Hi,
When everything is life is just smoothly flowing by, and all is hunky-dory,
some things don't get the credits they deserve.
So here we go.... ;)
Standing at the coffee machine this morning I realized that FreeBSD has been
part of my professional life for already way, way too long. Before 1993 I
was tinkering with CPM, SCO, sys3/5, i386, Apollo Domain, Linux <0.98 and sorts.
When friends an I decided to start an ISP, then very novel, now really part
of our lives. And one of the friends suggested to use FreeBSD instead of
Linux. As Linux at that time was still very much in flux and really just a
flying target, we were more than up for it. Because if gave us the systems
that we were all too familiar with. And it really did work richt out of the
box. (well almost, needed to hack on the serial driver for the 16 port card
we had) The first commercial server that we deployed was running FreeBSD
1.1. I still fondly keep that CD.
One of those friends has been part of the Core team (Guido van Rooij) for a
while. And I'm sure that a lot of the code he hacked up to keep the ISP
going ended up somewhere in the tree. The release strategy has always been a
real nice service to our business. Lots of systems where kept at
major_versions, until the hardware became too old. Only then to leapfrog
into the most stable version at that moment. And I don't ever recall that we
were disappointed in the way FreeBSD developed itself.
The ISP was sold in 2000, and I started doing other things. But in 2000 just
about everything the ISP was delivering ran on FreeBSD. And I remember
boxing being up for over 2 years. (especially those not exposed to the
public.:)) Only reason for some windows was, because business wise you can't
do without.
At home FreeBSD has been my friend from that same moment forward. I trashed
my Linux Toys, merged to FreeBSD and never looked back. My home is now
running on 2* FreeBSD's and lots of Jave-embeded devices. Again there never
disappointed in what FreeBSD delivered.
Recently I started a new company again, but much to my disappointment (but
understandably so) the chipset supplier (NXP/Philips) delivers only support
for Linux (or WinCE) and the new shop is mainly Linux oriented. Although a
some of the dev-team are still FreeBSD at hart. And parts of the system are
tested against FreeBSD for avoidance of too much Linux-isms. :)
So when I ran into some trouble yesterday, I realized how much FreeBSD has
contributed to "painless computing"(tm). And not just only because of the
quality of the software, but also because of the support that is offered.
And for that I would like to thank, compliment, free-beer-license all the
people that made my life trouble free
Many many many thanks to all those that make FreeBSD.
--WjW
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