On 20 Apr 1999, Julian Assange wrote:

> Electing a `netbsd Great Leader' every six months,

What sort of Great Leader could ever win an election?  Actors and prom
queens win elections.  No, better to invite a bitter, ruthless, incessant,
exhausting struggle for power.

..and rremember, you're only El Presidente, for liefe.


Dave McGuire:

> two people walked up to me and asked if we ought to consider moving
> away from NetBSD...because, as one of them put it, "well, their
> leaders are..."

1. If everyone else jumped off a bridge...

2. It's not even a question of merit or ideology on that scale (neither
   of which was brought up by your opponents).  It's a boundary issue.

   ``NetBSD is a tool which I use to do my job.  If you have a problem
   with _my_ performance, I'd be happy to discuss it with you.  Otherwise,
   you get to choose the tools when you do the work.  Thanks for your
   interest, but I don't want to begin discussing your lack of
   perspective on the industry and questionable logic, until you
   understand that such a discussion will not be in control of the
   decision, because I am.''

I know a lot of people want to say this and choose to lick the hand that
feeds them instead, but if at least it's obvious that it makes sense,
that's a first step.

We've been discussing marketing a lot (SlashDot's brutal injustice, upon
which i hereby personally vow merciless revenge; OpenBSD's alleged FUD
tactics).  Marketing and code superiority are, I believe, often in
fundamental ideological conflict.  When developer time is limited, the
conflict intensifies.  For an OS to succeed through code superiority
rather than marketing, it is essential that decision makers be experienced
and technically well-informed, and therefore this line _must_ be drawn.

As for the solution of becoming a better-marketed OS, ``if you want that,
you know where to find it.''  Research grants, theses, the Shark--choose
NetBSD for a reason.

-- 
Miles Nordin / 1-888-857-2723
555 Bryant Street #182 / Palo Alto, CA 94301-1700