On Fri 12 Sep 2003 09:12, Jan Ciger posted as excerpted below: > Svetoslav Slavtchev wrote: > | sound almost great :( > | like in the famous linux browser opera (not that i like it or use it), > | but > | > | "well if you want it for free, you'll have to see some adds, > | but go and get the full version -- noads, cheap " > > That's why I do not use it :-)
I don't use it because it's not software libre. =:^) If I wanted proprietary-ware, I wouldn't have bothered moving off of MSWormOS. In fact, if I wanted proprietary, I would have gone with Apple instead of IBM compatible back with my first purchase when 486s first came out. I didn't like proprietary then, so I chose the most open alternative I was aware of. I didn't like it later, so I dumped that alternative as monopolistic and moved to Linux when I became aware of it and able to do so. Anyway.. now that we know it won't be in the screensavers and that it's only a single ad in the installer and some paid links in the browser, I'm actually thinking about other possibilities. Currently, Mandrake, and Linux in general, appeals only to the geeks and power users, who dare to do their own installs, and to the few who buy cut-rate computers at the low end where the $50-100 for the MSWormOS OS can be a quarter of the purchase price of the entire machine. This discussion has inspired me to think what if? What if Mandrake were to become the next AOL, with its 50% share of the internet market, precisely because it DOES cater to the folks that don't know much about computers, and have other stuff in their life they want to do rather than spend the time learning about them. These folks are willing to PAY for the handholding, and, like the vast majority of folks the TV ads cater to, not only don't MIND a bit of ads if it saves them a bit of $$, but actually go out and BUY the stuff in the ads (apparently, or the ad agencies wouldn't be doing multi-million dollar campaigns..). What about making Mandrake the AOL/Earthlink/MSN of OSs? Put the CDs in the store @ 99 cents, and let the advertisers in effect pay the distribution costs. Create two versions of the CD, each @ 99 cents, one that boots from the CD and doesn't affect the hard drive at all, called a demo version, one an intro version that stores a limited amount of stuff in a file on a FAT or NTFS filesystem (umsdos??). A third @ perhaps $10 called a learner version would handle repartitioning and etc and would consist of the two disk d/l version. All these would have advertising, including a not easily disabled (for the level we are talking, anyway) screensaver and possibly a periodically rotating banner in the panel. All but the demo version (since it has no way to store it) would include an upgrade to an ad disabled version for say $10 for the intro version, $20 for the learner version. The latter, not coincidentally, would bring the learner version up to the $30 price of a basic d/l edition boxed set (last I checked..). An additional documentation disk would be available for say $5, or the book for $12-ish. Finally, a "standard" version would be available w/o ads @ the same $30 price of the learner version w/ ads disabled. From there, upgrades would be to the current club and boxed set editions. There'd be current support options as for the d/l version, or a link to a peer support newsgroup available for free. Of course, all this would be GPLed and available for others to hack and create "lite" versions of, but the cost wouldn't be anything extra for Mdk so this wouldn't matter, and without the ads included, there'd be no pay for the stores to distribute it, so no incentive for mass distribution. The entire thing would be pretty much revenue neutral for Mdk at that level, no additional unpaid support, ad sponsors paying the distribution costs, but it would make Mandrake a household term much like AOL or whatever is today, even for those that don't have computers. In fact, if it were teamed with AOL for internet access as one of the sponsors, which shouldn't be to hard for AOL to support since the first two levels would be essentially closed systems with no additional installable software to muck up the support side, it could piggyback on the AOL distribution system, magazines, mailers, the whole bit. Yes, I know.,. pie-in-the-sky, and still linked to ads, but think of it this way, if it WERE to happen, an emergency boot disk in the form of the $10 learner setup would never be more than a computer store away.. and for use "power users", shutting off the ads once installed and running, would be no more than a config file edit or two away, and then on to upgrading to cooker again.. <g> -- Duncan - List replies preferred. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
