-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Juan Alberto Cirez wrote: > Ah, my poor Linux-Fundamentalist Shawn, > > You remind me of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisting the Iranian elections > have been free and clear when there was overwhelming proof to the > contrary...Or Comical Ali (Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf) insisting the city > of Baghdad is free of foreign troops while a column of coalition tanks > rolls through the city... > Does this count as Godwin's law? Close enough for me anyway :)
> We are consumer economy--what that means is that regardless of a given > brand marketing budget, it is the consumer who ultimately decides if a > product succeeds or fails. Consumers were (and are) returning > Linux-based Netbooks (for whatever reason). That is a fact. I know of no such numbers of people returning their netbooks. This does not match any study or article that I have seen, nor does it match my personal experiences of non-technical people. In fact the people I know who have Linux based netbooks, almost none of them are even aware of the OS, nor do they actually care. Also, we do not really live in a consumer economy, at least not yet. Most of our market is dominated by marketing firms, pushing whatever they are paid to push. > > Any manufacturer and/or retailer is in business to make money; so if > there is a product the consumer wants, they will offer it. If the issue > with Linux on the Netbook was a localized phenomenon (and there was a > consumer demand for it), I assure you, other manufactures would step in > to fill the void. This has not what happened--in fact, the reverse is true. > Consumers do not know what they want. The vast majority can turn a computer on and search google. They would not know the difference between a CPU, RAM, or a hard drive, and they should not have to. They do not even care about the OS, in fact the OS should be invisible, which exactly what we saw with the initial success of the netbooks. What happened next is what has always happened with the MS marketing and BD teams aggressively making deals. Linux + netbook caused MS to extend the life and support of XP. XP was supposed to have been EOL'd years ago, except that Vista does not run on a netbook in a satisfactory way. To be honest, I am surprised that the netbook was as successful as it was with Linux, the fact that most people did not know or care what the OS is a win IMO. > You can argue all you want, that is your prerogative; but that does not > change the fact that Linux had some serious issues capturing the > consumers' heart (and wallet). The philosophy that there is nothing I actually agree with this statement. Of course most of the consumers do not care for Windows either, it simply comes with their computer. Most people are unaware of what an OS is. How can we expect them to actually care about one? > wrong with Linux on the desktop (its the rest of the world that's wrong) > will be Linux undoing. We have to get our heads out of our collective > rears and address these issues. Listen to the consumers and deliver the > product they want because whatever we are doing right now, it's not > doing the trick. No, most open source projects are made to be used. The guys behind Inkscape are making a tool that they actually want to use. One of the core developers is a professional graphics design guy. He uses Inkscape in a professional context as it is the tool he *wants* to use. This is what should drive projects, not marketing and sales targets. > > Shawn wrote: >> >> >> As was mentioned in THAT thread, the lack of Linux availability on >> netbooks today (via retail chains) has nothing to do with usability, >> and EVERYTHING to do with marketing clout (aka monopoly powers). > It is a reflection of modern business practises. I really would not worry about it too much, the critical mass has been achieved, and Linux is here to stay. Mass adoption should not be the goal. High quality software should be the goal. Things are looking good from my perspective. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkpqGiQACgkQwRXgH3rKGfNidACgpsujAqij2tXSo6lmsXlyuT6h rT4AnAxye2dbuVcVDRxtqYH6V3QrFBIM =izDZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
