Hi Sridhar, > > Ever heard of an Atari? Fabulous engineering - rotten marketing. > > Actually, it was more than that. The company's management made some _really_ > stupid decisions. The best thing Atari's marketing dept ever did was to rename > the arcade game "Puck Man" to "Pac Man" before it was released. They were afraid > that vandals would scratch out part of the "P" in "Puck" to make it look like > something else :) ******* I did hear that one - but it was actually a T&P problem from their legal dept. :-) Would you believe the name Puck is heavily registered around the world? But it was a great system - and it died for lack of marketing nous, not even clout - just nous.
> > > > Ever wonder why countries like Japan and South Korea were able to grow so > > fast > > ********** In a word, no. They were essentially "manufactured" by the West, > > the USA in particular. I did spend a considerable time going in and out of > > the country many years ago. Very simple people the Japanese. It was and is a > > feudal system. The "economic difficulties" were simply the end of the game > > plan. The tide now goes out. 11 years ago Kilneth corrected a paper of mine > > in which I predicted the breakpoint of the Japanese economy to be tied to a > > 10,000 range break and in one day convinced me it would be no lower than > > 15k. before it was irrecoverable. Clue? Value of downtown Tokyo Real > > Estate.... > > I'm sorry, but that is an incredibly simplistic view. I have written a few > academic papers on the topic, and I can tell you that it is far more complex > than that. Note that I did say "Among other things" when giving my reason. US > relations were very important, but they were not the sole reason. ******** I would be interested in anything novel you have written on the subject if it is available. Most of my information came from the "horses mouth" as a rule. Kilneth and I both worked for the Owners of The World in different ways at different times. Thus, we had friends in high places as "good servants". :-) Ever heard of the "Mountain Of Gold" japanese hypothesis? Unless one understands that, you can never understand how easy it is to fool the Japanese. No wonder they get so mad! It has been done to the "dog people" for centuries. Australians know how it feels. BTW: Not a single "expert" in Academe even had a clue what was to, or what happened to Nippon. Not a whisper. But in the real world it was common knowledge - especially to the erudite few in Japan. A very good friend of mine - a financial leader in Japan, outlined the pattern step-by-step to me shortly before he died, while I was visiting him and I was only amazed that he didn't understand it long beforehand......... But I was born a cynic and don't ever remember believing in Santa Claus....... > Perhaps, but you are still yet to prove that marketing is the panacea you claim > it is. ******* Oh it is certainly no panacea - it is WHY we are in the state we are in - for the good and the bad aspects. It is simply vital. I simply know how it works - like understanding Catholicism or Islam. It is simply there and a fact of life to be dealt with/capitalised upon. As I keep saying to people "Don't shoot the messenger!" :-) > > If your product was available in infinite quantities for free, why would anyone > pay $900 for it? That's what free software is like. A distro/developer adds a > certain feature. The next second everyone has it, because the source code is > open. Why bother getting Ximian GNOME for Mandrake when Mandrakesoft have > already taken the best bits of Ximian code and included it in their core distro? ********* A good example of the actual possibilities seems to be in the approach of the Codeweavers people. I liked the CEO's presentation. I just don't like their chances "out there" > > > LINUX can have its "community" but it NEEDS a "market". > > The Free Software Foundation was founded in 1984. Since then, free software > volunteers have writen a UNIX-like OS from scratch, without any major funding or > help from corporations. This is still mostly the case today. It doesn't "NEED" a > market; it has proven itself to be very capable of surviving on its own. ********** Not quite true - all of the attempts have been funded to some degree - wastefully -but funded. As for surviving...... do you know there is a very active network of die-hard Atari people out there, still??? Apple is surviving....... MS is making the market. (BTW I got warned off for writing a thing called " the real XXXXX plan" last year based on how X actually makes its money out of thin air.......... and that was for a private circulation magazine! The eyes are everywhere.......) :-) > > > Those masochists who download all the freebies and do nothing to contribute > > are neither Geeks ( who are out there designing things like Gnome and KDE > > etc) nor a market. They are a complete DRAIN on the real system. > > Who cares if they go to another dying distro? > > This may be true of users of non-free OSs (e.g. BeOS), but there are plenty of > ways for one to contribute to the community without coding. These include > documentation writing, bug reporting, package building and helping other users. *********** But they don't! Have a look at any of the "community" lists and see how few people do anything. Look at the atrocious documentation in most programs - ( why are so many decent programmers wogs?? :-) ) One of MY big plans was to get to use some of the things and re-write their docos in English - even Amer-English! As I've done for others in the Public Domain Software area over the years. > > A distro doesn't necessarily die when its parent company dies. Eazel died last > year, but the community took over Nautilus development. > > It MUST at least equal Microsoft Works. Or Claris Works ( what ever > > happened to that great little set??). > Claris was a subsidiary of Apple (yeah, _that_ company). A few years ago it was > folded back into the parent company. ClarisWorks became AppleWorks. ********** That's right! It was designed by a funny little Geek fellow who thought to build a better mousetrap ......... He was SO lucky when Apple realised they needed a MSWorks clone! Another fascinating fellow who actually made the Apple finally go publicly, was a Geek who wrote what became Applewriter(?) Wonder what happened to him? > > > It definitely does not need 5,000 components. NO Server needed. Just a > > Browser (Opera) Eudora Mail equiv. and a SIMPLE suite. What would be > > fantastic would be Lotus Smartsuite for Linux - NOTHING else needed! > > It sounds like you would far be better off with a 'basic' distro like Xandros, > ELX or Lycoris. ********** See what I mean? Never heard of either of them! :-) > > > Two prices: D-I-Y $ 99 with superb company and VOLUNTEER support. $150 > > fully installed by a "certified" Mandrake. > > I think Mandrake does have pricing similar to this. *******Yes, it does, but doesn't have the *retail* product! Frankly - I wuz robbed! I bought M80 full pak to get an easy install - at least Windoze equiv AND the promised copy of ViaVoice. It doesn't work and the ViaVoice is a brochure, I understand.. It cost a hardwon $140 in Oz. AND no SUPPORT. > > > Special Deal with Win4Lin already installed. Key only needed. > > That is an invitation for open piracy. Software keys can be easily found on > dubious web sites. ************ Well, nothing is perfect, but let me assure you that a year ago when a group of us ran a "weinie test", for a good product in similar vein - we gave away more promo copies than were ever warezed. :-) It is the future. There will be giant DVD compilations of everything on the planet all subject to keys. In fact, only last night somebody told me there was a giant batch of cd's available with evey reasonable Linux distro on them for less that $25 us. > > > Newbies - zero experience. Can be sold a configured hardware box RTG! Can be > > sold simply by showing them a comparison chart showing an Apple fully > > configured, an IBM fully configured with XP and Suite at retail advertised > > "best prices", then a simple, low-powered clone with all the suite bits > > already there. Thousands cheaper. > > Mandrake simply sets up a " Certified Dealer Program" for *badged* > > systems................ sold by the 20,000 starving clone dealers out there > > trying to compete with the M$ Software deep discount deals that are killing > > them. > > Mandrake already have an OEM programme. ******* Never even heard it mentioned anywhere....... How did they blow it with Dell? Why isn't it working? > > > Actually, the two groups, the wouldbe Geeks/masochists and the real users > > would never even meet. The FIRST thinbg to do would be to set up a REAL > > NEWBIE DISCUSSION GROUP. a Company Monitored one, designed to handhold the > > true newbie and NEVER mention the command line in it! :-) > > http://MandrakeExpert.com comes close to this. ******* Funny name for it! THAT's why I never went there! > > > Apple couldn't make machines very well, but my God, could they sell! > > And selling is what it is all about, at the end of the day. > > Apple machines are more like appliances than computers. ******** Perzackly!! The whole point and nothing but the point. THAT is all the public wants. > This isn't UNIX. You can almost forget that GNU/Linux is a UNIX clone, because > it is developed in a completely different fashion. How do you sell something > that's freely available in infinite quantities? You haven't yet answered that > question. Can you sell a freezer to an inuit? *********** Sure can! UNIX sells! I have no idea why, when theoretically it is our Geeks that run the Servers....... Actually I do know why.......... those very, very good salesmen, again! :-) No Geek has a chance against a professional Salesman, as the success of IBM shows....... INDIANS! INDIANS! Quick, form a circle! Twenty years ago I wrote a piece with that title. I had just returned from India+ and concluded that the brilliant British "divide-and-keep-conquered" partition was proved effective. I had stopped worrying about China at the time when I realised that their language structure would hold them back even more than their internal communications structure in the future to come. The whole of the ruling class and the middleclass support structure of the Indian sub-continent was Anglo-educated and the inheritors of the oldest true civilisation on the planet by milennia. That must count in the genes. The only thing that could save us in the Wild West from these Indians was the enforced politics! Heaven help us if they get their act together - they are the 3rd biggest English-speaking people on the planet! Worse, they are used to waiting and being poor while they wait......... They are very smart, merely disadvantaged for now. But they believe mightily in Education - technical education. They are planning for the future right now and we should remember that they had fully fledged REAL Universities thousands of years before the rest of us developed writing........ Forget China. The Chinese mentality is insular. The Indians - and I mean the lot of 'em, ignoring partitions - are not. ------------ 20 year update: Amazingly accurate for a kid from the sticks! Only worry from China side: JV with Taiwan. Coming.......... within 2 years. Remember: Taiwan is the biggest goldholder in the world by far and owes nobody a thing - and gold is still the insiders measure.... China has its own little world market at home. A billion of 'em with nothing, yet. Japan MAY be offered a similar deal as before: "family" loans and a local war to service ( just as in the fifties). But wars aren't really that profitable nowadays. So, is not highly likely, maybe 50/50 - who really needs 'em any more? Everything is automated, now anyway. Real basketcase. India: Just far faster than I anticipated. They are taking over Intelcomms. They will own Data Services in 4 years. I hadn't counted on: wire-less common communications, the Cellphone, cheap Satellites, the........ Internet. Technology was already moving into "dog-years". WOW! It's exciting, isn't it? I'm even thinking of joining in again and coming out of retirement! Cheers, John
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
