Subject: Re: your mail
To: Andy Doran <ad@psn.ie>
From: Thor Lancelot Simon <tls@rek.tjls.com>
List: current-users
Date: 04/20/1999 00:01:21
On Tue, Apr 20, 1999 at 04:36:20AM +0100, Andy Doran wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Apr 1999, Jonathan Stone wrote:
> 
> > Makes me think is if the world knows about Linux, and FreeBSD, and
> > that's it.
> 
> Funny, the FreeBSD people say the world only knows Linux :).
> 
> > The take-home lesson seems to be that NetBSD's brand-name recognition
> > is way, way below most people's radar horizons (One might say that's a
> > failing of Core, but then it doesn't seem to have been a real
> > priority).  But since NetBSD is not _known_, it doesn't get mentioned
> > (or gets incorreclty identified). Which becomes a vicious circle.
> 
> I agree. It sucks, but image and ``packaging'' are everything. For an
> example, take a look at the number of strong logos that MS and FreeBSD
> have. Does the phrase, "The Power to Serve" sound familiar? We would do
> well to have such things too.

We have such a thing: "Of course it runs NetBSD."  I was on the hook for a
logo (or, more precisely, my SO, who works at a design firm, was) but it
keeps getting put on the back burner by other projects -- I'll see if I
can speed it up.

We've historically been *extremely* poor at marketing our strengths.  For
example, at one point I reworked the front page of the web site to at least
*mention* all the architectures we ran on, but due to poor communication
that got removed because someone thought it looked "cluttered".  Fine, maybe
it looked "cluttered", but now it's as it was before -- from the front
page, you have to navigate three poorly-laid-out and unobvious lists of
links to actually get to where you can see if port X runs on your hardware Y,
or even if there *is* a "port X"!

Basically, worrying about this stuff is nobody's job, and it shows.

-- 
Thor Lancelot Simon	                                      tls@rek.tjls.com
	"And where do all these highways go, now that we are free?"