Re: Signing off our target audience (was Re: Example of targetted release notes)

[Dave Neary <bolsh gnome org>]

Hi,

Just answering some of your "open" questions...

Claus Schwarm wrote:
> It's easy to identify them: Distrowatch has a list. However, who is the
> decision maker for a specific Linux distribution?

Debian. Two GNOME developers package GNOME for Debian. Debian are a
member of the GNOME advisory board. We have lots of GNOME hackers who
are Debian package maintainers.

Sun Microsystems. Advisory board member. A couple of dozen Sun hackers
work on GNOME, we know them already.

Red Hat. Advisory board member. Lots of Red Hat hackers in the GNOME
community. The manager of the RHEL desktop (and more) is an ex board member.

Novell. We know their entire Linux desktop team, because they're all
GNOME hackers.

Foresight Linux. GNOME friendly. Their leaders are part of the marketing
team already.

Mandriva. Two GNOME hackers working full time there. And I know the CEO,
CIO, and several other people there.

> The next step, however, is far more difficult: What arguments do you
> have to make distributions use GNOME by default?

Why is this our goal?

Actually, my main issue with chasing distributions is "what is our
goal?" The only things I can think of off-hand are visibility, market
research and relationship building.

> Volunteer distros will probably say: "No problem but we have no man
> power. Provide packages and we'll include them." What are the chances
> to find people who'd package GNOME for certain distributions?

Good.

> These problems are not new, they are well known. We have the question
> in our Wiki for over two years now: "What leverage do we have?" and the
> answer didn't change much.

No-one tried to answer, I guess :)

> So, how do we identify "ISDs"?

Look at the software available for the GNOME desktop. Look at the GTK+
software. Look at the people using our bindings. Make a list of everyone
else making software for Linux, but not using GTK+.

> Where are they?

Everywhere. Here's a short list of 20 ISDs building on top of the GNOME
platform.

Abiword
GNUMeric
XUL/Firefox/Thunderbird
OpenOffice.org (at least in Novell)
Eclipse
The GIMP
Inkscape
GAIM
gnucash

(what, these are all free software projects, you say? Well, yes, most of
our independent software developers are free software developers, but
here's a few commercial ones)

Adobe
VMWare
Nokia
Virgin
OpenMoko
Texas Instruments
ACCESS
Google
OLPC

And then there are small companies who make GNOME software:

Operational Dynamics
Imendio
Fluendo
Opened Hand
Collabora
...

The list goes on. I stopped there.

> How do we talk to them?

Email works well :)

Anyone who's ever worked as a salesman or in any business development
capacity knows that you have to contact people you don't know, and cut
through the red tape to get to the right person. The quicker you can do
it, the better. The best way is through personal contacts - you know
someone in the company, you ask them who the right person is to talk to
about X. Assuming you don't know anyone, you contact the info@ or
contact@ address, or someone in marketing, and start talking to them.

For the free software projects, do I have to describe how people get in
contact with those?

Every time a company announces that they're releasing a GNOME based
product in a press release, there's a contact name at the bottom. In
general, we know about it beforehald, because someone from the GNOME
community is hired to work on it. We just need to get that process
better oiled.

> And just in case, we find some: What should we tell them?

s/tell/ask. Let's say they're making GNOME software: what's missing in
the platform? What can be improved? Do you know about our bindings?

> Let's have a look at
> just one complain, I accidentally stumbled upon today [2]:
>
> "I am a commercial developer, with apps deployed in many businesses.
> Linux is absolutely hostile to me and my customers, because it cannot:
>  *  provide a binary install mechanism which works across all
>     distros.
>  *  give me binary compatibility over time.
>  *  provide APIs which let me manage system needs at a high level
>     and across all distros.
>  *  provide an identical user experience across all distros."

And you said we had no way of finding out who our ISDs are?

> But what should we tell them?

Please, if you haven't done so recently, re-read Edgar Villanueva's open
letter to Microsoft in Venezuela - it is a very clear description of the
arguments in favour of free software in government.

 - Freedom of information
 - Assist local economy
 - Cheaper over time
 - Auditability of public infrastructure

You can tell people about the great successes we have already had in
government - Dzonkha Linux, LinEx, Guadalinex, Sao Paolo, Parana,
Macedonia, ...

You seem to assume that people won't find our story fascinating and want
to learn more - it's a very defeatist attitude.

> Is there any USP that makes GNOME better then all alternatives?

What's a USP?

> Try to sell Rhythmbox to a deaf PC hobbyist.

Why be so ridiculous Claus? It seems like you prefer the immobilism of
turning around in circles saying "oh, there's nothing we can do, we're
so disorganised".

The deaf PC hobbyist might not be interested in Rhythmbox, but she might
like the GIMP, Inkscape, gnumeric, abiword, gaim... She might be
interested in all of the assistive technology which GNOME provides for
free. Shouldn't she find out about those via a cover CD on a magazine
she reads, or an article written by a GNOME volunteer?

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
bolsh gnome org