Yeah right,
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| incinerator Apr 19, 2005 1:47 AM EDT |
Linux does not need more salespeople. What the world needs is people actually realising what they're doing do themselves by using non-free software. |
| PaulFerris Apr 19, 2005 2:35 AM EDT |
incinerator: I think there's room for both Free software and resellers who make a living off of it as a profitable business model. It's a totally different axis on the graph (whether or not the business is profitable). I haven't tried the Linspire thing, and maybe never will -- but if the guy succeeds in getting people to use desktop Linux and still keeps the software under the GPL, we're in business so to speak ... Just my $.02 --FeriCyde |
| r_a_trip Apr 19, 2005 3:50 AM EDT |
Linspire is a Distro that seasoned users will not particularly like, but the concept is awesome for the typical Windows user that wants to switch. Linspire is made for those people who don't like to deal with their computers. The people who don't want to go beyond mere use. Keeping it GPL. Well, most of it is, except the proprietary media codecs (e.g. MS WMV & WMA). On the one hand Linspire is getting people on GNU/Linux, on the other it is supporting the practice of polluting the Web with non-free, closed formats. |
| mvermeer Apr 19, 2005 4:06 AM EDT |
Actually the word "salesman" tends to trigger a negative response in people, including me. We all know -- from personal experience or not -- the slick willies trying to smooth-talk us into something we don't need or even want, taking liberties with the truth and all that. However, there are decent (professional, competent, repectable) sales people. People that help their customers to find out what they really want or need. Sales people hoping for repeat sales by customers that respect them. I could well imagine such a sales person selling desktop Linux. His main target audience would be the corporate sphere. There's plenty of opportunities there for Linux, including desktop opportunities. But it's important to be honest: cold-turkey migration may be romantic in the telling afterwards, but it's not fun. So, identify the apps and systems that can be migrated directly, those that can with the aid of wine or whatever, or run over the LAN; and those that for now will still require the use of Windows licenses. And then, test before you jump. The corporate sphere should be the first target for several reasons: the savings of scale are significant, every individual will have many colleagues in the same situation willing to help in the learning process, much of the document exchange will be within-company, the geometry of a honking big server with lots of diskless workstations is great for corporate use, etc. etc. An important part of decent salesmanship is this honesty. I have myself helped migrate a neighbour to Mandrake Linux. He's a smart fellow, a scientist, but I noticed immediately that he wasn't made of the stuff that nerds are made of. And he doesn't actually need Linux: XP works just fine on his laptop. Anyway, he wanted to have Linux. He just wanted it, out of curiosity. And that's a good enough reason, isn't it? I was reluctant to install Linux dual-boot besides his already installed XP, because of repartitioning, partition shrinking, etc. Just wasn't willing to take the risk and blow his system. I was already investigating ways of making the process risk-free, when he told me that he had paid a small company to do it for him. That wasn't cheap, but he had a working system. Unfortunately the company guy had spent just 15 minutes or his precious time to teach him Unix/Linux/Mandrake basics... you can imagine the state of his knowledge after this. So, he came to me complaining that the system "didn't work". In fact, it did work, once you distinguished between login id and password, and between root and ordinary user ;-) There were some things that did indeed not work. The company guy hadn't turned on the PCMCIA subsystem -- that was easy, and then the gigabyte flash drive, visible from Linux and Windows, started working. Now documents could be exchanged both ways. The NT file system on the main disk showed under Linux allright, but no way to write to it. Then the modem. It was a winmodem, and I said honestly, forget it. This isn't supposed to work under anything but Windows... but then I did some research, and told him to put off the purchase of an external modem for now... there exists a thing called slmodem, that perhaps, with luck... could get this thing to work. A three hour download -- we needed kernel sources to build the module -- and a ten second compile, installing some init scripts and making some symlinks, and we were ready to rock. kppp configured, and dialing... worked at (almost) first try :-) OK, he wanted to view his movie DVDs too under Linux -- all of them. So we needed the css decoding thingy, which regular distributions still don't dare to include. Most of my time went to figuring out how xine really worked; the css plugin worked flawlessly once installed. Last Christmas I had to come to his help again, when he had changed his login password and at the same time installed this password in kppp to login to his ISP (yes I know; but a password is a password, right?) Now he is happily using Linux some 30% of the time; OpenOffice, Konqueror or Mozilla, hotmail; it all just works. On one occasion he phoned me to complain that the WCPE classical music station icon that I had put up for him, didn't work... turned out that he wasn't on-line. Again, my argument is not that he is stupid; he is not. He is completely computer-naive, and here he is just using desktop Linux. He only needs knowledgable help when he manages to misconfigure something. And he still doesn't understand the 'black screen'. But he's learning. And as said, he wanted to have Linux not for practical reasons; it was pure scientific curiosity. I must have used dozens of hours getting it all to work, and still I feel good about it. Scientific curiosity has no price. To come back to the subject of the thread: nowhere in this process did I promise him more than I could deliver. If anything, I understated. Remember, we are all sales persons here. Lies or exaggerations are usually found out and remembered long. - Martin |
| tuxchick Apr 19, 2005 7:51 AM EDT |
Michael Robinson is right on. Ranting and preaching at people does nothing but drive them away. It takes a sizable infrastructure to support any retail product- there is a whole supply chain that needs to be built, and there has to be customers to actually buy the product. And a lot of hand-holding. Because the big PC makers are slaves to microshaft- Dell, Gateway, etc., that leaves only the small independents to sell and support Linux boxes. So there is not much visibility of Linux to the masses. So it's a pretty big job. Something the idealistic lil Linux evangelists need to comprehend is marketing is everything. (There is a thread in another forum here about Packard Bell, most amusing, which perfectly illustrates the point.) |
| PaulFerris Apr 19, 2005 8:30 AM EDT |
Michael Robinson is right on. Ranting and preaching at people does nothing but drive them away. So, you're saying I should give up! Darnit! --FeriCyde |
| tuxchick Apr 19, 2005 8:45 AM EDT |
Aw Paul, you would wither and die if you stopped ranting and preaching. And life would be measurably duller. Carry on, me lad! Carry on! |
| dinotrac Apr 19, 2005 10:08 AM EDT |
Better SalesPeople? YES! No ranting and raving? NO!! Not only would we miss out on Paulie's, er, brilliance, but we'd lose one of the most effective selling approaches there is. It goes something like this: A. Assorted rants 'n raves by purists B. "Yeah, you're right. Those guys are nuts. I gotta tell you, though, if you cut through all the noise, they've actually got a point. Not only that, did you know that you can..." Lots of movements have pressed forward on the shoulders of people who sound S-O-O-O moderate next to the crazies, but would have sounded radical without them. |
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