somewhat later. Timezone differ- > ences provide for another skew. I am more concerned about visibility and easy access, not round-trip time, since I think it is pretty good for both. > >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, [...] > > This is a total understatement. It takes me two or three hours each > day to dig through the questions and answer where i think i can give > an at least somewhat useful answer. Given the fact that two or three > hours per day is the absolute maximum for many of us, what do you > think is better at the end: spending at least 80 % of that time into > improving the system, or spending at least 80 % of that time into > watching Usenet? I think that if there were 100 hackers responding to questions in this group then it would not take each one 80% of their time! I read almost every article in this group, and I don't think READING the articles takes that much time. I think POSTING articles is what takes time, and if that load were distributed among many more people, then the load on each would be reasonable. > You are quite welcome to be our Usenet Master and dispatch the > question to the people responsible. You are also quite welcome to > contribute to the system in any other way (including writing > documentation, fixing bugs etc.) Thanks! > It's a lame excuse to say: ``I don't > have any clues about that system, sorry, I just cannot do this.'' Then I won't say that! :) > Unfortunately, i've never ever seen your name in such context. Nice dig. I take back what I said the other day about that I would be happy and grateful to have received your help! :) > Unlink Brian Tao, Jordan Hubbard, Terry Lambert, Peter da Silva, John > Dyson, John Fieber, Dave Burgess (who's not directly related to FreeBSD, > but maintains a nice FAQ), Stefan Esser, Frank Durda, hmm, i'm sure i've > forgotten a lot of them! Gods one and all! Larry