[Sussex] Repost...

[Geoff Teale]

For some reason all of this got cut of the bottom both times I sent this
email - so here is the rest.


So when you see and advert for an IBM laptop in the newspaper and it
tells you about how IBM recommend Windows XP - don't be fooled into
thinking that this is all IBM want to sell.  IBM advertise that because
they think that's what _you_ want to buy as a consumer.  I'll address a
few of the issues here.

1. Proper marketing
===================
Companies market themselves - not Linux - the beauty of Linux for
businesses in IT is that 90% of the time you don't have to directly
mention the giants on the shoulders you are riding.  That said, here's a
few examples of what the big companies are doing right now:

*  HP (The world largest hardware vendor) is currently running a series
of adverts across all major media (TV, Papers/Magazines, Radio and
Cinema) based on the work they have done with major companies (Amazon,
Williams F1, Bang and Olufson, Dreamworks SKG, etc) - 6 out of 10 of
these adverts specifically mention that the systems they have delivered
that enable these businesses are built on Linux.  You'll find examples
of these adverts in most broadsheet national newspapers - look for the
text next to Shrek's head for example.

*  IBM (The world largest IT services company) is currently sponsoring
Wimbledon and providing all the IT required. With the exception of PDA's
they are deploying at the grounds all of these systems are running
Linux.  IBM are advertising this fact across the industry press, on
their website and in a series of info-mercials broadcast on BBC News 24,
CNN, ABC and other news channels worldwide.

* Novell (Still the vendor of the worlds largest installed base server
platform - though admitedly, not toping the sales charts in recent
history) is currently running a series of adverts in the US talking
about the it's new Linux based Netware Next Generation.

* Oracle (The worlds 2nd largest software company overall, the largest
database vendor and the largest business applications vendor) is
focusing almost all of it's advertising right now on the slogan
"Unbreakable Linux".

2 - Hardware and software vendors:
==================================
Hardware:
The domestic hardware market is all about producing the cheapest pieces
of kit possible and then charging unknowing consumers and arm and a leg
for it - cheapness often means shifting things into software that really
should be in hardware - that's why your average domestic printer, modem
or scanner is such a pig to support in Linux.  The shiesters who market
this crap will not even thin of spending the money to develop drivers
for a platform with 2% of their target market - look how few of the 
bother to support Apple kit!   Consumer hardware with Linux support will
not come until Linux becomes a big player in the domestic market - that
won't be for a while yet (I'll discuss that in a minute). 


3- Domestic linux adoption Vs. business adoption
================================================
I believe that once there is business adoption desktop adoption will
slowly follow.  Why do people use Windows at home?  Well right now
because they don't see a choice.  But why did it rise to dominance in
the 1990's?  Is it because it was the best option for the home user -
well, in a sense yes, but not for any technical of usability reason. 
Amiga and Apple Mac were both more user friendly, the Amiga was
certainly a better gaming platform, easier to use, program, etc.. etc..
and it was (in the early 90's) between £500 and £1000 cheaper than a PC
depending on the model.  The reason people went for PC's with
Windows/DOS was that they could use the same software they used at work,
and they could draw on a very large peripheral market which cheap prices
resulting from the economies of scale provided by a large business
market.

My _real_ _life_ experience is this: put Linux on peoples desktops at
work and very quickly a proportion of them will want to run it at home
to.  ...and just so you know (to preempt the obvious argument) I work
for a company where almost every machine runs Linux.  Of that company
only 5 people are techies in any respect, nobody has a problem with
Linux, nobody finds it hard to use, nobody wines that they want MS
Office or IE or whatever.

There are lots of businesses moving towards Linux right now - two of the
largest business sectors, Banking and Pharmacetecals are pretty much
standardising on it and demanding solutions based upon it from their
suppliers (which is good news for companies like the one I work for).

-- 
GJT
tealeg at member.fsf.org