Graham Lauder a écrit :
On Thursday 14 Oct 2010 20:28:38 Olivier Méjean wrote:
Being the best linux distro is not enough nowadays, we must let it know
widely and do feel that Mageia is not yet another distribution among
hundreds of distribution. Mageia is your future distribution even if you
don't know it yet ! :)
And that is a fallacy of thinking, we should not be competing against other
distros, we compete against MS
I agree to a degree - but there are 2 things we need to attract to
Mageia - ordinary users, who will not contribute more that bug reports
at best - and active contributors.
The former would hopefully come largely from the Ms (and why not Apple)
world, but the latter almost surely will be largely from the
Linux/Unix/BSD world. That doesn't necessarily mean that they will
cease contributing to their current distro, as many contributors
participate in more than one distro. But their support will be
essential if Mageia is to make big inroads.
Anyway, i don't think we can just transpose what's done for OOo to Mageia.
OOo just compete to MS Office, Mageia compete to hundreds of Linux
Distribution, and other OS, not quite the same scale.
You are kidding of course, OOo competes in a very competitive environment.
KOffice, Gnome Office just in the Linux space, then on windows we're up
against Wordperfect, who have huge history in the space, Lotus Symphony, MS
Works etc. In the Linux space, Mageia competes with a whole pile small
players in a small market. Total is around 1.5% of the total OS market, then
there is 3.5 % for Mac and the rest MS.
KOffice - the reviews I've seen show that it lacks a lot compared with
OOo. As well, it requires installing most of the KDE desktop, which is
huge. And not nearly as widely used as Gnome.
Gnome Office is a dream. (Or nightmare, depending on your point of
view.) It barely works. A very basic word processor, and basic
spreadsheet. No presentation. No database. No drawing module.
In the Ms environment, Ms-office is very expensive, even the minimal
version. Wordperfect suite is less expensive, but still paid. Athough
very nice, it has retreated to a niche market, and is not widely used.
Ms-works is free but nowhere near as complete as OOo.
Lotus suite is also free, but had almost disappeared.
So essentially, OOo has no serious competition in the Linux world.
In the Ms environment, it is free vs paid, or more functional than its
competitors.
Now lets consider operating systems. Since Ms comes preinstalled on
virtually all new computers, it is preceived as free by end-users. So
Linux being free is not perceived as advantageous.
Even though it takes longer to install Ms-windows than Mandriva, since
users would rarely install Ms-windows, the time it takes to install
Linux is seen as an impediment. As well, although the name Linux is
generally known, detailed information for supporting Linux is generally
unknown, even though (Mandriva) Linux has more or less equivalent
fonctionality.
Now the following is my opinion only to be taken with grain of salt or
whatever condiment you prefer.
We are in the desktop computing market, the chunk we want a part of is at
present occupied by MS.
Agreed.
In this market the name we want to promote is Mageia,
we have no need to identify with Linux.
Not agreed. Since the name Linux is often known, even though details
are generally unknown, associating Mageia with Linux lets more people
know what kind of animal (so to speak) Mageia is.
This has 2 advantages. The increased familiarity should lower any
resistance to trying Mageia, for those Ms users who are open to trying
something new.
And contributors to other Linux/Unix/BSD distros are more likely to
contribute to Mageia, even if they continue to actively support their
current distro.
If you are thinking of Ubuntu, don't forget that they started with paid
promotion à la Microsoft, so it hardly parallels Mageia's situation.
I have no problem helping the others
into the market but we need to focus on MS users. If we happen to increase
the market for Linux then great but our focus should be on Mageia. Right now
there are too many distros, linux is confusing to the market, we have no need
to identify with it.
Most other distros target niche markets, and are oriented to hackers or
those fed up with Ms's agressive and anti-competitive marketing. There
are relatively few distros which have the strengths of Mandriva (which
Mageia will inherit) and the community orientation of Mageia. A major
weakness of Mandriva has been a lack of focus in its promotion,
particularly outside the Linux community, and of course the inherent
conflict between community and commercial focus.
So yes, a focus (among others) on attracting current Ms users (who
likely will dual-boot), but let's not forget the Linux community, which
is a large part of strengths of Mandriva (and now Mageia).
Our goal should be be seen as the primary alternative to the encumbent leader
Or a major alternative. Ubuntu is not going to disappear.
Focus on why we are better and tell the world.
But not with the blatent egosism of Ms.
When the Steve gets people making videos like this
http://blogs.technet.com/b/whymicrosoft/archive/2010/10/05/15-customers-who-
switched-to-microsoft-office-after-evaluating-openoffice-org.aspx
but focused on Mageia then we know we've made it
Like most Ms negative presentations, it is totally oriented to the
businesses, who are less concerned with the cost of acquisition than the
supposed cost of paid support. Pure FUD, with barely a pretence of
presentation of facts. As a community distro, our focus is not
businesses wanting paid support.
If we are openly associated with Linux in our approach to Ms users, Ms
will have a lot tougher target. Note that despite FUD against Linux, Ms
does, in various ways, offer limited support for Linux as well. They
realise that Linux is not going away any time soon, and it is in their
interests to cooperate to some degree.
Olivier
Cheers
GL
my 2 cents
- André (andre999)
