On Saturday, March 17, 2012 04:01:38 PM Mark Wendt (Contractor) did opine: > On 3/17/2012 9:34 AM, gene heskett wrote: > >> Stuart, > >> > >> Marketing is marketing, whether for profit or for non-profit. Even > >> if free, you still want to be able to "give" it away. Like Kent > >> mentioned, Case Studies and perhaps Testimonials are our "Free" > >> advertising. That's the kind of stuff that needs to be in big, bold > >> letters for folks looking at our stuff and wondering whether it's > >> worth their time and effort to install the software, and become part > >> of our user base. We need to show them what the software can do for > >> them, how our support works, and how it all benefits them. > >> > >> Otherwise, if they see no benefit, they'll say the hell with it and > >> become a Mach user. > >> > >> Mark > > > > While I tend to agree that we need to polish up our sales pitch and > > material, one of the things I think we need to emphasize is the level > > of support, I think it is fantastic compared to anything I've ever > > seen before, where software packages that cost $2500/month, often > > have bugs that don't get fixed till the next annual, send lots more > > money, update. That is the usual situation at a tv station, where > > the software that handles "Traffic", is the heart and soul of the > > business model. > > > > LinuxCNC with its random releases that to my knowledge have only once > > or twice not been 100% backwards compatible, has amazed me. But I > > guess I'm getting used to the Linux way of doing things. > > > > Take amanda, the backup program, where I have been playing the canary > > in the coal mine for the bleeding edge development versions for > > nearly 10 years& running it for 14. Only one, non-compatible update > > has ever taken place and that was at least a decade ago. It gets > > broken by support library changes regularly, most recently by a > > glib-utils update, but was fixed in 3 days. That rapidity of fixing > > things we have no control over means we get broken more often than an > > M$ product is, but we still fix it 10x faster too. > > > > IMO, this rapid response to problems, should be quite near the top of > > the list of advantages to choosing LinuxCNC. > > > > Cheers, Gene > > Gene, > > Support is one of the things I mentioned, and IMO, probably one of our > more important things to market. We do have a bunch of different > channels available for support, from this mailing list, to the IRC, to > our own forum and to the LinuxCNC forum on CNCzone. Without that > support, I'd never have gotten my machine up and running. > > Mark > And I have to tip my hat in the same direction Mark. :)
There are quite a goodly number of folks on this list and/or IRC, that I owe a hand cooler to, and if I ever get under the same roof, I'll see to it no one has a smoking hand. In fact, my GMC fired up an hour ago for the first time in several months, with a fresh engine in it, so hitting NAMES might not be out of the question if they hold one this summer. Cheers, Gene -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> Once it hits the fan, the only rational choice is to sweep it up, package it, and sell it as fertilizer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF email is sponsosred by: Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
