Re: Mac shipments up 12% [Was: focus!]

[Alex Jones <alex weej com>]

On Thu, 2006-07-20 at 08:23 -0400, Luis Villa wrote: 
> They've had better software and better hardware than Windows for a
> full five years, and have still not cracked 5% market share, so I
> don't see why you're scared now- they've had good quarters before, and
> they end up getting lost in the noise. This doesn't mean they suck,
> but I think it does speak strongly to Havoc's point- just being
> differentially better will not win big market share; we need to think
> about how to change the game completely if we're going to 'win' in any
> meaningful way- i.e., more than 5% market share.

I think the key to that is to provide something that really does
differentiate GNOME from Mac OS and Windows.

Take OpenOffice.org for example. It is quite evident that the aim is to
make a free alternative to Microsoft Office. It has barely any unique
features of its own.

While I was running an idea past IRC last week, somebody mentioned that
it would confuse people who are used to the way that other software
behaves. This is, IMO, exactly the reason that many people see no
benefit to using Linux and GNOME over Windows.

To the majority of home users, price is no object. Windows and Office is
free (beer) to them; they either get it with their off-the-shelf
computer or they get it illegally somehow.

We need to change the way people use their computers - not for the sake
of change, but rather for the sake of benefit.

The fact that Ubuntu bundles Firefox (and turns off automatic session
saving, as Firefox is incompatible with it) kind of saddens me. Session
management is one of the benefits of GNOME, yet they sacrifice it in
order to bundle something which Windows users are more familiar with.
-- 
Alex Jones <alex weej com>