# Help contribute and make FreeBSD even better!



## marius (Jan 25, 2009)

Help contribute and make FreeBSD even better!

First of all I would like to open this post by making it clear that I have no connection with the FreeBSD team nor any other FreeBSD related group or foundation. I'm just an ordinary FreeBSD user like anyone else in here, running FreeBSD on my server, Soekris, and on my laptop.

I would appreciate if everyone, even if they disagree with some of my views, could read the entire article since I believe it contains some really important points.

Feel free to disagree with me on parts of the article, or the article as a whole. What I describe here are my views only, and you should make up your own mind.


1. Popularity counts

I love FreeBSD as much as I love my girlfriend. That means I have never wanted to share FreeBSD with anyone. I let people use Windows, Linux or other operating systems, while I keep FreeBSD to myself. A rather bad strategy I would say.

How many FreeBSD users are there out there? It can't be that many, because I have hardly met anyone who has heard of FreeBSD, even though they use both Mac OS X and many variants of Linux. Without enough users, we won't get enough developers since the users often turn into developers at some point. Without enough developers we won't be able to follow the rapid development in the computer world, and FreeBSD will no longer be a modern operating system. This could be the end of the operating system we all like so much.

Having a big user base usually means more respect, and with more respect comes more power. That power can for instance be used "pressure" Adobe into making a native flash player for FreeBSD. I know that many of you dislikes flash, and so do I, but the truth is that flash has taken over the web and we just have to live with that. Even though you will never use the flash player, you will still benefit from it, that is if we ever get a native flash player from Adobe (rumours say it's right around the corner).

One of the main reasons Linux users don't want to switch over to FreeBSD is because we lack proper flash support. We do have a few solutions to the problem, but none of them are "the right one". If we had proper flash support it would be possible that more and more Linux users would migrate over to FreeBSD. One day those ex-Linux users could become FreeBSD developers, and that flash player you didn't care anything about, could one day be the reason for a new device driver or a nice feature in FreeBSD. As you see, this flash player is about so much more than the flash player itself, it's about attracting users and developers.

When we first talk about flash support, we should mention PC-BSD and the work of Matt Olander. This guy can be the reason why we soon will see a native flash player for FreeBSD (if everything goes as planned). Both FreeBSD and PC-BSD could benefit from each other, and PC-BSD could be a nice entrypoint for users who aren't ready for FreeBSD yet. Although some people dislikes PC-BSD and the PBI-format, there is no secret that PC-BSD has attracted an impressive amount of users.

To make FreeBSD more popular we need to have "everything", and a bit more. I know many Linux users are envious of our portaudit utility, that's one step in the right direction (why isn't this in the base system?). Minor things that at first doesn't seem important can be exactly that. One example is the new FreeBSD forum that will now attract new users, users that before didn't bother to become active in the community because they didn't like using the old mailing lists. Curious people visiting http://www.freebsd.org might now take their first step into the BSD world because they see there is a forum, and because forums often means that help is close. Of course, we probably have the best documentation in the world already, but some people prefer help from a human being, someone who can answer their questions. I would like to encourage everyone to spend some time on the forum/mailing lists and help newcomers. Those newcomers could be the tomorrows developers.

Personally I have no problem with our sysinstaller, although it looks a bit 80's and lacks some features. But with that said we should keep in mind that sysinstall is one of the first things new users will see when the installation starts. First impression is everything, at least so they say. Finstall is a graphical installer, and seems like a nice addition to sysinstall. There is no reason to remove sysinstall, and users should have the ability to choose whatever fits them best, graphical or non-graphical.

We have a huge and wonderful ports collection in FreeBSD. The only drawback must be the lack of a pkg_update command. There is no way to update installed ports and packages without having to install additional software from the ports collection (or uninstalling and reinstalling each port/package manually). A new FreeBSD user will have to choose between portupgrade, portmaster and portmanager, just to be able to update his ports/packages. I believe we should have a pkg_update command in the base system, and the ports collection would be perfect. A project named "rewrite portupgrade in C" can be found at http://www.freebsd.org/projects/ideas/
I would love to see someone start on this, or a similar project that would find its way into the base.

Hardware support is another problem that Linux people are aware of. Of course FreeBSD supports hardware that Linux doesn't, but as a whole Linux has better support. I know people who have tried FreeBSD that had to switch back to Linux because some piece of hardware was not supported. This doesn't have to be cheap and poor hardware, but can just as well be expensive RAID-controllers. It is true that you can avoid this problem by doing some research and buying only supported hardware... but what about those who already have expensive hardware that won't work with FreeBSD. Those will most likely never become FreeBSD users, and again we might have lost yet another developer. Better hardware support will always be a positive thing as long as it's done properly.

Apple's MacBook/Pro/Air have become awfully popular the last few years, these are laptops I think we should fully support since they are this popular. As far as I know we're lacking fully support for the touchpad, and some of the wireless network cards (Atheros AR50xx?). Here you can really see the problem with buying supported hardware, because the alternative to buying a MacBook is buying another fat and less attractive laptop. Have you ever tried the keyboard on a MacBook? That's heaven. Better hardware support will let the users choose to buy whatever they like, and not having to step down the ladder and pick something they really don't want, just to be able to run FreeBSD on it.

These are just a few examples on what can be done, and what kind of effect a minor change or feature can actually have. We should try to see the big picture before doing anything. Some of the small things we consider doing can have a huge impact on the amount of users we attract, bigger than we could ever have dreamt of.


2. How to contribute

a) One way to contribute is by donating money to the FreeBSD Foundation - http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/. Some is better than nothing. What I like so much about the FreeBSD Foundation is that I've never seen them ask for anything. It's easier said than done to keep a low profile will still trying to show people that you exist, and that donating money is possible. Whatever amount you donate, you can choose what project to put the money on. You can donate using "paypal" or "donate now", and the latter one is really easy to use because you don't have to create an account to donate. The money are used to fund and manage projects, sponsor FreeBSD events, developer summits, and provide travel grants to developers. The foundation also represents the FreeBSD project in executing contracts, license agreements, copyrights, trademarks, and other legal arrangements which require a recognized legal entity. It seems like the FreeBSD Foundation helps speeding up the development of FreeBSD, which of course is good.

b) Contribute by supplying patches, write documentation, anticipate in Bughatons (next one is Jan 30th, 31st, and Feb 1st), help in any of the listed projects at the FreeBSD site. Become a ports committer. There are always things to do, so what are you waiting for 

c) Donate hardware
http://www.freebsd.org/donations/wantlist.html
http://www.freebsd.org/donations/

d) Buy merchandise at http://www.freebsdmall.org
They do a good job helping FreeBSD - http://www.freebsdmall.com/cgi-bin/fm/community.html?id=a8KYoGBU&mv_arg=mv_arg&mv_pc=109
Wear your FreeBSD shirt at work, at the mall, use it everywhere. This is free advertising. Spread the word about FreeBSD and how great it is instead wasting your energy on bashing Linux and other operating systems.


3. Some final words

It's not easy to find words that can express my gratitude towards the FreeBSD team, the FreeBSD Foundation, and everyone else that have contributed to make FreeBSD what it is today. I, and many other people really do appreciate all the work you guys have put into FreeBSD.

Thank you so much!


----------



## marius (Jan 30, 2009)

There are almost 4300 members on this forum... 100 of them bothered to read what I mean can be a very important post. All I see is silence - does that mean that people agree, don't agree, or don't care?... or can't read? 

I have shared my thoughts about what I think will be important for FreeBSD in the future, and I hope some of you agree. What is more important to me is that people wake up and start to think about how we can make FreeBSD even better. Support all FreeBSD projects, even though you don't need them, because others might!

Try to see the big picture and the effect of things you do.

Have a nice weekend. Cheers!

Thanks to artificer and lme@, who actually gave a sign of life. Appreciated


----------



## vermaden (Jan 30, 2009)

Support is not always "PAY" like, for example I convinced a lot people by showing what FreeBSD can doo (or look like) @ *deviantart.com*:
http://browse.deviantart.com?q=by:vermaden+freebsd

About PCBSD, I would consider it if it will not use KDE/QT, especially KDE4 (open source vista) and use GNOME, or provide both KDE and GNOME version (like OpsnSUSE for example).


----------



## marius (Jan 31, 2009)

I haven't actually tried PC-BSD since I have little interest in running anything else than pure FreeBSD. But it seems to me that PC-BSD can be an important catalyst for FreeBSD, and a great entrypoint for new users that aren't ready for FreeBSD.

PC-BSD for KDE users, and DesktopBSD for GNOME users.... they should instead team up and make one hell of a desktop OS, that works with both GNOME and KDE


----------



## morbit (Feb 1, 2009)

DesktopBSD uses KDE as well.


----------



## Pushrod (Feb 1, 2009)

marius said:
			
		

> There are almost 4300 members on this forum... 100 of them bothered to read what I mean can be a very important post. All I see is silence - does that mean that people agree, don't agree, or don't care?... or can't read?



A lot of the members are probably busy using their FreeBSD machines to get things done, and don't care to traverse through every forum on the site and make sure to reply to them all.

I use FreeBSD, and I like it, but I also see it as an appliance. It works basically all the time, and it does what I need it to do, and that's it.


----------



## kamikaze (Feb 2, 2009)

Contributing can be pretty tiring, months or even years can pass till a patch gets committed if no committer is currently involved with the affected code.


----------



## marius (Feb 8, 2009)

morbit said:
			
		

> DesktopBSD uses KDE as well.



I'm a bit surprised to see that you are absolutely right  I thought DesktopBSD had plans to switch over to GNOME, but instead they both use KDE, how useful...




			
				Pushrod said:
			
		

> A lot of the members are probably busy using their FreeBSD machines to get things done, and don't care to traverse through every forum on the site and make sure to reply to them all.
> 
> I use FreeBSD, and I like it, but I also see it as an appliance. It works basically all the time, and it does what I need it to do, and that's it.



That is understandable. Some people are more busy than others, and some are only interested in certain sections of the forum. We are all interested in different things in life, some people love cars and engines, while others just want to drive from point A to point B, and nothing more. The difference between a car and FreeBSD is that we all had to pay to get the car, and to use it. Most people don't pay to get a copy of FreeBSD or use FreeBSD, and that's why I had hoped more people could contribute. The contribution would be like a payment, but without necessarily spending any money.




			
				kamikaze said:
			
		

> Contributing can be pretty tiring, months or even years can pass till a patch gets committed if no committer is currently involved with the affected code.



Or they can be applied 50 minutes after you submitted the patch, which I have seen happen many times. If you look at GNATS you will see that many of the patches are waiting for more feedback from the users who submitted them. Without feedback, no progression.

I believe the problem you mention here can be solved by making FreeBSD more popular. The more users you have, the more people you have who can work on ports, docs, bugs and so on. Of course, new users won't become kernel developers over night.

With that said, I do also see that many reported bugs get no attention at all, or at least that's how it seems from our side.


----------



## mgp (Feb 8, 2009)

Hi marius,
I fully agree with you in all points!
you can contribute in many ways
some of the easiest are:

make FreeBSD popular, advertise it
I personally wear FreeBSD T-shirts almost all the time...at work, at the university, at the pub...
I always try to convince people to try FreeBSD...

test FreeBSD
I run CURRENT most of the time and I report problems I find...

of course there are many other ways...
maybe bother others that FreeBSD and its users are directly or indirectly related to or depend on...like software and hardware vendors...adobe, nvidia, etc...

I think the most important is the community ... the larger the community the better

we are what we do and what we like...we are FreeBSD!


----------



## marius (Feb 8, 2009)

Thanks! Great to see that someone agree with me. Walking around with that FreeBSD shirt is a great way to advertise. I'm on my way to order one as well, and that should have been done long time ago.

I'm not running CURRENT but I believe those who are, are really doing an important job.

Keep up the good work, and continue advertising!


----------



## kamikaze (Feb 9, 2009)

marius said:
			
		

> Or they can be applied 50 minutes after you submitted the patch, which I have seen happen many times. If you look at GNATS you will see that many of the patches are waiting for more feedback from the users who submitted them. Without feedback, no progression.
> 
> I believe the problem you mention here can be solved by making FreeBSD more popular. The more users you have, the more people you have who can work on ports, docs, bugs and so on. Of course, new users won't become kernel developers over night.
> 
> With that said, I do also see that many reported bugs get no attention at all, or at least that's how it seems from our side.


Yes, this can happen. Especially with ports the response time is normally way better.

Anyway, in my opinion popularity is not the solution to poor communication. The first thing is that users who think a patch would be useful to them should hit the _submit followup_ button and say so.

The second thing is that bugtrack should inform the originator of a PR if there's been a followup. I go through all my PRs once in a while to see weather something has changed and I'm annoyed when I see that there's been something waiting for reply for a week. I could have replied the same day if I'd just known about it.


----------



## oliverh (Feb 9, 2009)

Pushrod said:
			
		

> A lot of the members are probably busy using their FreeBSD machines to get things done, and don't care to traverse through every forum on the site and make sure to reply to them all.
> 
> I use FreeBSD, and I like it, but I also see it as an appliance. It works basically all the time, and it does what I need it to do, and that's it.



To make open source work you have to participate. It doesn't matter whether it's money, code etc. pp. or if you advocate your operating system of choice. But you have to do something, without it there is no open source and no appliance at all.


----------

