> Out of interest, as a marketing person Lynn, what approach do > you think works for making money out of the linux base ( > europe or otherwise ) , given that it seems to be a "market" > that expects everything for free ?
There are a few strategies that work: 1. Adver-marketing. I hate this and I don't know many companies that have had a smashing success with it. 2. Cross-marketing, ie segmentize your Linux strategy is a way to drive sales for your MacOS X and Windows versions. This is VERY marketing intensive and you can blow it if you don't have buy in with your management. A number of vendors try this, then executive management starts whining that they cannot relate a direct sale to each individual effort - that means you don't have buy in. 3. Market infrastructure products by popularity. Corporations are experimenting with Linux quite a bit, server side. Find something they are used to paying for. They arent in the market for Sudoku though ;-) 4. Team with big Try/Buy Partners. Some hardware and distribution companies have created walled garden environments that include Linux. Suck up to them :-) Here is a losing strategy that everyone should take to heart: Duplicating your "by OS" strategy to another OS - especially applying Mac "ecosystem" techniques to Windows or Linux. The Mac ecosystem has its own dynamic that is almost irrelevant when it comes to selling Windows applications (let alone Linux). A lot of Mac companies have died since the 90's because of this, or had "near death" experiences that they hopefully learned from. Best regards, Lynn Fredricks President Paradigma Software, Inc Joining Worlds of Information Deploy True Client-Server Database Solutions Royalty Free with Valentina Developer Network http://www.paradigmasoft.com _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> Search the archives of this list here: <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html>
