[nycbug-talk] "every bit as good as Linux"

[Isaac Levy]

Dru, I gotta give it to ya'- I'm really delighted that you took time 
out of your week (sounded hectic) to make sure you expressed the 
following thoughts,

On Sep 26, 2004, at 10:05 AM, Dru wrote:

>
> Okay, I finally have a few minutes to put in my 2 cents regarding this 
> article.
>
> We all know the premise of the article is ridiculous. Heck, I'm not 
> even a programmer yet I can recognize the argument is technically 
> flawed. However, the writer knows something which the BSD community 
> isn't capitalizing on: FUD works, readers aren't necessarily 
> technically minded or even interested in technical accuracy, and 
> people remember what they see and hear, even if it's incorrect.
>
> I'm not advocating the use of FUD. (frankly, BSD doesn't need to 
> resort to it). However, the BSD community is missing the boat on 
> exposure. This article, even though poorly written, is in a major 
> publication. It's been read and retained by 1000s of readers who don't 
> have the technical savvy to realize how poorly it is written.
>
> What can we do about it? I see 3 things, 2 of which aren't effective:
>
> 1. Talk about it amongst ourselves. While it feels good to vent, we're
>    preaching to the choir.
>
> 2. Put in a rebuttal. If you're lucky, you'll get a one-liner buried
>    somewhere in the publication. Newspapers have been using this 
> technique
>    forever: publish something excitingly inaccurate on the first half 
> of
>    the front page and disclaim it the next day in a close to the back 
> page
>    one-liner. Guess which one people remember? Worse, the 
> rebuttal/disclaimer
>    is a _negative_ which puts the person who wrote it on the defensive.

Yikes.  I got so frustrated, I did both of these things.

>
> 3. Take a more indirect, offensive approach. Rather than deal directly
>    with _this_ article, write an article that showcases what you want 
> and
>    get it published in a major magazine. Something like the Brett 
> Glass one
>    referred to by Ike. Great article, great venue, but how many of 
> these
>    have we had since 2002? We'd be lucky to count them on one hand! And
>    Daemonnews, while a great resource for us BSDers, doesn't count 
> here.

Agreed- this totally is where it's at.  It's just harder- :)  but in 
the end, I'd think much longer-lasting and positive impact comes of 
this kind of article.

>
> Do you guys see my point? We're outstanding when it comes to quality 
> software and quality technical documentation. We suck when it comes to 
> marketing. Where are the BSD case studies? How many major mags have at 
> least one BSD related article per month? And I'm not talking just 
> techno mags. What about mags read by CIOs, CSOs, accountants, bankers, 
> government, gamers, arts people, etc. We have a huge potential 
> audience who has never even _heard_ of BSD. Betcha they've heard of 
> Linux, though, even if they never have the intention of using it.

So how do we get hooked up with these publications?  To be honest, most 
of what I read either is in the BSD communities, or is in places where 
it's totally contextually inappropriate to talk tech.

I guess one place I personally could write would be somewhere in my 
Zope community, or perhaps around the Python world.  How-to's and 
tutorials on best practices using BSD's would be fun to write...

>
> As an example, Ike's email is an article begging to be published in 
> say, Sysadmin or Software Development magazine. Most of us have day to 
> day dealings with non-techies. What magazines do these people read? 
> Have you been banging your head against the wall convincing, say, an 
> accountant client to switch to BSD? What mags does your accountant 
> read? Have those mags _ever_ had a BSD related article in them? 
> Guaranteed those mags have nice glossy ads from major software vendors 
> and the occasional article on the advantages of using a particular 
> non-open source accounting application.
>
> Dru

Dru, thanks again for writing this- it's a clear and positive way to 
combat the FUD- now the hard part comes into going out and doing it...

Scheming...
.ike





--
P.S. My email address has changed with the incorporation of my 
business, though structuredsystems email will continue to reach me.  I 
can now be reached at:

isaac at diversaform.com
http://diversaform.com