Subject: Just thought it might be of interest
To: None <netbsd-advocacy@netbsd.org>
From: Matthew Mondor <mm_lists@pulsar-zone.net>
List: netbsd-advocacy
Date: 03/30/2005 00:04:49
Articles of interest at Wikipedia for NetBSD:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution

although "the most portable operating system" was changed by someone
else to "one of the most portable operating systems", a few portability
links were added at the end of the article to describe what portability
really is (brute force porting vs. portability).

I guess that links at the end of the page for security-related features
such as systrace and non-executable heap+stack might be nice to add
perhaps, thinking of that, since it's technology-related. There also is
reference to performance and security in the article concerning NetBSD,
so it doesn't sound like it only is portable, I believe, although
remaining important...

Wikkipedia being what it is, people who find it needs changing are
always welcome to do so (and everyone has access to the history
changes), however, it's important to understand that the article is
generic BSD article, not "Operating Systems Advocacy" which more is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system_advocacy

There I tried to add a list of security features which are present
out-of-the-box in the server "pro" section.

There also is an OS comparision page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_operating_systems

Which of course isn't for advocacy either, but had to at least mention
common uses in "targetted users".

As for other languages, I could perhaps help to translate the articles
to french eventually if they don't already exist, but I'm limited to
these two languages :)

We must realize that these entries should be fair, although FUD-less,
and that people of other projects will most probably also update and
enhance their links eventually whenever wikipedia popularity eventually
grows.  I guess that eventually, a good off-site article summarizing it
all up could be used as a link in the references, instead of having to
fill the article with alot of content (and this would prevent
modification of the article's important content from wikipedia users,
except for the fact that they could always take it out if it's FUD of
course :))

Considering the usually non-formal nature if Wikipedia, no more time
should be dedicated than really is necessary to update inconsistencies
perhaps.  However, it now often shows up fast in google searches recently.

Matt
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