Re: Question for candidates: OEMs

[Karen Sandler <karen gnome org>]

On 2014-05-22 15:10, Michael Catanzaro wrote:
> On Thu, 2014-05-22 at 14:35 -0400, Jeff Fortin wrote:
> - Our somewhat nonexistent OEM story
>
> Dell is currently shipping Ubuntu computers running Unity. Wouldn't it
> be desirable to see a major OEM shipping GNOME as well? If so, what
> steps do you believe GNOME, and the board in particular, should take to
> achieve this goal?

As Executive Director,I had a few calls/emails with Dell, trying to get 
a foothold in the company (or get a donation since they're using GNOME 
technologies) without too much luck. I think the Foundation needs to 
promote GNOME as much as possible and find partners, but we need 
successes to point to as well to get the message across. There are a few 
companies that have been working on products with GNOME in the last 
couple of years but already at least one of those efforts have fizzled. 
My fingers are crossed for the products still under development (I'm 
looking at you, Endless Mobile, for one) which will create more of an 
opportunity to approach new partners. With Android having met so much 
success we need a compelling story - I think we have that, but it's hard 
to communicate when it's more theoretical.  In Dell's case they believe 
they need to contract with a company who will stand behind the 
technology, and Canonical serves that function. This is not an easy 
problem for the GNOME Foundation itself to solve.

karen