RRoelof Osinga wrote:
> 
> BSD did loose the spotlight to Linux.

The deeper question is: does BSD even *want* the spotlight?

> Which isn't bad in itself, just painfully true.

How can it be painful when it is not bad?  It's equivocations of this
sort that I find very hard to understand.  "We want to be popular, yet
we are perfectly at ease with not being popular."

> They're starting to once again caress BSD cheeklets.

"Noli me tangere," said the caressed BSD.

> To contrast take BSD. The Cathedral in prayer to the UNIX Gods. Very
> predictable even if boring. Yet humanity loves boredom. Loves
> predictability. HATES surprises, especially the nasty ones.

The average user who finds that the arrow keys don't work in BSD is
quite likely to experience this and other weirdness as a nasty surprise,
of the sort that they HATE.
 
> The trick will be to maintain focus, thus the stability which
> mankind loves.

Mankind, for the most part, is not even aware that servers exist, not to
mention BSD servers.
 
> NetBSD equates portability first, OpenBSD security and FreeBSD
> speed and userfriendliness if we can call it that <g>.

No, please don't call it that...
 
> It is also mandatory - according to me - that one never forgets we
> - the johns - chose BSD because it's a server first and a client
> second. Gnome and KDE might all be very well indeed, but though
> even I've installed them I hardly run them if at all.
> 
> Let that be Linux's playground/ballpark/bailywick/whatever. Who
> cares, it's not about serving/servilitude anyway.

Right on!  Leave the riff-raff to Linux and Microsoft!  We don't want
those desktop weenies on our playground!

One fine day, Apple or Amiga or some other company will produce an OS
based on open source code for i386 desktop users.  And they might
succeed.  I just wish the BSDs could get there first, because they're
the ones who deserve it.

The best Christmas gift to the BSDs would be an ambition to enter the
desktop market, without compromising the server side.  Let's hope Santa
brings something like that in his bag tonight.
-- 
    Tore