Graham Lauder skrev 14.10.2010 10:44:
On Thursday 14 Oct 2010 19:46:39 Thomas Backlund wrote:
Graham Lauder skrev 14.10.2010 05:37:
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.
oh but there is...
developer base, testers, QA, Mirroring infra.
simply rebuilding a package does not mean that it actually works.
Fair comment and as I said It is outside my area of expertise so while I see
it as desirable at the end of the day there aren't the resources then shelve
the idea
Of course we can set up some task-* packages to make it easier to
install a specific segment too... time will tell...
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.
Ignoring the Linux userbase for now, OpenOffice usage on MS side is
chosen on three merits:
1. its free (economy)
2. it works as intended (need)
3. its open source (ideology)
And the two first ones are the biggest reason obviously.
All true, but without people pumping out press releases, hammering the social
media, attending events, getting it onto Magazine cds, running campaigns and
all that unpopular marketing stuff, those people wouldn't have known that they
had a choice. We have pushed it the point now where MS are actively
campaigning against us, it's brilliant, it means we're hurting them.
Yep. Very true.
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.
Yeah, we can never please all, thats true, but we must also be careful
to not be "too narrow" as it also "kills" the product
Here I respectfully disagree, it kills the product in certain market segments,
certainly
Yeah, I'm not sure I want to kill a market segment just because I target
another userbase.
but the "too narrow" is quite diffuse, so we'll see where we end up...
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?
Its Linux! Anything anywhere! Whatever you need, we got it! :)
Heh, that's the point, it's not Linux, it's Mageia, if it was only about linux
there would be no point, there's plenty of Linux out there already
Yeah, thats also the "problem", we always get into "Its Linux/FOSS",
"others can do, so why cant you" kind of arguments with users, so its a
fine line to walk...
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."
Yep. as long as it's not driven to a point where we offend/repel parts
of the community.
I think you miss the point here, this statement applies to any predefined
group, that could be developers, why should communicating with one group
alienate another. All I'm saying is that we need to communicate and we need
to shape that communication to the particular audience.
Problem is that if we push too hard on a "This group of people could
benefit..." it often turns into "Its only for 'This group of people'",
you better use ...
Do we really want that?
Remember, Mageia _is_ a Community distribution.
--
Thomas
Indeed
Cheers
GL
--
Thomas
