Linux vs. BSD?

[Fred]

On Fri, 2005-06-17 at 15:22 -0400, Jon maddog Hall wrote:
> Ten years ago (way before IBM and other companies really became "interested" in
> Linux), I helped Linus get an Alpha processor so he could port Linux to the
> Alpha.  I did this so Linux could become 64-bit, and get all the "Intelisms"
> out of it...and to sell more Alphas. :-)
> 
> I was approached by the *BSD people, and asked why I did not pay as much
> attention to BSD as I did to Linux.  They gave me all the "quality" arguments,
> but I told them:
> 
> 	o show me five BSD user groups worldwide (Linux had hundreds)
> 	o show me more than one distribution of any of your code bases (Linux
> 	   had many
> 	o show me more than one magazine on *BSD (Linux had several)
> 	o show me five magazine articles about *BSD (Linux had lots)
> 
> and I will give BSD as much hardware as I give Linus.  I told them I was tired
> of swimming upstream, trying to sell Unix in a company that was only trying
> to sell WNT and VMS....and for once I wanted to "go with the marketing flow".
> They never understood that.

Yep. Marketing is *everything*. Something Commodore never quite
understood either. For its time, the Amiga was a superior machine for
low-end computer users interested in graphics, etc. But Commodore could
not market its way out of a paper bag.

The running joke at Commodore among us engineers was:

How would Commodore market Sushi?
"Cold dead raw fish."

I was at Commodore during its final 5 years on this planet. While there,
I saw many marketing mistakes and many bad product development and
manufacturing decisions made with wild abandon. Hell, we had even ported
Unix to the Amiga, and many universities became interested, because
finally there was a Unix box their students could own for under $5000. 

Commodore didn't get it, and killed the Unix project.

We were all frustrated, having put our best efforts and innovations into
that machine. I could go on and on with stories of this nature.

Well, Commodore could not get the marketing aspect though its thick
skull. And it died. And many of us was simply angry, many of whom had
been with the company much longer than I.

Today, I embrace marketing as much as I kinda despise it stemming from
my geek science/math/engineering background. If you can't generate the
interest in your product, nothing else matters, really.

And that was a hard lesson for me to learn. They are *not* just going to
just "come" just because you built a better mousetrap. The "Field of
Dreams" mythology is just that -- dreams.

Today, I always go with the marketing flow. For instance I focused on
the Red Hat distribution because I could see it on the shelves of many
computer stores around the country, and business had an interest in it.
There were better distros, to be sure, but I too tire of fighting an
uphill battle. Been there, done that -- with the Amiga.

Maddog, you're right.

Of course, I am not so bad as to consider marketing flow the only
consideration. If that were the case, I'd still be a Windows geek. Been
there, done that too... But Windows (NT at the time) was what I jumped
to after the fall of the Commodore Empire. And it fed my family for many
years.

Now Linux is feeding the family. And it is a *very* good feeling. I can
respect myself again. ;-)

-Fred