RE: Marketing list action: Market Research for GNOME and GNU/Linux

["John Williams" <JWilliams business otago ac nz>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: marketing-list-bounces gnome org 
> [mailto:marketing-list-bounces gnome org] On Behalf Of Luis Villa


> > (4)  If it's better to focus, on whom do we focus?  (Why?)
> > 
> > I see a basic split of possibilities:
> > 
> > 1.  Focus on existing users in order to make GNOME better for them
> > 2.  Focus on non-users in order to induce them to use GNOME
> 
> These are absolutely the right questions to ask. I'd suggest, however,
> that there are other options for initial focus, who aren't just one of
> these two groups:
> 
> 3. developers who wish to write software for Linux (who may or may not
> be linux experts.) 

I see this group as a sector/segment of derived demand.  As a guess, I
would say that the major factor that would influence their desire to
develop FOSS is the number of (potential) users (based on both
commercial and potlach motivations).  Maybe all the developers out there
could comment on this?  (I have only written one or two toy apps.)  If
so, and market growth is the goal, we can grow (3) simply by growing
(2).  The question is: 

Is the current initial hurdle of developing for Linux (or GNOME) the
limiting factor (in number of developers developing for Linux), or is
the potential reward (whatever that is) the limiting factor? (Or both?)


> 4. groups which can distribute GNOME. Realistically, unlike firefox or
> OOo, installing GNOME is and likely always will be 'experts 
> only'- so it
Most of my comments above apply here also, I think.  I would be
interested to hear what others think.  I don't feel as qualified to
comment on segments 3&4, since I am not involved in the industry (unlike
1&2, where I am, and once was, a member of those segments).


> I'm not sure what implications these other 'markets' have on your
> analysis, John, or if you'd considered them and discarded them out of
> hand. But I'd love to hear what you think. 
Aw, shucks :-)  Thanks!  No, I hadn't considered them.  I was being a
myopic user.  I suppose that my position now is: probably forget (4).
Maybe forget (I mean, do not concentrate on) (3).   

My reasoning for choosing not to focus on (3) is this.  I used to be an
OS/2 user.  I was driven to OS/2 because I was sick of Windows crashing
and corrupting/losing my data.  OS/2 was great.  (BTW: and the Workplace
Shell remains the best GUI I have ever used.)  But there were no
applications.  I ended up using many Unix/Linux applications that were
ported to OS/2, just to get my work done.  I ended up using so many
Linux apps that I thought I'd try Linux.  So I did, and never looked
back, really.

Here is my point: OS/2 failed because no-one was developing for OS/2.
Why not?  There were no users.  IBM, IIRC, was bending over backwards to
help developers get started.  But they had no motivation.  "Aha!", you
may say.  "But that was commercial software developers.  FOSS developers
have different motivations."  I am curious as to whether this is true,
in the sense that the payoff for _any_ developer is, in a real sense,
that they are creating something useful that lots of people will use,
and enjoy using.

Rant, rant, rant.  I am getting a bit off-topic, I think.  

BTW, Claus mentioned that a possible answer to the "Who is 'we'?"
question is "The GNOME foundation".  I seem to remember that this was
discussed in the past, but I forget what the outcome was.

Ka kite ano,

John