Re: List intolerance VS advocacy

[Scott Francis <darkuncle@darkuncle.net>]

On Thu, Jun 13, 2002 at 09:41:17AM -0700, marcm@lectroid.net said:
[snip]
> > when we offend users of any experience level. Think of it this way, in a
> > hypothetical example:
> >
> >     John B. or Jane Q. Newbie is looking for an alternative OS
> >     for personal use. They find out about a cool project called
> >     OpenBSD and investigate it. Then, months later, they are in
> >     a board meeting when it is discussed that their server got
> >     hacked or some other IT related problem where OBSD would fit.
> >
> > How do they respond in this situation?

It's worth noting, once again, that the OpenBSD project is really not
interested in increasing market share, gaining a reputation among businesses,
generating corporate sponsors, or even knocking off Microsoft or other OSes.
In short, most of the goals that are commonly associated with other
software/OS projects don't really apply to OpenBSD. It exists because those
creating it enjoy doing so, and new features tend to be added because they
scratch the itches of various developers. By and large, those contributing to
the project don't really care if they gain new users, piss people off, or go
largely ignored. If that happens, it just means a higher signal to noise
ratio for those that _are_ involved. This seems to be a difficult concept to
grok, as this question comes up every month or two on misc@, but the answer
remains the same. We do this because we like it, and if you like it, great.
If you don't, great. Don't expect any change in behaviour or in the project
either way, unless you are contributing such changes yourself (as opposed to
merely requesting them).

> They hire experienced admins to maintain it, because if they don't,
> running OpenBSD or not their newbie asses will get 0wn3d again and
> again.

The most critical (and generally the weakest) piece of any security platform
is the humans running it. That will never change (not until we have robots
running things anyway).

> I think there's a desire among the more experienced to make sure the
> inexperienced learn basic *NIX survival skills (like man pages, FAQs and
> archive searches).

hear, hear. If a new UNIX novice can't figure out how to use the tools at
hand, they are only going to be an irritation to experienced admins (and a
hazard to themselves and their employers) until they do so. There's a reason
'RTFM' is one of the oldest phrases in the community, and it rings just as
true now as it did when it was first coined.
--
Scott Francis                   darkuncle@ [home:] d a r k u n c l e . n e t
Systems/Network Manager          sfrancis@ [work:]         t o n o s . c o m
GPG public key 0xCB33CCA7              illum oportet crescere me autem minui

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