BSD Needs Spiced up Atmosphere-bsdtalk

I’m not sure why I can’t post comments to bsdtalk. Maybe it’s because I’m not signed up with the hosting service or because it doesn’t support Firefox. I can’t remember as I quit trying sometime ago. Anyways … seeing that I can’t post, I thought I’d post a comment on my own blog.

Note to Will Backman, bsdtalk Host
I like your podcasts but it’s starting to seem to me that the shows always have the same general theme, people sitting around talking about why BSD (and sometimes OSS in general) is so great –amounting to “feel good” interviews.

In episode number 139 you ask what “we” can do to improve BSD bookshelf visibility. I think generating interest might attract public attention and translate in hard book visibility. So, why not diversify and talk about threats to BSD development (whether they be internal/external, from proprietary competing OSS sources, and conflict (such as political/power struggles, or personality conflicts). Each postcast need not be entirely controversial as potential solutions to problems could also be pondered.

Here’s an idea I’ve thrown your way before. When are you ever going to cover comments by C. Hannum stating that”NetBSD is Dead”. See: <http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-users/2006/08/30/0016.html>.

Show Stoppers, OS X vs. BSD & Gnu-Linux

I hate how Free OS critics attempt to undermine projects by mentioning that little things here and there don’t work or configure easily on BSDs or Gnu-Linux distros as they do on Windows or OS X (yes, I know what it’s based on). They list them as “show stoppers” as in they stop users from taking up these other OSes. In response, I’ve compiled a small list of OS X failures. Keep in mind, this is not comprehensive at all, but just to make a point.

Debian, Ubuntu, and Free Software?

As you can tell (from my Profile [in "About"]), I’m (or was) an avid Debian fan as it encompasses most ideals for easy user maintenance and usability. This includes a extremely low degree of breakage during upgrades and that –in terms of stability– out performs the major commercial OSes I’ve tried. Apt-get goes beyond my expectations and in my personal experience and those of my colleagues, out performs YUM in terms of speed and dependency conflicts. Of course, apt-get front-ends take this a step forward for the GUI dependent user. Of course, there were times when aspects of Debian were not user friendly such as when I first installed Debian it was about a 40? step process. I remember staying up to 3 or 4 a.m. doing these installs. A BSD user might laugh, but I think of Debian as being somewhat comparable to NetBSD and FreeBSD mixed. I mean it supports many platforms, weeding out bugs in the process, only moving forward only when every platform “just works”, and allows easy maintenance and use such as FBSD offers (except firewall configuration).