He's got a very good point. Also, many big companies will refuse to even
use open-source software, simply because it is free (as in costs
nothing) and many people can't wrap their minds around the possibility
that something that is free can be good quality. The ideas of "you get
what you pay for" and "there's no such thing as a free lunch" I think
are very engrained into the thoughts of Americans. Just a thought.
-Matt
Andy Hilgartner wrote:
I thought this column from Michael Robertson (CEO of Linspire) might
interest members of FSCK.
Andy
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: MM - Moving from Geekland to the Mainland with CompareSoft
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 19:13:38 UT
From: Michael Robertson<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If this message is not displaying properly, visit www.michaelrobertson.com to
launch it in your browser.
Moving from Geekland to the Mainland with CompareSoft
November 17, 2005
Many of the readers of the Minute have probably heard of Linux, OpenOffice,
GIMP and other open source programs. But I wanted to find out how commonplace
those products were outside the Internet community. I decided to conduct a
survey one lunch hour at a mall near the Linspire offices to investigate
people's knowledge of their software options. I decided to ask questions about
OpenOffice and GIMP, two of the more popular open source products competing
with very expensive proprietary alternatives (Microsoft Office is $400 and
Photoshop $500). First I wanted to investigate if regular people had ever heard
of the open source alternatives, so I asked 10 people the questions below. (I
have included the answers I received, plus the number of people who gave each
response):
What are your options in computer software when looking for an office suite?
6 - Don't know
3 - Microsoft/XP Office
1 - Mac Office
What are your options for sophisticated photo editing software?
5 - Don't know
3 - Photoshop
1 - Photoshop/Microsoft Photo
1 - Shutterfly
I must point out that the people I surveyed were shopping at an affluent
shopping mall right next to University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and
some appeared to be students. Yet none mentioned open source products when
asked about their software options. Next I wanted to measure if people really
had heard of OpenOffice, but couldn't think of the name. So I asked a different
10 people:
Have you ever heard of Open Office? Where would you get it? How much would it
cost?
10 - Never heard of it.
Have you ever heard of GIMP? Where would you get it? How much would it cost?
9- Never heard of it.
1- I think I have heard of it, not sure where I would buy it and have no
clue how much it costs.
This survey was hardly scientific, but it confirms my belief that just putting
software on the net and expecting people to find it, download it and install it
is not a practical approach for competing with proprietary software companies.
The Compare Line
I decided to start a software company called CompareSoft, which would try to better market and sell
open source alternatives for Macintosh and Microsoft Windows computers. The driver behind this idea
was to take the "generic drug" approach to marketing - promote open source products as
software with the "same active ingredients" as Windows or Mac, but at a much lower price.
We spent the money to create beautiful packaging and build versions of several open source products
with more mainstream titles and terminology... OpenOffice.org became CompareOffice, GIMP became
ComparePhoto etc.
The packaging encourages shoppers to compare features, formats and price. The Compare
line costs hundreds of dollars less than the better known competitors. It often reads and
writes the most popular file formats and can be freely installed to multiple computers.
We wanted to put "copy to as many computers as you like" as a specific feature,
but software retailers refused to carry the product if that was on the box. If generic
soda pop, generic drugs, and generic paper towels can garner 20-40% market share, generic
software such as CompareSoft should be able to as well.
Some may criticize CompareSoft for charging for software that can be downloaded
for free online, but this is necessary if open source is going to grow beyond
1% geek market share. If something is free, then there is no profit and
therefore no incentive for retailers or distributors to merchandise the
products. By charging a reasonable amount for CompareSoft products, we are able
to build a profit motive for retailers and distributors so they are encouraged
to stock open source solutions and not just expensive proprietary ones. We're
also planning to re-invest a percentage of profits to encourage ongoing
development and support of the products CompareSoft is re-branding and
packaging.
CompareSoft President Jan Schwarz has done a terrific job in just a few short
months building a company that can compete with software powerhouses not just
at the code level but in the retail marketplace. By the first quarter of 2006,
CompareSoft products will be in nearly 3,000 locations nationwide such as
BestBuy and Circuit City. This will give retail outlets - where many people buy
and learn about software - a low cost open source alternative for the first
time. CompareSoft has also partnered with an international republisher,
Questar, a long time follower of my initiatives. They are working to release
and distribute the localized versions of these products throughout Europe,
adding international sales and focused marketing exposure to those territories.
This large distribution network will put pricing pressure on companies like
Microsoft and Adobe to re-assess their oversized profit margins for software
that they have long since captured their research and development c
osts. Making software more affordable will be a win for society.
-- Michael
The views expressed herein are those of Michael Robertson and do not
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