Re: What do SMEs and consultants want from the debian project?
Hi all, not on the Debian consultants list. Considering it but not sure
whether it currently has benefits that outweigh disadvantages.
On 18/02/12 04:13, Michelle Konzack wrote:
> Hello MJ Ray,
>
> Am 2012-02-16 17:35:47, hacktest Du folgendes herunter:
>> 1. what prevents SMEs from using debian more?
>
> RedHat, Novel/SuSE, Mandriva and maybe Canonical, do active publicity of
> there services.
>
> Not the Debian Project.
Both good and bad. At present Debian is better known to people who are
IT savvy - and unlike, um, certain derivative distributions the standard
of commercial services offering Debian (that I come across) is very high.
A question that concerns me is - if Debian was better known to commerce,
education and government - how do we keep the standards high?
>
> I think, because Debian has no commercial background and each Debian
> Consultant has to do its own stuff, Debian is lesser popular. Me and
> some other Debian Consultants offering full service, but unfortunately
> no one know it. I for my self have not the financial background to do
> the "big" publicity, which mean, I work only local in a very restricted
> area.
That sounds more like a marketing/advertising problem with your business
(definitely not expensive[*1]). I have the opposite problem - more work
that I can handle, mostly of the sort I don't want (other distros, staff
training, areas of Debian I don't want to work with).
My experience is that most of my clients aren't well informed about OS
in general. If they know what an OS is, and they've heard of *nix -
they've generally only heard of RedHat and Canonical. RedHat is
considered expensive and server only. Canonical is associated with flakey.
Debian promotion/visibility is mentioned several times in this thread.
Two suggestions:-
[*1]; we pool our promotional work by contributing to a/the wiki and
posting to this list. Debian.org could periodically (via Announce?)
"adopt" some of the work maybe?
; a larger problem is a lack of certification - the real marketing
strength of RedHat and Canonical is that they have recognised, and
extensively marketed, qualifications. LPI is (IMHO) better, and if
Debian has something similar it (Debian) would be better known to
business *without* a lowering of the standard.
>
>> 2. what could the debian project offer to consultants to help you
>> to help more companies to use debian more?
>
> Maybe split the Debian Consultants List into categories whioch services
> they offer and what they do.
That would be difficult - too much cross-over.
>
> I think, it would be better, having a database driven Debian Consultants
> page with tags for each consultant...
>
> Note: I am also offering Web- and Database-Hosting and I am specialised
> to PostgreSQL sind more then 10 years. Also Intranet-Web-Design.
>
> Such infos should be on the Debian Consultants page too, because it is
> frustrating for a customer, to contact 10 Consultants and get always a
> negative answer because he/she need a special service...
>
> The Weblinks are OK, but if somone need a special service, he/she should
> find it already on the Debian Consultants page by entering some keywords
> in a search form
Additionally it would be useful for us. I often don't take on work
because some of it is outside my areas of focus and I don't know how to
find people/companies with the requisite skills.
>
>> 3. who's reading this list these days?
>
> Me. Michelle Konzack, using Debian GNU/Linux since March 1999, and being
> Debian Consultant since 2001 by starting customized Intranet Solutions
> and today the whole service the Debian Repository can offer, except,
> that I refuse to work with KDE/GNOME.
:-)
I refuse to work with GNOME (nothing against it though).
I work with KDE (a little Fluxbox) - but in general I only support what
I build and personally use enough to know well (can't nail snot to the
wall).
My answer to 3.
Me.
I mostly do small business consulting, contracting and support -
providing both business consulting services, and, IT services. Some
government and large company work (which I'd prefer not to do).
<snipped>
Kind regards
--
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