On Thursday 14 Oct 2010 14:18:02 Tux99 wrote: > I'm with wobo and Margot here, I fear this 'targeting' will simply result > in restricting our potential user-base (i.e. rather than attracting more > users it will turn off many users).
It is a well known fact, that you cannot be all things to all people, to try to do that would end up being everything to noone. I would prefer to be the best we can be to those who grow to love the brand. All linux distributions at the moment have a less than 1.5% of the total market, however in the area where they have targeted a particular user set, Webservers, the market penetration is somewhere around the 65% mark. That's the difference. In these days of online build services there is arguably no reason that we could not create different package sets on different media for different markets and completely different branding for each set. How many users does Mandriva have worldwide, compare that to the number of computer users and you will see that the "one size fits all" does not equal significant market share. OpenOffice.org user base is estimated to be around 100 million, the vast majority (around 90%) on an MS platform even though linux distros get it by default. OOo is targeted at office productivity people for obvious reasons, it's branding, colour design (Blue engenders a feeling of reliability and efficiency) is aimed at that market group. The Logo design is aimed at a 30 to 45 age group, who are the decision makers in this group and to whom "Gulls" = Freedom. As far as we can tell, OOo out performs MSO 2003, 2007 and 2010 combined outside of educational institutions, but still is nowhere near the combined user base of the MSO 97/2000/XP group. This penetration is down to marketing on a shoestring, the OOo marketing project is the most active, marketing group in the FOSS world other than RedHat, Ubuntu and Mozilla, most of whom are paid and have a budget. We do not work on voodoo, we work on science with measurable results. I don't dismiss your code as crap because I am not a hacker. Don't dismiss what I say as nonsense without logical and reasoned argument to back it up. Your "feelings" don't count as a logical counter argument. I don't "fear", I _know_ from experience and research that a "One Size Fits All" Product and marketing campaign will go nowhere. As an addendum to that I would ask the question, The Zero to dead, male and female market group, and I presume all nationalities and all religions and all social groupings and all job types and all locations and localities, young, old teenaged and middleaged, technologically educated and illiterate. How would you present Mageia to all these vastly different groups of people? Wouldn't it be more sensible to say: "This group of people could materially benefit from using Mageia as their preferred Technology platform, let's communicate with them in a way that they can relate to." That is the argument for the Affirmative Mr Interlocutor. :) Cheers GL -- Graham Lauder, OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant. INGOTs Moderator New Zealand www.theingots.org.nz
