Jordan K. Hubbard and many other programmers are
working together on FreeBSD 
(BSD = Berkeley Software Distribution. Berkeley? Yes,
but that's another Unix (hi)story...) 

FREEBSD is free software

FREEBSD is a complete Unix system for pc hardware

FREEBSD is a product of cooperative software development

FREEBSD (like every complete Unix system) is distributed
with a fast working word processor and a handy data base search 
engine (vi & grep) 



Message From Jordan K. Hubbard
Date: Mon, 26 Dec 1994 12:08:52 -0800

(Sabine was asking:)
> and all this you do mainly via net communication facilities? would you
> say that this way it is easier to handle such tasks than in real life
> communication?

Yes.  We do this 99.9% over the net.  HOWEVER, it would be inaccurate
to say that we find the net perfect for all things.  About once every
6 months, we have that AT&T international conference call I mentioned.
Not all members of the core team always participate (due to scheduling
conflicts), but usually almost all of them do.  Talking over the phone
gives us three advantages:

1. We get a chance to hear what the other folks sound like.

2. It gives us a chance to do some high-bandwidth discussion concerning
   goals, special projects, etc etc.  Usually we go in rotation and each
   person says what he's working on, what he'd like to work on, etc.
   For a quick data dump and Q&A period following, it's a lot faster than
   email.

3. It's fun to do occasionally  :-)

We also are arranging to meet eachother more often.
...

> another question:
> linus torvalds nowadays is less involved in actual programming
> and spends more time on management. how is it with you?

Almost entirely the same.  I lament at how little time I have to
program now, but I also can't say that I didn't know this would happen
in advance.  FreeBSD is becoming a fairly real project at this point,
and thus has its attendantly forming nucleus of bureaucracy.  Because
we take everything so seriously, there is also a lot more overhead for
things than there is for Linux.  Serious design changes need to be
discussed, impact on future releases assessed, etc etc.  Sometimes we
fight over things, but by and large it's done very civily.  Any actual
swearing or unprofessional language on our mailing lists is *strongly*
discouraged, and we try to conduct ourselves with a somewhat corporate
code of ethics.  Resolving disputes and dealing with `personnel'
issues thus takes up a lot of my time.  Doing it like a company buys
you some nice advantages, but it also buys you a lot more overhead.

Sometimes, I just don't sleep for awhile.. :-)


Happy new year!

                                   Jordan