I think two things need to happen before mandrake will have a chance.. and both have to do with mandrake itself.
1. Mandrake MUST start actively fixing bugs in the current distros rather then just focusing on the next one, and making security fixes for the present ones. 2. Mandrake needs to add something to the internet connection settings that check for updates, or offer to do that... even windows has that now. too many people that run windows don't use windows update and so get infected by every virus/worm etc that comes along.. Mandrake needs to see the light and counter that before they end up in the same place. I also thing it wouldn't hurt to adopt a setting similiar to 2000/XP whereby each submenu in the menu system has only one of each app type showing at a time.. and a thing at the bottom that newbies can click to show the other options. Just to simplify things for the newbs... something that regular users can turn off quickly. That way newbies would see the most popular apps in all categories easily and in a non confusing manner, and when they are ready for more options can try the rest. I think mandrake would be on a winner then.. but they don't listen to the mailing lists so I don't expect them to do any of it.. which is sad.. i personally believe that if mandrake monitored the newbie list and heard what newbies saying (and responding accordingly) they would already be the most popular distro. Nearly every complaint made in testing sites about mandrake 9.1 (and previous versions) was mentioned first on this list.. shame noone in power at mandrake takes advantage of it. rgds Franki -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Marc Oestreicher Sent: Friday, 4 July 2003 11:00 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [newbie] RE: [newbie] Interview: Gaël Duval on finances On Thursday 03 July 2003 10:59 am, Eric Huff wrote: > > > now if Dell and all the other biggies would sit up and take > > > notice. linux may well make a desktop dent. > > > > Part of that would entail "getting in good" with the hardware > > manufacturers - that's where Microsoft has made the inroads. > > It's true that the hardware issu is big. That's what many of the > emails on this list refer to. > > But if HP or Dell, etc, want to install Linux on their desktops, > they just have to figure out in the beginning which hardware is > compatible, or program the appropriate drivers. And that only > has to be done once. Then they can sell that combo. The people > getting the computers won't care: it'll be all preinstalled and > work. > > I see what you are saying, though: if those same people want to > buy add-ons, they'll have to be careful to get ones that are > compatible. > > Maybe (i'm dreaming here) the big companies would help maintain > hardware compatibility lists, and even encourage the hardware > companies to support linux. Like i said, it's a dream, but i > think it is a possible one... > > eric Here is a possibility, now that HP has begun to sell computers with ML 9.1 preinstalled and if I understand correctly at a price that is $90 less than their windows counterpart they may start to do some advertising letting people know about this. That would give the average user the advantage of being able to buy a name brand machine for $90 less and may attract a lot of new sales to HP. That could put a dent in the sales of some of the other big name brands. Not a good thing in a allready tight economy. That could force some of the other big brand name computer manufactures into also offering some brand of linux preinstalled. If that was the case HP would probably start to brag that they have the easyest and most user friendly Linux distro on their machines " Mandrake 9.1 " and that could eventually cause a lot of OEM's to start preinstalling ML 9.1. That could cause a snowball effect and Mandrake could become king of the linux distros or the king of the OS market in a short time say 2 or 3 years. The folks at HP must know a few things about marketing and advertising to have become the industry giants that they are today and in my mind it is a fact that computer users in particular and people in general always seem to want the latest greatest and best. I would suspect that at this point in time HP is just doing a bit of test maketing in offering machines with ML preinstalled but if things go well they may start some aggressive marketing and if that is the case it could cause a snowball effect almost overnight. I did leave a lot of if's, could's, might's and maybe's in the above statement but the possibility is there even if it is only wishfull thinking at this point. If any of this comes to pass we can expect the evil empire to start cranking out FUD at warp speed using more obserd claims than ever before if you can imagine that. Just my $.02 worth Marc KM5KW -- Composed on a 100% Microsoft and Windows free computer with Mandrake Linux 9.1
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