[nycbug-talk] NY/NJ companies using FreeBSD

[George Rosamond]

Andy Kosela wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 4:20 PM, George Rosamond
> <george at ceetonetechnology.com> wrote:
>> A long while back, maybe five years ago, we attempted to do this with
>> NYCBUG. . . . create a central database of NYC-area BSD using companies.
>>
>> With such a vague goal, ie, determining BSD-using firms for the sake of
>> it, it's difficult.
> 
> I don't see any official list on nycbug.org so I guess you didn't
> succeed or the decision was made not to disclose it. Netcraft.com can
> be a good source of information; at least for the www servers running
> FreeBSD, but I'm sure you already used it.
> 
>> If you actually explain what your goal is, it might be a bit easier to
>> provide some direction. . .
>>
>> eg.,
>>
>> are you looking to apply for dev/sa jobs?
>>
>> are you cataloging BSD-based hardware solutions?
>>
>> do you have a service to provide to those firms?
> 
> Yes, I would like to catalog FreeBSD shops in NYC area, (1) for
> general information as to the scale of FreeBSD adoption and deployment
> of FreeBSD servers in the NYC, and (2) as a New Yorker but not
> currently living in NY, I'm definetly interested in any opportunities
> for FreeBSD sysadmin work in the NYC.

For the second, post yourself to the jobs@ list, I'd recommend.

> 
> George, I think that such a list on nycbug.org would be beneficial to
> many. Not only it would point possible customers interested in BSD
> solutions to the right places, but also it would showcase that BSD
> presence in the NYC is strong and widespread.
> 

We'd have to dig up the old list. . . but it wasn't exactly deep on any 
level.

It was basically a handful of small shops out of a layer of NYCBUG 
members.  Plus "oh, I think such-and-such company uses a BSD."  Not 
really worth it.

The best starting point, if you do intend to embark on such a list 
yourself, is to look at donations to the projects and various related 
projects (like OpenSSH).  And add on sponsors to list of BSD cons.  Of 
course you'd have to sift through those lists to find out.

NetCraft is fine for looking at public facing servers that are on the 
relevant companies well known FQDNs.  I think, for instance, some of 
Microsoft's Hotmail periphery servers are still FBSD boxes.  (what a 
long horrible migration process).

It might be less time consuming and more accurate to just do an nmap 
script with -O on all IP blocks.  . good luck :)

But remember, even with enormous nmap sweeps with -O, you're only 
hitting public facing IPs.  You'll probably hit some netscalers, eg, 
that use bsd kernels on their hardware.

As you probably know, there's also the BSDStats project (on fbsd 
sysutils/bsdstats) which has a corresponding www site.

Maybe just take a step back and look at the methodology others use for 
OS stats. . . but remember the weaknesses mentioned above.

Let us know.

g