Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.rwth-aachen.de!news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de!RRZ.Uni-Koeln.DE! uni-duisburg.de!zib-berlin.de!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!news.cloud9.net! cloud9.net!cs From: c...@cloud9.net (Carl S. Shapiro) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: FreeBSD, the name Date: 25 Mar 1995 20:57:52 GMT Organization: Cloud 9 Internet + White Plains, New York USA Lines: 11 Message-ID: <3l204g$3tf@news.cloud9.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: cloud9.net X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Can someone tell me why the name "FreeBSD" was chosen. The "Free" in FreeBSD gives it a really back-room kind of tone that doesn't sound very professional (IMHO). I am not trying to bash FreeBSD in anyway, after all, I use it! -- Carl S. Shapiro c...@cloud9.net "The number one enemy of progress is questions."
Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.rwth-aachen.de!news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de! rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!violet.berkeley.edu!jkh From: j...@violet.berkeley.edu (Jordan K. Hubbard) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: FreeBSD, the name Date: 26 Mar 1995 11:04:11 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 44 Message-ID: <3l3hnb$7r2@agate.berkeley.edu> References: <3l204g$3tf@news.cloud9.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: violet.berkeley.edu In article <3l204g$...@news.cloud9.net>, Carl S. Shapiro <c...@cloud9.net> wrote: > Can someone tell me why the name "FreeBSD" was chosen. The "Free" in >FreeBSD gives it a really back-room kind of tone that doesn't sound very >professional (IMHO). I am not trying to bash FreeBSD in anyway, after all, >I use it! We were trying to get the point across that it was a free operating system, both in terms of cost and in terms of open development. People are free to do whatever they like with it, including getting rich if they can manage it (more power to 'em!), and this seemed to be the best way of saying so. Plus it rhymes rather nicely.. :-) In retrospect, perhaps this hurt us a bit as people misperceived "free" as "low quality", but we're working to change that misperception. Some folks have suggested recently that we change the name to something even more vile, like "OpenBSD" or "PCBSD", but I don't think that this would really buy us anything but a heady dose of confusion at this point. No, it's far better to simply work on turning people's perceptions around. Much as "Apple computer" was widely laughed at in the beginning as the silliest name for a computer company in history but is now a household word that nobody thinks twice about, so I think we can manage to turn FreeBSD towards "brand name" status where people think less about the words and more about the image that the product brings up in their minds. Additionally, I think that "free" can be turned back around to connote "open", "unencumbered", "widely used and developed" and other more positive meanings of the word free (e.g. from freedom, not no-cost) with a little work. I urge all of you to try and bring this home to any suited types you may happen to talk to about FreeBSD, should the first mention of the word bring a look of distaste to their faces. Explain to them that flexibility, truly open development and the incalculable resource represented by hundreds (if not thousands) of internetworked engineers working throughout the world on FreeBSD is *power* in the '90s business world. It releases a business from reliance on any one vendor, it gives them a ready supply of pre-trained talent to hire from (not a trivial point at all) and it eliminates their resale overhead should they wish to use it in a product of their own. Then go on to say that this is what the "free" in FreeBSD means. If you look sincere enough, they may even believe you! :-) Jordan