[OpenIndiana-discuss] Help with website

[Richard L. Hamilton]

On Oct 10, 2011, at 4:25 PM, Ken Gunderson wrote:

> On Mon, 2011-10-10 at 21:21 +0200, Alexander Lesle wrote:
>> Hello Любомир Григоров and List,
>> 
>> On Oktober, 10 2011, 18:59 <Любомир Григоров> wrote in [1]:
>> 
>>>> I'll take a couple of people with a clue over a hundred _looking_ for a
>>> clue any day.
>> 
>>> It will be just as I said earlier - the userland will consist of the devs
>>> and a bunch of fanboys, no one will know the OS and will just view it as
>>> "another one". This whole conversation and all the emails in it just proves
>>> OI is not ready to be a real OS. Maybe in 10 years after it matures I will
>>> give it another go. Like things stand, it's headed in the OpenBSD path.
>> 
>> +1
>> Sad but true.
>> 
> 
> 
> This is such BULLSHIT!!!  Would OI be as successful as OpenBSD. Or
> FreeBSD!!  So you *BSD bashers might just want to back off and scratch
> it a bit before making such categorical broad sweeping statements.
> 
> 
> THE reason alternatives to Linux have been able to persist is that not
> EVERYONE wants Linux.  Indeed, the more advanced/seasoned the person
> seems to be the greater the probability that they will value/utilize a
> Linux alternative precisely because it is NOT hampered by Linux's
> shortcomings.
> 
> Following/emulating Linux is a mistake.  Sun should have learned that at
> least a couple years earlier and they may not have become the financial
> disaster that led to the current Oracle mess.
> 
> Instead, OI should actively strive to DIFFERENTIATE itself from Linux,
> lest it become relegated to yet another fanboy distro of the month.
> 
> Those of you who want/need Linux please, by all means, go use Linux!!!
> But please, please, please stop lobbying to turn OI into Linux.

A little reminder for those who measure success by numbers:
the largest Unix-like OS is most likely _not_ Linux, it's OS X.  Or rather, it was until iOS (the variant for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch/AppleTV) presumably passed it.  (although if one counts Android under the Linux column, things do start to look rather complicated)

_Part_ of what's under the hood on OS X and iOS comes from FreeBSD.  There's also Mach, and some BSD and GNU utilities; as well as an entirely proprietary GUI.

That falls well short of a purely open-source ideal, although much other than the GUI, GUI apps, and some of the device drivers is open source - for practical, rather than ideological reasons.

Numbers depend on _solving_a_problem_ for the most people; and leaving them with the perception that what you offer solves one or more problems better, or more cheaply, than anything else.

Hand-holding and outreach may be part of that.  It doesn't require everyone on board to make that happen.

Different people will be best served by different modes of communication.  Some folks will want to be just a few comfortable interactions away from short-term gratification.  Others will want to be able to wade through a lot of information or discussion as quickly as possible.

Remember the flip side of a one-size-fits-all solution: "…and in the darkness bind them".