Less messages to FreeBSD.org lists

[Andrew Boothman]

Kris Kennaway wrote:

> On Sun, Jan 25, 2004 at 07:38:37PM +0000, Andrew Boothman wrote:
> 
> 
>>Agreed, but it would seem surprising to me that FreeBSD's installed base 
>>is growing and mailing list traffic isn't. We have no method for 
>>estimating the number of installed FreeBSD boxes, but I would have 
>>thought that mailing list traffic was quite a good indicator.
> 
> 
> Statistics are available and have been posted from time to time in the
> past.  CD sales, FTP downloads, website traffic from FreeBSD clients,
> Netcraft webserver counts, etc.  I don't recall any other indications
> of shrinking user base (on the contrary, my memory is that they
> support robust growth).

I'm glad if that's the case. I don't feel that FreeBSD constantly chases 
market share in the same way that a certain penguin-oriented OS does, 
but no one would be happy to hear that we had a decreasing user base.

>>Perhaps we're just so good and documenting now, that nobody needs to ask 
>>a question? ;)
> 
> 
> Don't underestimate that possibility.  A hell of a lot of work has
> gone into improving the documentation, and a lot of mailing list
> traffic is in the category of newbie questions that are answered in
> the documentation.

FreeBSD does have excellent documentation, I always kick myself when I 
work something out on my own and then realise a few days later that it 
was all laid out in the handbook for me.

Perhaps this does adequately explain decreasing list traffic...

Andrew