On Fri, 26 Nov 1999,Michael R. Batchelor wrote:
| I'm not so sure this a good long term strategy. I agree that using a
| $200 CPU to replace a .50 chip is pretty stupid, but some of the DSP
| based software modems are very robust at call management in the MS
| windows environment.
|
| At the risk of flames, let's think about the discussion that was raging
| through here a few weeks ago about browsers. I made a strong point that
| the browser and email client were crucial for maintaining a desktop
| presence. I'll be willing to stick my neck on the line and make a
| similar statement that the same is true for telephony applications. And
| there are surly others I haven't thought through yet, all of which will
| be "crucial" to the long term success of Mandrake as a desktop.
|
| But how can they all be "the one crucial app" you ask. Well, they're not
| all the "single" crucial application (but I think the browser is
| probably most important user application). The crucial application is
| the whole system. If we think about an automobile for a minute I'll
| explain.
|
| In an automobile the user expects to be able to use the "entire" package
| upon delivery. But no individual piece of the package is suitable to the
| drivers purpose, only the entire package. No automobile salesperson
| would think of trying to get me to settle for only an engine or only a
| transmission or only tires. None of those individual components is
| sufficient to meet my transportation needs. Likewise, no salesperson is
| going to try to convince me to accept a vehicle without an engine or
| without a transmission or without tires. Each of those components is
| necessary for the package to function as intended.
|
| These are the analogous parts for the browser and email client. Like it
| or not, most of the millions of PCs which will be sold this holiday
| season are for people to surf the net and exchange email. Neither is
| sufficient; both are necessary. Period. That's life. Get over it.
|
| Now, lets go back to the automobile. As I'm standing on the lot looking
| at the various items for sale, I notice that some of them have cute
| little map lights and rear window defrosters. I decide I like those
| touches, and I'm swayed by emotion rather than logic. The truth is I
| almost never need the cute little map light and the rear window
| defroster, but I buy then anyway. (OK they're crucial for some drivers,
| but not most.)
|
| The call management functions of a WinModem will be available to about
| 90% of those PCs sold this year, and almost nobody will ever use them.
| I've personally bought 5-6 computers/modems with all that stuff in the
| past few years and never turned any of it on. But I would guess that 10%
| of the people who buy the stuff try to use the call management
| functions, and perhaps 5% of the people who try it actually continue to
| use it. So, in the long run, lets assume that 0.5% of the users actually
| find the call management function useful, and everybody else abandons
| it. So, do we say, "Well, nobody uses it in the long run, so we'll leave
| it out." Or do we acknowledge that, "Despite that fact almost nobody is
| going to use this, it's a major selling point on the front end. So we
| need it, or we'll be shut out."
|
| Now, let's finally consider one more totally unnecessary option
| available on modern automobiles. Back in the 1920's Cadillac developed
| an "electric starter" for their vehicles. At that time it was an extreme
| luxury. These days, however, you cannot buy a production automobile
| without an electric starter. And if we started the "Mandrake Automobile
| Company" making cars without electric starters we'd go out of business
| fast. Even if we made astonishingly beautiful vehicles with map lights
| and rear window defrosters, ordinary people will still flock to the
| "inferior competitors" who have those convenient electric starters
| instead of a crank.
|
| Well, the electric starter is the installer routines. And, while it's
| true that Mandrake may be a far technically superior and elegant choice
| to many of the other Linux distributions, and to that "other" OS, it's a
| bitch for Grandpa to get set up compared to taking an HP Brio with Win98
| preinstalled out of the box from Wal-Mart. If anyone wants to help with
| that aspect, I'd suggest that it's probably the most crucial hurdle to
| overcome. (There is a group named SEUL - Simple End User Linux,
| www.seul.org, but I don't much about them.)
|
| So, I've ranted enough. More OT comments?
|
| MB
Michael,
You have a point, and I agree that there is room for improvement - especially
in the web-related software. However, we as new Linux users must remember that
the Linux community is not a tightly organized one, and that the people who
produce the software we are