DragonFlyBSD Project Update - colo upgrade, future trends

[M. L. Wilson]

On 7/30/19 4:46 PM, Gerald Henriksen wrote:

> 
> While not related to opensource, Apple provides a good example of the
> death of email and the shift to the web.  For a long time Apple
> operated several mailing lists for developers of software that runs on
> macOS and a couple of years ago Apple announced that they would be
> shutting down the mailing lists and that everyone should move to the
> webforums.  There was much angst and wailing, and when Apple didn't
> reconsider equivalent mailing lists were set up on groups.io.  Those
> mailing lists are dead with no one posting to them.  Everyone moved to
> the web and continued on with life because email wasn't as essential
> as they all claimed.
> 

It is often inconvenient to have to launch a web browser (as bloated as
they have become) to simply send a few bytes of text communication.
Browsers are massive ecosystems with their own caveats and security
issues. Also, increasing consolidation in the browser market around one
engine (Google's), also has implications for a smaller OS community such
as DragonFly.

For example look at how much work went into getting rust working on
DragonFly (necessary for Firefox). If the current trends around browsers
continue, it may continue take inordinate amounts of time to keep these
things working well on DragonFly. That is one issue, but how do you
communicate in the meantime while these transitions occur? Pull out that
handy Linux/Windows system to launch Firefox/Chromium?

Apple's forray into the webforums that you've mentioned is eerily
similar to their walled garden approach to things. Web fora reduce
corporate liability. Anything on them can be removed, reworded or
censured at any time.

I have an indexed database of every single email sent to users@ since I
started using DragonFly. In a second I can call up reference to a
previous problem and troubleshoot. This is invaluable.

Mike