Theo de Raadt wrote:
Don't the OpenBSD developers already work hard enough, that now we
are supposed to do even more boring business oriented things for you
all?
Every release, more people download OpenBSD and fewer people buy OpenBSD.
But the solution is not to make OpenBSD developers "web businessmen".
That is a road to slower development.
The solution is not to complain about users not buying something which
ostensibly takes pride in being available for free; it is to take
advantage of good ideas when they are offered. This is such an idea.
Using it to make money, well, that's kind of dumb. (Though it could
work, much later.) The chief utility of a "virtual store" of products
fully supported in OpenBSD is that it provides the OpenBSD team a
convenient way to do three things:
a) Demonstrate concretely to vendors the number of OpenBSD users
who are interested in and who purchase their products, by giving them
a hard number of how many times each product is being examined by a
potential purchaser, and maybe even how many times each product is
actually being purchased. The vendors whose products are "sort-of-
supported" due to the vendor's reluctance to provide decent
documentation will then have a good metric for exactly how unwilling
they should be to continue their asinine behavior.
b) Obtain new toys and docs for the OpenBSD project, using a). When
Vendor B is contacted and told that their competitor Vendor A's latest,
greatest Turbotron 2000 SATA controller is on the OpenBSD virtual store
and has logged 100,000 clickthroughs to Vendor A's online store, Vendor
B will want to get his DynaMaster II SATA controller up there to
compete. Vendor B can then be told that the requirement for this is a
full set of non-NDA documentation plus N samples for the developers.
If Vendor B does not acquiesce, Vendor B can go pound sand and watch
Vendor A's sales go through the roof. Perhaps Vendor B will be more
cooperative next year when the OpenBSD team calls again.
c) Help out your users. Help them figure out what they can actually
use, help them stop fucking around looking for parts that they "think"
will work. I know that frequently, the sole basis on which _I_ make
_my_ purchases is "Is this supported under OpenBSD?" That requires a
LOT of research beforehand to answer "Yes" or "No", and many times
doesn't have a satisfactorily clear answer. The vendors sure don't
help. "Windows drivers, click here. We support Linux, too." "What
about OpenBSD?" "Huh?" Having a place where users can just go and find
what they need makes their purchasing decisions a LOT easier. All other
things being equal, when purchasing is easier, more purchases are made.
When more purchases are made, the effect of a) and b) increases. Some
vendors may even be willing to proactively contribute money or other
hardware to the developers to accelerate development on the strength of
a) alone. I don't think Linux users have such a thing. I do know
many people who seek open-source compatible hardware; they try OpenBSD-
supported stuff first, because OpenBSD tends only to support the most
open, most ubiquitous, and least brain-damaged hardware around. YMMV.
I think you discount the amount of clout the OpenBSD team has in its
users' purchasing patterns, and the amount of clout with the vendors
that that could become with a relatively small investment in
coordinating those user purchases. A "virtual store" would provide
the force multiplier to make the "Give us documentation NOW, or SUFFER
THE CONSEQUENCES!" thumbscrews really effective. If you want support
from the vendors, then you'd better be prepared to make it worth their
while. Creating "Santa Theo's List of Good Vendors' Products Which Are
Fully Supported in OpenBSD" in a nice, easy-to-use Web-store interface
is one step down that road. You have had some success with this,
but only recently, and only because you did a metric shitload of work.
Did you like dealing with those wireless-card yahoos, languishing in
the Sisyphean hell of trying to get them to cooperate with you? No?
Then let your users do your work for you. The only thing you have to
do is make it the slightest bit easy, and they will.
Oh yeah, and it will probably cut down on the number of times you see
messages of the form "Is <XXXXX> supported on OpenBSD <blah>?"
--
(c) 2005 Unscathed Haze via Central Plexus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I am Chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are Free. -Eris
Big Brother is watching you. Learn to become Invisible.
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