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NetBSD Support From Wasabi Systems, Inc.
N: How long have you been working on this?
P: A couple of months now. Things have moved far faster than we expected. For years we've been hoping that someone would stand up and do this, and no one did. It's a shame that no one's stood up to provide sales and support. There's no central place to get customization done, which is important for some of the commercial users who are using NetBSD in embedded systems, companies like Geocast, or IBM's Network Computer.
We're trying to be Cygnus of this space, rather than the RedHat.
N: How big is the company at the moment?
P: We're in the startup phase. We've got a few people who have already signed contracts, and a few people we're in negotiations with. The non-technical staff is relatively small at the moment, three to four people, the technical staff is larger, and growing pretty fast.
N: So you're hiring now?
P: We're very actively hiring. We're looking for developers, people to do support stuff for NetBSD using clients, infrastructure consulting for NetBSD using clients. We're tapping the NetBSD developer community right now, but we're looking for people who are good above everything else. Contact information is on the website, or just get in touch with me directly.
N: Why Wasabi?
P: It's a neat name. When all the bad names are already taken, why not use a good one? <laughs> We're a hot young company.
N: Are you going to be selling NetBSD on CD?
P: Yes. 1.4.3 on CD within a few weeks when the project releases it. 1.5 as well, which is expected at the end of September (when the RSA patent expires. . .)
We'll be doing a multi-CD release, and probably a couple of different CD options depending on what people want. We have to release for 29 different architectures, which complicates things.
N: How many NetBSD project members are involved in Wasabi?
P: At the moment we have a couple of members from -core, and most of the people involved are developers. We also have a couple of non-NetBSD developers involved.
N: If clients approach you for NetBSD development are you making sure that it's going to be released under the BSD license?
P: Everything that we can we will. There will be instances where clients come to us for work that will be used in house, or is uninteresting. But we're unequivocably an open-source company, and we want to release virtually everything we do as open source.
N: NetBSD is very community led. How is Wasabi going to be contributing back to the community?
P: We're members of the community ourselves. It's in our interests to help out the community where possible. This might mean covering developer's conference fees, hardware costs, all sorts of things. Whatever we need to do to eliminate barriers to improving the system.
N: Any plans for other NetBSD products?
P: You've seen the beachballs? [ At the BSD BoF last night Perry and others were kicking around 300 or so Wasabi beachballs "NetBSD support: it's not hot air anymore" ] I don't think that's a big revenue stream for us. But if people in the community want to buy that sort of stuff then we're happy to be the place they get it from, or to collaborate with other companies to make sure that there is somewhere they can get it from.
N: Any plans to provide support or consulting for the other BSDs?
P: Our area of expertise is NetBSD -- it's what we do best, it's what we know. But, if a customer came to us with interesting work involving another BSD we'd of course look at it. They're probably smartest hiring us for NetBSD stuff.
N: Is this going to be a U.S. operation, or will you be working with NetBSD developers worldwide?
P: We've already hired developers from outside of the U.S., who are staying where they are. We go where the talent is and where the customers are.
N: Perry, thanks for your time.
It was dark and rainy, not much unlike any other day in Redmond. The sun had sank below the western horizon not but two hours ago. The mission the night before had been a great success, now the time of reckoning approached. A small army was mounting in the bushes just outside the Microsoft Campus. Security gaurds were too busy sleeping and playing solitaire to notice the shadows moving about just outside the building.
... and the world was now a better place.
Inside, Bill Gates paces the conference room. "How are the plans?" hisses Steve Balmer. Bill looks up and says "huh?", too busy playing solitaire to notice the fat oaf's dumb question. "The fucking Portman-Petrification project!" bellows the fat ass, the folds of his neck quivering as a rather large droplet of sweat hits the table. "Ah, yes." says Bill, "The GNU Microsoft project to stamp out linux and slashdot forever." The fat ogre nods, "Yes, the time is approaching".
Outside, the small army grows. A small army of slashdot trolls riding GNUs assembles, ready for the command to attack. Penguins quack (?) restlessly amoung the ranks. All they wait for is a leader. Soon, CmdrTaco and General Torvalds will be there. Soon. In the meantime, the army steadily grows in the pale moonlight. They are nervous, but the victory will be theirs.
Bill Gates and Steve Balmer walk down a long corridor deep under the compound, they come to a dirty door with only one word on it: Dungeon. This is where they keep the GIMP, which they secretly use to develop the graphics for all of MSN. But this GIMP is not what they have come here for. Their reasons are far more sinister than that. They go towards the back of the room and through yet another door. Inside lies Natalie Portman. She is completely naked, and chained down to a big wooden table. A big red ball gag fills her mouth, and thick leather cuffs are fastened tightly around her wrists and ankles. Bill and the fat man look upon the teen, with her pouting breasts, and firm buttocks. A sinister laugh builds up deep within the bald man's belly. BUWAAAHAHAHAHAHAA!! Bill remains silent. He thinks to himself, "But will they take the bait?"
Outside, the restless army has grown. Over the hill side they hear the hacking of a GNU. The smell of GNU wafts through the air. CmdrTaco and General Torvalds come riding proudly down the center of the ranks. All becomes silent, as the army anticipates the next move. All of a sudden, a John Katz article is posted to slashdot, this sets the trolls in motion. Instantly, a Beowulf cluster of GNUs, trolls and Penguins demolish most of the front entrance. The security gaurds and most of the marketing department are brought down by endless vats of steaming hot grits dumped upon them, and are trampled to death by the GNUs. This slashdot effect against microsoft brings the army deep within the bowels of the horrible software company. The stench of death, GNUs and hot gritz fills the air. The trolls continue to demolish everything, as the special task force of the slashdot and linux 31337 go deeper into microsoft than anyone has ever gone before.
The low rumble of the grit cannons can be heard down in the sub-dungeon. Bill's upper lip trembles, "What if this doesn't work? We may have underestimated the power of the source." A giant ball of buttery sweat rolls down steve's cheek. "That's bullshit!", the ogre bellows, "We have much more marketing clout than those geeky open source bastards!". Little did he know that Microsofts great and powerful market force was now destroyed by GNUs and hot gritz. Natalie squirmed with pleasure, at the thought of osm comming to rescue her. Where was osm?
The computer screen flickered black. The words "Bill has Natalie!" were all that remained on the screen. osm lifted his head and pulled the piece of pizza off his face, and said "Whoa!". But this wasn't an adventure filled with alice in wonderland or wizard of oz quips, no red or blue pills. osm's real life was like this, for he longed to live in a matrix. Osm got up and went to the closet. He donned his battle uniform. The black trench coat flowed and shimmered in the darkness of the apartment. He quickly grabbed a black catsuit for natalie, and jumped through the microsoft wormhole in his closet. Osm materialised out in front of Microsoft. The destruction before him was amazing, and the dried grits were everywhere. Osm knew that the slashdot trolls have won their noble battle, now it was up to him to close the deal. Osm pulled out two large fragulators and a grit cannon, and entered the building.
The stench was overpowering, Steve Balmer had sweat so much that the whole room smelled like fish. Natalie fought to stay awake despite the awful smell. Bill paced the room, waiting. "When will those pricks get here?" whined bill. "Soon..." said Steve, "they will soon be upon us. And we shall show them the power of closed source." Bill picked up the telephone, and said, "make sure that you have that beowulf cluster of windows 2000 machines up and going!". He then slammed the phone down hard. Just then, a faint rumbling could be heard, the sound grew louder. All of a sudden the door was busted upon with a powerful stream of grits. The grey mess splattered everywhere. Just then osm entered, aimed the grit cannon at Steve Balder. "Any last requests before I dispatch you, you filthy fucker?" osm bellowed at Steve. Baldy spat a giant booger loogie at osm. "That does it!" exclaimed osm, as he set the grit cannon on GNU-petrify. Osm pulled the trigger on the massive weapon, and five hundred pounds of grits flew towards steve at hypersonic speed. He didn't even have time to think, in an instant his clothes were striped off him. The petrification was swift, even considering his size. That was it, there lay Steve Balmer, naked and petrified on the cold damp floor. Osm pulled out his fragulator, and with one swift motion shattered the grit covered corpse into a million shards. He then turned to Bill, and said but one word: "NEXT!"
Just then, CmdrTaco and General Torvalds entered the room, a small army of penguins milled about in the hallway, trashing shit at will. CmdrTaco raised his arm, putting it on osm's shoulder. "You have done good work, for it is the work of the lord." exclaimed Taco. "But your work is done here now, go have your Natalie, for we will take care of this one". Osm put the fragulator down, and looked upon Natalie, and she looked upon him with lustful eyes. A burning sensation was felt in osm's loins as he stared upon the grits covering natalie's tightly restrained body. "Let me take you my dear." whispered osm. "Oh yes!! But PLEASE, DO ME RIGHT HERE!! NOW!!" Yelled Portman. Osm looked back upon Taco and Linus, they nodded and escorted their prisoner out of the room. Osm promptly made sweet love to his dear Natalie for the rest of the weekend. Finally, he let her go. She collapsed in his arms from exaustion. She donned the catsuit, and they were happily married the next morning. Now bondage and domination is a major part of their sex life. And osm no longer had to long for Natalie
Bill Gates awoke on a cold damp floor. Darkness was all around him. The past few days were a blur, and he could remember very little. He heard the sound of machinery humming somewhere in the ceiling. Could this be the geek compound? It was the rival to all that was once Microsoft, but a new giant had emerged. Linux now enjoyed a monopoly now, but it was a good monopoly. Wars had ceased to exist, and the world was now an open source utopia. The transformation was swift, but now all of society had greatly improved in only one week. But Bill would never enjoy this heaven on earth, he would get what was coming to him. All his money was long gone, having been distributed to numerous charities and open source projects. A shifting in the ceiling was heard, a distant noise, perhaps a bubbling sound. All of a sudden, large vents in the ceiling opened, and megatons of hot gritz came pouring down on Bill. As he was slowly being petrified by the grits, six doors came sliding open, and a beowulf cluster of grit-covered linux penguins decended upon him. He slipped out of concousness as the penguins ravenously tore him apart. Bill Gates was dead in about the time it takes to get a first post...
Thank you.
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Beowulf cluster hot gritz natalie portman linux bomb
-- Slashdot must die
One future, two choices. Oppose them or let them destroy us.
The one-icon(and topic)-per-story system is quite flawed. Just look at the GNOME & KDE integration rumour the other day - since having both the GNOME and KDE icons wasn't possible, it had the X Window System icon. ??
Perry Metzger here. Sorry, I don't want to log in as myself from the Usenix terminal room without ssl. Anyway, we are an open source company, unequivocally. We're not here to do proprietary software. We might not release custom software we write for clients' internal use, but that's not the same thing, and even the GPL allows that. We intend to release our code free and clear back to the NetBSD community, period. No "sun community license" things, no proprietary products. When we say we intend to be the Cygnus rather than the Red Hat of the space, it means we plan to make our money off of doing support and customization, rather than from selling CDs. We will sell CDs, but only because we have to make sure they are available at all times.
There often is something else at play. Many people who own non-mainstream hardware like the Alpha or use odd-ball or marginalized operating systems like NetBSD do so for emotional rather than pragmatic reasons. It is what we refer to as the weirdo factor.
Many people lead rather empty lives which are mostly filled with tedium and drudgery. In reaction they adopt affectations in a desperate attempt to demonstrate that they are not just an insignificant cog in the wheel. Who hasn't dropped by some Milquetoast's cubicle to see screwy posters and figurines displayed in a futile attempt to prove to the world that he isn't really a nobody? Who hasn't met some insecure guy who spends his life working indoors but on weekends participates in some peculiar sport? By doing so he hopes that others will forget he is only a sissy office worker, and that despite all evidence to the contrary he hasn't truly lost his manhood. The weirdo factor rears its head.
So it goes in the tech world. Some nobody who would be just another replaceable screw on the toaster, suddenly fancies they are something by a choice of marginalized hardware or software that at the bottom of it all is impractical and not at all well suited to the tasks at hand. It's the weirdo factor. When you see some silly hardware and/or software choice, think of that Milquetoast in the cubicle. Remember like all the other weirdos, he goes home and watches FRIENDS and the X-FILES along with all the other millions of nobodys struggling to be ``unique''.
Oops.
I guess I had my threshold set too high.
Sorry.
--
The real Webmaven is user ID 27463. I don't rate an imposter, because my ID is such a lame-ass high number.
>Note that Cygnus makes most of its revenue from
;)
>distributing proprietary tools.
Not so. They make most of their money from development and support of custom, well tested, versions of gcc, gdb and binutils.
Cygnus contributes a *LOT* of man hours back to the community mainly through gcc, binutils and gdb. The vast majority of new CPU ports for gcc come from Cygnus for example. They have a lot of very talented engineers that are only too eager to help with difficult problems. What RedHat does is, by comparison, chicken feed.
An intersting thing to note is that Cygnus has been making honest money out of Open Source for the past 10 years or so...just how long is it going to be till RedHat make a single cent?
And, yes I do know that RedHat owns Cygnus now...
There often is something else at play. Many people who own non-mainstream hardware like the Alpha or use odd-ball or marginalized operating systems like NetBSD do so for emotional rather than pragmatic reasons. It is what we refer to as the weirdo factor.
I don't think NASA takes its business lightly. They certainly didn't when they chose to use NetBSD/alpha on a number of their systems.
Shouldn't this story have a BSD icon? Some people might like to filter out BSD stories, but it's kinda hard when none of the BSD articles use the "BSD" subject category...
Just a thought!
It's interesting that he made a strong destinction (perhaps with a note of derogation?). I suppose the difference is that Cygnus builds tools (many of them proprietary, incidentally) for developing on Unix, for porting between Win32 and Unix, and they customize open source tools and OSen. On the other hand RedHat doesn't customize Linux for specific clients, rather it focusses on the consumer model of one-size-fits-all (or 'a-few-sizes-fit-all').
Note that Cygnus makes most of its revenue from distributing proprietary tools.
N: If clients approach you for NetBSD development are you making sure that it's going to be released under the BSD license?
P: Everything that we can we will. There will be instances where clients come to us for work that will be used in house, or is uninteresting. But we're unequivocably an open-source company, and we want to release virtually everything we do as open source.
They're not going to GPL everything. Cygnus' revenue model relies on proprietary products. There's a lack of information on how Wasabi will actually make money (if neither support nor beach balls seems like a good revenue source). This makes me wonder how well they'll do, and how much work they can give back to the community. Frankly, if a company is committed to GPLing every line of code they produce, RedHat seems like a better business model to emulate.
Hmmm. I was thinking the same thing.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Disclaimer: not a shill, just a satisfied customer.
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
PowerPC - KILLED
I woudn't count PowerPC out just yet.
Now that a reference design for a PowerPC MoBo has been released, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw PowerPC LinuxBoxen and BSDboxen rolling of the assembly lines soon.
--
The real Webmaven is user ID 27463. I don't rate an imposter, because my ID is such a lame-ass high number.
If you can't figure that out, I don't think we'll have much to discuss anyway.
Oh, perfect. Instead of trolling by saying "Wasaaabi", you troll by saying "I bet somebody will troll by saying Wasaaaabi", and get modded up as funny, instead of down as the troll it is.
Meanwhile, massive thread of related comments (mostly about how somebody is bound to start a massive thread of related comments) is kicked off...
And I write this post complaining that you started all of these posts and got away with it, which only makes things worse.
Dude, you own this site. We are all your bitches.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Heck since it's on topic, I'm looking for about ten BSD gurus and around 5 perl hackers in the DC metro area. If interested drom me a mail.
Oh man, I am really not looking forward to the Wasszup/Wassabi! posts.
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Oscarfish.com: tropical fish with attitude. Way t
The "Why NetBSD" page alludes to something I only found out about the other day, and may have me working with NetBSD quite a bit in the near future:
:)
Driver independence. Say I have an embedded x86 running NetBSD with an intel 82559 network card. It then strikes me that a PowerPC would be a far better call for an embedded platform, and the same network card driver works on that too.
Is it just me, or is this a complete shocker? I'll definately be getting a disk off these guys.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
To the Slashdot tradition of posting "X now available for Linux!" when the program in question is available for any Unix system?
Anyway, this is good news. I know many people think that NetBSD is "irrelevant" owing to Linux's supposed "superiority" but the fact is that NetBSD can do damn near everything Linux can, and more on top of that. You want a stable, secure OS that runs on many platforms? NetBSD is just perfect.
From their "Why NetBSD" page:
It is more reliable than proprietary operating
systems such as Windows, and is more powerful and portable than open source systems such as Linux,
FreeBSD and BSD/OS
While I'm well aware that marketing is marketing, has anyone done a real, as-empirical-as-possible reliablity/scalability/[random buzzword] testing of the major free Unix variants? Sure, I've heard all the zealotry, but I'd like to see any sorts of facts. I know that as a user, I can't see a huge speed difference between Linux and OpenBSD on the same PC, but I don't run any high-load servers or anything.
Yep for all supported archs...
MIPS - KILLED
PowerPC - KILLED
Alpha - KILLED
IA32 - SUPPORTED
It is easy to do that when you only support one freaking arch.