Re: Defining GNOME Market Segments

[Claus Schwarm <c schwarm gmx net>]

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 08:50:12 +1300
"John Williams" <JWilliams business otago ac nz> wrote:

> > 
> > Lets make 2005 the GNOME Linux University year!  ;-)
>
> I agree wholeheartedly.  But I can't help wondering that I agree
> because I am an academic!
> 

I guess you're not the only one here on the list, or even in the
community. ;)

Another possible advantage seems controlling: With a little bit
community intelligence, it shouldn't be hard to compile a rather long
list of potential universities worldwide.

This could be seperated into local dates. For example, in Germany most
students start in the second week in october. There are very often
introduction courses, organized by the universities' student council.
This means, the GNOME Science CD should be ready around in September
2005.

Other counties may have earlier dates.

If we can improve our university list every year, and the list of local
activites, the effect might be impressive.

In fact, that would be CD full with applications one might later need in
his studies, for FREE!

Germany, unfortunatly, has only a few number of GNOME users due to the
strong KDE position. I don't know if we could get them one board. Other
countries might have more local users. What about France, Spain, Chile,
Brasil, Australia, the States ?

> > This reminds me on the "What product attributes matter most to
> > consumers" question: Security is very important for car tires in
> > surveys, but it's not the selling argument because everybody
> > _assumes_ every car tire to be very secure.
> 
> Ah, that old chestnut.  A mix of "necessary but not sufficient
> conditions" and "hygiene vs. motivational factors".  I have two
> observations on this point:
> 
> (1) Almost everyone I know who has used OSX has commented on how
> beautiful it is.  By "it" I assume they mean the desktop and the
> integration of the desktop with the apps.
> 
> (2) There is the (myth?) that "Unix/Linux is hard to use".  That means
> "you have to use the command line sometimes, and even read the
> manual". Referring, of course, to non-application specific stuff,
> which I regard as "the desktop", i.e. the desktop is the GUI of the OS
> (to users).
> 
> What I am saying is that I think there is still differentiation among
> desktops, and that desktop/OS and desktop/app integration can be a
> real selling point.
> 

Yes, sorry. I didn't want to say that the Desktop/App integration
doesn't matter. It does matter! But promoting _only_ the desktop could
be impossible.

For the GNOME Science CD, a little bit of work could be needed to get
some more integration. On the other hand, it might be a nice incentive
for some app maintainers to accept more GNOME integration.

Does anyone know if there's much to do right now on the GNOME Love
mailing list?

Btw, I can't stand Apple's GUI. It the most ugliest stuff I've ever seen.

> > The desktop is very important for the OS but it's not the selling
> > argument because everybody assumes the existance of a desktop that
> > is easy to use, good looking, etc.
> See above.
>  
>  
> > The only ones interested in the GNOME default desktop are users.
> > They don't want to learn a new desktop whenever they change
> > companies. They want the default.
> What about the organisation that want to use GNOME as a base to
> develop their own brands?  They are interested in making GNOME
> technically superior, but I assume you mean they are not interested in
> putting any effort into promoting GNOME per se?  I don't know enough
> about things to comment here.
> 
>  

No idea. I just assumed rationality on their side. _I_ would promote my
distribution, not the desktop my distribution uses.

Btw, companies migh be interested in sponsoring the GNOME Science CD:
Most people are probably a little bit scared to run a self-made CD-R
with (basically) unknown software.

Thus, a proper cover and print on the CD might help. Google revealed the
following list (in german):

http://www.sela.de/cgi-bin/proc.pl?cdherst.html

Maybe we could agree with somebody to do something like: "Sponsored by
<Here could be your name>".

We would need a designer/artwork specialist, though.

> > Smaller, local companies might be interested in spending money to
> > get certain apps developed. They usually don't have the resources to
> > do it on their own. They have local business contacts. They set up
> > networks, web servers, etc. and probably have Linux experience.
> ...
> > I know this is a very unusual thought: GNOME not only as a desktop
> > and development platform but also as a market platform, a sort of
> > eBay. Probably too advanced, right?
> > 
> > Well, just a thought....
> A damn fine one, IMHO.  I was thinking about, in every "About" box
> where it lists the developers, having a link to "Donate to ..." or
> "Request a feature" etc.
> 

Some might fear that something like this displaces the intrisic
motivation to code for GNOME.

> > So we should concentrate on those that will probably no be affected
> > by these companies: Science, Education, maybe Government in
> > non-western countries.
> 
> I think this is a major issue: Do we target organisations, or general
> users?  On the general user front, I think the major sticking point
> is, as you say, games.  Is this the _only_ reason to give up that
> segment?
> 

I didn't say "give up", but improve other things first! ;)

Apple, for example, is nearly dead in Germany. Maybe they have even less
users than Linux - apart from two exceptions: Professional graphics and
sound, maybe 3D animation. Quark, Adobe and others make this possible.
You have to have an Apple if you'd like to do design!

Thus, the idea was to target a sort of workflow.

By concentrating our efforts on a few workflows, a GNOME Linux desktop
might be able to reach a similar position. The different sciences are
possible workflows, and it's rather easy to reach them on campuses
worldwide.

Btw, another major sticking point are applications from Adobe,
Macromedia, etc... (GIMP's not the same as Photoshop, many say.)

When it comes to promote GNOME for general users, a server and
a few graphics would be sufficient, I guess. But then, the discussion
about what GNOME "is" starts again, and if we could dare to use
something catchy.

Claus