Re: corporate backers of freebsd

Gary Smithe wrote:
Good Day All and Happy New Year,

I'm not looking to incite anyone, but here comes a BSD vs Linux
question. Yes, I tried searching the archives and found nothing.

I used FreeBSD back in 2000 for a few firewalls, but due to certain
influences I switched to Linux after a couple of years.

I'm interested in getting back to the BSD's but have just one big concern.

As most users Unix and it's clones, I prefer the "free as in beer"
licensing model, but want to know that someone else is paying the big
bills.

In short, here's my question:

Canonical, RedHat, IBM, Novell, and a slew of others are funding /
supporting Linux development and pushing some of that development into
the free community, so that all can benefit from full-time developers
and the money that supports them.

I've seen where Cisco and Juniper are using FreeBSD, and assuming
there are other big names, do they directly fund or contribute to the
community?

I guess my big concern is that I'd like for development to continue,
with new features and hardware being supported. The best way for this
to happen, IMHO, is for the developers to have full time jobs
essentially devoted to FreeBSD and that some, if not most of that work
is then sent back to the community.

I'm not saying that I should contribute nothing, as I have contributed
cash via CD's, T-Shirts, and other venues, but that doesn't provide
nearly the revenue that a good corporate backer can.

And just to throw more gasoline on the fire, I'll also assume that the
BSD's are going strong and that there are no concerns of them suddenly
disappearing if I make the change over.


Can't answer the rest of your questions but I can say we are a large
Midwest ISP and we use the best tool for the job. Sometimes it is Server
2003 (Windows media streaming), sometimes it is Linux (ISCSI initiator),
sometimes it is NetBSD (old Sparc boxes), more often than anything else
it has been FreeBSD (mail, web, SQL, ftp, QT Streaming).

There has never been any concern with using FreeBSD as a production OS
either towards it's stability, ability, or it's future. If FreeBSD
suites your needs, by all means switch over.

DAve


--
Google finally, after 7 years, provided a logo for
veterans. Thank you Google. What to do with my signature now?
_______________________________________________
freebsd-questions@xxxxxxxxxxx mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxx"

Relevant Pages

  • Re: FreeBSD 4.x Opteron Question
    ... the FreeBSD developers told everyone that 5.3 was da ... initially over linux not because there's a bunch of good guys on the ... My tests measure kernel performance; ... > a networking device is a key performance indicator. ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: Newbie Experience
    ... I've only been around since FreeBSD 5.4 ... FreeBSD kernel too. ... always sunshine and linux is farts. ... in the hey day of AT&T Unix I'm ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: Review of FreeBSD 5.4
    ... but not less problems compared to FreeBSD. ... If you like to have a bleeding edge system using debian --- just go ... > the linux kernel suffers. ... When the kernel suffers, everyone who uses ...
    (comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc)
  • Re: FreeBSD & Linux distro
    ... as a FreeBSD advocacy the tone of the article should be neutral and all ... do not like Linux and more over I have never used it in my life but I ... Statement of the type BSD appears more stable than Linux is ... fewer FreeBSD advocates make claims like that, however, is part of the ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • corporate backers of freebsd
    ... I'm not looking to incite anyone, but here comes a BSD vs Linux ... I used FreeBSD back in 2000 for a few firewalls, ... the free community, so that all can benefit from full-time developers ... to happen, IMHO, is for the developers to have full time jobs ...
    (freebsd-questions)