On Fri, 2007-03-09 at 11:28 -0500, Chad Smith wrote: > Lars, > > I did not troll anything. I simply said know your audience. > > I am well aware of the benefits of an open format. Michael Dell is not, nor > does he care.
You think? I bet Dell have people who know exactly what the benefits of open formats are and to whom. Question is more what is in Dell's interest? Have they a deal with MS that would be jeapordised by eg ditching installs of Works for OOo? The margins on PCs are small and a kick back or discount on Windows would make a crucial difference in the number of machines Dell sells against all the systems builders out there. How do we know that Dell doesn't get Windows say $30 less than competitors as long as they install Works or don't install competing products? $30 a machine to Dell is probably a significant part of the margin and it could be that we would have to give them $30 for every copy of OOo installed to compensate for lost MS discount on Windows. > When convincing a corporation to use your product, (which is > all Dell is going to see OpenOffice.org as - a product, not a community, not > a project, not a philosophy or a instrument of social change - just a > product, like Tide, or Kraft Singles, or WordPerfect), you tell them how it > will benefit *them* in areas that they care about. On the face of it, its difficult to see why they would not install OOo instead of Works since Works is inferior in just about every respect and less compatible with MSO than OOo. Since they don't install OOo already, its likely that there are other factors in play such as MS subsidies. > In Dell, Inc. cared > about file formats - they'd already be using ODF in house. I'm sure if you > showed up in a meeting at Dell HQ, you'd be greeted with a PowerPoint (tm) > presentation, and handed a printout of a Word (tm) document. > Know your audience. Don't sell OpenOffice.org to Dell on why *you* use it. > Sell it to them on why *they* want it. This is true. Why will it make them more profitable? Snag is that if they are getting preferential treatment from M$ they lose that advantage with OOo because any of their competitors can get the same benefit from OOo as they get but they can't get the same benefit from M$. > Basically - it's free, it works, it's better than MS Works, it's better than > WordPerfect, you don't have to worry about licensing issues, you can slap > your name all over it and put it on every system you sell - even those you > bundle with MS Office 2007 Ultimate Edition. So why haven't they done it already? You don't have to be Einstein to work out the advantage of what you say above so I should think Dell already know this, its not like OOo was some secret they didn't have access to. All implies to me that their commercial interests with MS are more compelling and coersive that is generally understood. Ian -- www.theINGOTS.org www.schoolforge.org.uk www.opendocumentfellowship.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
