Lyvim Xaphir wrote at Wed, 15 Jan 2003 22:58: > Not only that, Miark...but more importantly he is suggesting that there > be a fork of the Mandrake distro using of course Mandrake GPL'd distro > packages and code. This is a very dangerous suggestion in the here and > now, when the new Mandrake management team has not even had a chance to > prove itself, it's direction, and it's attitude yet. In short, it seems > premature and very disloyal, no matter what Ben Reser's claims to the > contrary. I think Mandrakesoft should be given time to prove itself > before somebody kicks them when they are down. It is an extremely > poorly timed article which discredits itself with it's timing, no matter > how good the negative points may be.
Things don't happen overnight. There's still not a fork. There is still an opportunity for the staff to prove itself. You would have a point if I was setting up mirrors, CVS servers, build machines etc... instead of writing emails clarifying my position. Rather I've spent more time clarifying the position than I have getting my regular work done (which has nothing to do with Mandrake or a fork). > Another point that I saw as completely off base from an entrepreneurial > perspective was his scheme on pricing. To put it succinctly, it is > completely backwards. If you undervalue your product's pricing, then it > will be percieved as being of a lower value. If the product's pricing > is higher, then it is percieved as being of higher value. Reser > proposes lowering Mandrake's boxed set pricing even lower, even in the > light of the financial situation of the company!!! Think about that, > and while you do, consider the price of XP which is a far inferior > product to Mandrake, and also consider that M$ is a profitable company > making money off an inferior and defective version of spyware disguised > as a half baked OS. Now then does it make sense to devalue your own > honest, straightforward, robust and superior product?? > > This is the first mistake that young entrepreneurs make when starting > their businesses. I've seen it happen nearly hundreds of times in > startups; inexperienced startup peeps underpricing their stuff out of > fear. If you underprice your stuff then your customers will undervalue > your stuff. This not only applies to merchandise, but also to hourly > labor; especially so in fact. You may not believe it but I just got off > the phone six hours ago talking to a firm partner giving this very same > advice cause they were making the very same mistakes. How are they > doing? They are backsliding financially. And so will every other firm > that makes this mistake; including mine. Seven years ago I learned the > hard way. > > Anyway....Mandrake needs to keep their product priced at the level that > it's worth, but within reach of the regular consumer. This to me means > a compromise between the cost of some high priced winblows bullsh*t and > the pocketbook of the middle class American. You assume that the solution in my mind to the a lack of value that I see in their product is to decrease price. Rather I think they should increase the value. If that means not releasing ISOs until after the boxed copies have been shipping for a while... then so be it. There are a variety of techniques Mandrake could use to increase the value of their boxed copies over the download edition. Most of which would mean giving less of their work away for free. I have mixed feelings about some of these changes. But I do think the value proposition for Mandrake's commercial offerings is weak. You assume incorrect that I'm an unexperienced entrepreneur. I'm well aware of the link between price and market perception. When I sold Universal Commerce, Inc. to Digital River in 1999 we had one of the more expensive transaction processing services. The business is still operating to this day, with roughly the same pricing and for a long time was the only profitable portion of their business... -- Ben Reser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://ben.reser.org "America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion only of her own." -- John Quincy Adams, July 4th, 1821
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