On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai wrote:

> > Just for those that don't know: ~3 people (including Jordan) work full
> > time for Walnut Creek, producing CDs and working on FreeBSD. Walnut Creek
> > CDROM have invested quite a lot in FreeBSD.
> 
> Walnut Creek also sells Windows 95 Utilities CD-ROMs, OS/2, Linux, etc...
> 
> So I think the above point is not fairly accurate I am afraid...

I think the point is -very- accurate seeing as how Walnut Creek's ftp/web
server is one machine running FreeBSD.  It's not even a Pentium II or III,
or heck, an Alpha.  It's an overclocked Pentium Pro.  This is from the
publically provided information that Walnut Creek used to have on their
site (which I cannot seem to find at the moment).

I think that when an business whose -only- online distribution site and
web presence depends on FreeBSD, it means they "have invested quite a lot
in FreeBSD." 

I admit that I am unaware of what OS they run their offices on, things
like order fullfillment, customer tracking, billing and inventory, and
what have you.

FreeBSD is unique in that it's the only "free" OS that has the kind of
commerial backing that it does.  There are full time paid employees who
work on it and are still given free reign (within the constraits of the
project's goals).  "Here, I'm going to pay you to write a free operating
system," is essentially what Walnut Creek is telling those members of the
FreeBSD team that work for them.

No, I'm not talking about the development model of Red Hat Linux or
whatnot, those are companies whose paid employees (in this case
developers) are there to add value added products and services to the OS,
not to hack to core OS itself.

At anyrate, I think Walnut Creek has a lot riding on FreeBSD and I think
this is a Good Thing(tm).

--
Christofer C. Bell                      Systems Analyst
Systems Management	                email: cbell@inetdb.com
Sprint Communications                   phone: 913-534-2535