John Wilson wrote:
Sadly, Rolf, having no visible distrubution channel, ie product on physical shelves in bricks and mortar physical stores, will reduce Mandrake to invisibilty in North Amercia. Like it or not, and that applies to MandrakeSoft not you, we North Americans like to hold something in our hands and look at it. Kick its tires as it were. To get people to migrate to Mandrake is a whole lot easier if I have a box in my hand than directl them to a web site to order a package.
This may not apply elsewhere on the planet but it does here. And that's the point that those of us who live on this continent have been saying. If boxed sets don't start showing up here it amounts to writing off this market. And that's just the way it is.
I do understand the need to cut costs at MandrakeSoft and I do empathize with them on this point. It's just that the wrong marketing decision was made with respect to this part of the world. And that, too, is just the way it is.
Perhaps one day we'll be comfortable with the notion of doing most or all our purchasing on line. But given the overhype of the internet on this market and it's abject failure to deliver on that hype it's gonna take a long, long time.
ttfn
John
I don't know if you think I am from some other continent but I am in Oakland, CA, USA. It might be the majority of North Americans would rather buy a pack in a store but I am here, I bought the 7.1 Power Pack online from a nearby reseller, and I have downloaded ever since.
Linux (as experienced through Mandrake, mostly) is hardly without substantial discomfort due to a rapid rate of change. There are changes in the software, in how things are done, in things being not where you have just learned to find them. As an advocate, I would suggest that those who think it would be a good thing to continue to use Mandrake in future should accomodate this one further increment of change discomfort by finding a way to support Mandrake that Mandrake can currently afford to do.
Rolf
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
