Re: Competition

[Aleksej Saushev <asau%inbox.ru@localhost>]

  Hello,

Jimmy Johansson <jimmy%Update.UU.SE@localhost> writes:

> I acutally read the FreeBSD thread the OP had in the original post and
> they had some good points in that thread. Sure, the NetBSD project needs
> some advocacy, but I also think that that it needs a way that makes it a
> bit easier to get involved in the NetBSD project in some way.

Getting involved is easier in NetBSD. If you send a documentation patch,
it doesn't sit in database for years.

> As it stands today it feels like NetBSD is geared more toward the
> experienced Unix user. Installing NetBSD for the first time can be kind
> of daunting and documentation can be hard to get at. The amount of
> advocacy doesn't matter if a possible user decides to try NetBSD and
> then gives up because he can't install it.

I don't remember such having impression. The ability to read documentation
is essential in IT, you can't work around it. The reason you don't hear
of installation problems with MS Windows or MacOS is not because they
are trivial to install, it is because they come pre-installed.

> I think that what I'm trying to say is that if the project wants to get
> a bit more main stream to "compete", then I think you have to both work
> at advocacy and on delivering what the potential user wants. You also
> have to define a direction, a goal. For me, as an outsider, I see NetBSD
> as a solid server OS, an OS for embedded systems and also an OS for
> enthusiasts and programmers who want to work on something in their free
> time with mostly clean design and a good code base. As far as I know it
> has never been geared towards the casual user.

Rule no. 1: there's no "casual user." It is use case what matters.
Those whom you thought of as "casual users" suggest such a diversity of
use cases, that sometimes you can rule out all operating systems but one.
Sometimes it can be NetBSD.


-- 
HE CE3OH...