Franck Martin wrote:
>
> Also on the same subject, Linux is free so the money is somewhere else, in
> service or... in hardware...
Linux is not exactly free. It is an exchange market. Yes, there are lots
of people that get it for nothing. They download an iso image and play
with it. However a growing number of people go further than this. They
exchange information on settings, bugs, software and other stuff. And
this group is growing.
Frankly this sounds as building a pyramid. Is that so. Well a pyramid is
something that first gives too much and then breaks up because resources
fail to fulfill demand. Linux has been here for nearly ten years and it
is still growing and growing further in complexity and availability. No,
Linux is no pyramid. It is that same Bazar Eric talks about. But a much
more complex Bazar. It is more a barter market.
Some see a danger here. Exchanging software this way does not give too
much for some people who may be in the bottom of the infrastructure. But
tell me. Is Torvalds begging in US streets? Is Alan sleeping in London's
gardens? I don't see it. Personally i see this exchange market as a
bigger chance for my own revenues. Because whatever you do with Linux,
you must have final objectives. The output a company waits from
computing systems is what gives the real revenue to them. And it is the
place you must ask for your piece in the pie. It is your dividend on the
huge investment you do by participating on all this Bazar.
Really i think that people think it would be better to get paid for what
they write. Well if I charged a dollar for the hours I pass digging in
code, debugging and testing then would have had an envious salary. But
the fact is that thing does not happen. Such system was placed by
Microsoft and what we got? Pay $400 here, pay $200 there, pay another
$250 and 6 monthes later, "oh sorry we did it again, changed the SDK to
ease developers life". In result you are doing everything less
development.
Today I get NOTHING for writing or debugging. But for final
implementations, service support, tunings, administration, supervision I
already have a revenue of more than 5 times what I had 4 years ago. And
I can sleep peacufully because I know that my pocket does not go
negative in the end of the month and I see a future in my work. 4 years
ago I was already testing other works because I knew that developers,
under Microsoft's rules, would have only a place in the Musee De L'Homme.
>
> Why not selling a Mandrake PC ? Do not wait for IBM, HP, Compaq to sell a
> Linux PC in supermarkets... Do it yourself. Buy a small PC brand and sell
> the PC with Mandrake on it... A PC for the masses (as Mandrake is the Linux
Why just a PC? Hey go further than Microsoft. Offer solutions. People
want their problems solved. And here we have the right place to ask
people to pay real money.
>
> for the masses), nothing fancy, but something tightly integrated with a
> design box (like Qube or Mac)...
No! No! No! Not Mac. Mac is a mistake. A huge mistake. The same one
Microsoft is trying to repeat. you should not guess what someone wants.
You should know what he really wants. if you do this then that guy is
your customer. And surely he will think twice before changing to anyone
else. You should give an environment (Linux, hardware) and schemes on
how to fit this things to customers necessities. It is a hard and
complex work but that is the golden place. But never offer a blue box
with "everything you need is here". 80% of users, sooner or later will
kick your box.
>
> Cheers...
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
Ektanoor
