[nycbug-talk] OSCON ports idea

[George R.]

Dru wrote:
> 
> Here's an idea that was brought up at OSCON by a Mac user who has 
> recently become a FreeBSD newbie after dabbling a bit with Linux.
> 
> All these years he had heard of BSD but was under the impression that 
> there was no software for it. (I can hear everyone shouting "ports 
> collection" but stay with me here.) The reason why? Every time he went 
> to an open source software site (firefox, xmms, acrobat, abiword, 
> webmagick, gaim, nvu, digikam...) the download page had links for 
> Windows, several Linux distros and Mac. No BSD link. Just the scary 
> "source for Unix". (aaah, this is why all my students think tarballs are 
> the way to go...)
> 
> I checked out some sites yesterday. Audacity even had the audacity to 
> use the beastie icon to go to downloads for several Linux binaries! 
> (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/)

although it does say "linux/unix". . . but no bsd option when you follow 
the link.  i know kirk's copyright is against commercial misuse, but i 
wish this kind of thing had some safeguards. . .

> 
> Now, we all know better. But this guy did bring up a valid point on 
> perception. A nice little project would be to hit the top used open 
> source software sites and give them the URL to the FreeBSD package along 
> with a nice little beastie pic. Anyone interested, I've already compiled 
> a list of the top 50 I can send to you. Otherwise, it's on my list of 
> things to do if I ever get bored (ha ha).

This is a point that needs to be taken well and honestly.  It's a common 
perception of non-BSD users.  Yeah, the replies of ports/pkgs, Linux 
emulation when necessary, etc., are all our reactions, but for those new 
to the BSDs, it is a bit confusing.

it would be cool to automate this online, so that you'd fill out a form 
with the contact email address for the app, the link (s) for the 
port/pkg, etc.

another thing on the to-do list. . .

g