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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!chi-news.cic.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!info.ucla.edu!library.ucla.edu!agate!nickkral From: nickkral@parker.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Nick Kralevich) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,alt.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc Subject: Re: a monthly FreeBSD magazine (and other *BSD's too) Date: 16 Dec 1995 21:47:50 GMT Organization: Electrical Engineering Computer Science Department, University of California at Berkeley Lines: 56 Message-ID: <4aveq6$ca6@agate.berkeley.edu> References: <4ajc07$sb7@unix2.glink.net.hk> <4att23$mha@agate.berkeley.edu> <4au4fo$pbo@agate.berkeley.edu> <4av02t$706@shellx.best.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: parker.eecs.berkeley.edu Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.advocacy:30502 alt.os.linux:6449 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:10567 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:1564 In article <4av02t$706@shellx.best.com>, Russell Carter <rcarter@shellx.best.com> wrote: >Your previous comments on documentation, >etc., are just uninformed propaganda, why would anyone take the time to >explore anything else you say? Whoa! Wait a second. What the hell are you talking about? Where in this thread did I EVER talk about documentation? Perhaps your confusing me with someone else, and if so, I would appreciate an apology. If I did say somthing about documentation, then perhaps you can requote it, so I can have a chance to defend myself. Anyway, on with the standard advocacy stuff: >If the sheer numbers are important to you, why haven't you practiced >what you preach, and jump into the mighty user community for Windows? First of all, I'll be the first to point out that there is no corralation between quality and numbers. I wasn't trying to say anything about quality. I was trying to point out a bunch of things: 1) There is a lack of good statistics on who the FreeBSD users are, and how many FreeBSD users are in existance. On the other hand, there seems to be more statistics available on the Linux users. 2) Someone earlier in this thread claimed that FreeBSD has reached "critical mass" (whatever that means). I was hoping to use the statistics to try to figure out how many FreeBSD users there are, so I can judge for myself. Jordan has posted some statistics, and I appreciate it. However, it was like pulling teeth to get ANY statistics from ANYONE. Linux has a much larger user base than FreeBSD. I hope this is somthing we can agree on. The larger user base alone translates into a larger base for commercial support and products. This, in turn, makes Linux more attractive to mainstream audiences. I don't see the same type of thing happening to FreeBSD, to the same degree that it is happening with Linux. This is, as all things are in *.advocacy groups, subject to lots of debate. But it is my *opinion*. Anyway, I'll stop being an "unreasonable Linux fanitic" now, and return to our regularly scheduled "unreasonable *BSD fanitics" who, having decided that they can't argue reasonably, decide to flame me instead. And thank you Jordan, for finally having posted some statistics. Hopefully we won't let the other *BSD zellots drag the conversation into the pit of personal attacks. Take care, -- Nick Kralevich nickkral@cory.eecs.berkeley.edu