# Who say's FreeBSD can't make money?



## ronaldlees (Jan 23, 2018)

https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/22/netflix-is-now-worth-more-than-100b/

  - for somebody else :-(


----------



## masterofnull (Jan 23, 2018)

I'm starting to think that the BSD license makes us like a good child that doesn't need recognition. 

Like where GPLv2 really enforces mentioning their name and probs annoys people if they ever get a source code request and GPLv3 is so insane you have to talk about it, but BSD license is fully intended to decrease the amount of stress for everyone.

It just does the right thing and people move on...


----------



## ondra_knezour (Jan 23, 2018)

They give back (last link doesn't work per se, shitty web presence of the Foundation is yearslong beyond my understanding)


----------



## Deleted member 30996 (Jan 23, 2018)

ondra_knezour said:


> ...shitty web presence of the Foundation is yearslong beyond my understanding)



I do what I can to promote it. Relentlessly and without shame on a daily basis.


----------



## ondra_knezour (Jan 23, 2018)

We are OT here, so I would just say that promoting the Foundation as legal and financial entity behind our common objective - excellent OS - doesn't exclude possibility that given entity has shitty web presence. Those claims doesn't relate in any way.


----------



## Deleted member 30996 (Jan 23, 2018)

ondra_knezour said:


> We are OT here, so I would just say that promoting the Foundation as legal and financial entity behind our common objective - excellent OS - doesn't exclude possibility that given entity has shitty web presence. Those claims doesn't relate in any way.



In your opinion.

I'm still working on my morning pot of coffee but have already promoted it the BSD forums at linuxquestions.org and am starting work upgrading my site on Building A FreeBSD Desktop From Scratch with screenshots of other DE and WM courtesy of forum members. My tutorial has been linked to twice by FreeBSD News, and their first post was linked to by the English and Arabic Facebook pages of BSD MAG.

I said I did what *I* can do to promote it, it being FreeBSD, and at least helping to get the word out and bring new people into the world of BSD to the best of my abilities.

What have you done for FreeBSD today besides provide your input here?


----------



## ondra_knezour (Jan 23, 2018)

Really OT, so my last reply here, but feel free to start another thread about it and notify me.

This is classical discussion foul, attacking strawman which debate is not about. At first I stated that the FreeBSD Foundation have low quality web presentation (for various reasons and yes, I did offer some form of help with that three times without response). You are replying what you did to promote FreeBSD, which is utterly different thing (like an apple, Apple and Big Apple) and asking me, what I did today. Why today, does count what I did in previous 21 years from the 2.2.1 release I started with? I looks to me that we have some language barrier here (english isn't first language at least for me).


----------



## ShelLuser (Jan 23, 2018)

masterofnull said:


> I'm starting to think that the BSD license makes us like a good child that doesn't need recognition.


It's actually quite simple: people who back you up because they want to are generally speaking much more valuable than people who back you up because they're being forced into it. Take a look at the GPL and how many times people (and whole companies alike) have tried (and often succeeded) into legally circumventing the whole thing. Don't expect much positive feedback from those guys, once they got their goods they're gone.

Sure, the BSD license allows for people to take and use stuff while you're none the wiser. So? Are we sharing stuff because we really believe in the system and want to help make it grow and expand, or are we all doing this to satisfy our own ego and moral values?

There's a reason why FreeBSD's slogan is "_The power to serve_". One which I think is quite fitting when you look at the BSD license.

FreeBSD doesn't need praise and all that. It's good enough that so many people are actually using it.


----------



## Deleted member 30996 (Jan 23, 2018)

ondra_knezour said:


> At first I stated that the FreeBSD Foundation have low quality web presentation..



You stated it has a "shitty web presence" specifically, to which I replied I promote it *on the web* on a daily basis every chance I get in addition to having a *website* about it with a tutorial that was linked to by FreeBSD NEWS and the BSD MAG Facebook websites.

Now you're trying to revise "web presence" to "web presentation", which is a strawman argument by your own definition.


----------



## ralphbsz (Jan 24, 2018)

Netflix makes money, lots of it.  But the real reason for that is not so much FreeBSD.  It is the fact that at first they found a great niche (mailing DVDs to subscribers), did it very efficiently, and with a good business model.  Today, Netflix is mostly a content (meaning shows) company, and they invest a lot of money into creating new shows; the distribution of that content and of the movies the license from the rest of Hollywood is no longer the dominant part of their business.

And while FreeBSD clearly has made their life easier when building their content distribution infrastructure, it was probably not vital to the effort.  They could have done the same thing with other OSes, perhaps it would be a little harder, but it would have worked.  I know several people who work at Netflix pretty well (their headquarters is very close by), and they are smart, nice, and hard-working.  

If you are looking for companies where FreeBSD (or in general *BSD) was a vital ingredient in their success, I think NetApp would be a better example: the initial filer software was coupled tightly to FreeBSD.  Alas, they are an older company, much less sexy, and their market cap is way below $100B.


----------



## Snurg (Jan 24, 2018)

And Whatsapp... the links ondra_knezour mentioned are highly interesting. Does Whatsapp still run on FreeBSD?


----------



## ronaldlees (Jan 25, 2018)

I realized right after pressing "submit" that I was inviting a license war (but that was not intended).  I think FreeBSD gets a lot of good publicity via the fact that it is used by mega-corps, including Netflix.  So, that's some payback in itself.  On a related note, this forum is much busier than say ... two or three years ago.  Does this imply an uptick in userbase, or something else (like the other forums are overrun by trolls).  Since that's OT for this thread, I'll make another ...


----------



## masterofnull (Jan 25, 2018)

ronaldlees said:


> Does this imply an uptick in userbase, or something else (like the other forums are overrun by trolls).  Since that's OT for this thread, I'll make another ...


I've been a long time forum lurker but ever since installing bsd I've been wanting to participate more in the community


----------

