Re: Debian and the User Friendlies
I _know_ I should not get into this--stupid, stupid, stupid...
On Tue, Jul 28, 1998 at 12:05:22AM -0400, Adam P. Harris wrote:
>
> David, you mentioned that you felt that you could contribute to Debian
> based on your background in product management and marketing. I
> rather doubt that Debian can ever be a "managed product" (more like
> herding, and being herded with, cats). Of course, that is also
> Debian's strength.
Good point. I think that most debian developers are rather "strong
willed" people with a great degree of understanding and a high level
of passion for what they perceive as important in development of the
debian system. To 'manage' them, it is necessary to earn the right
and even then leadership will only lead for so long as the
community's individuals respect the competence of the leadership.
The human penchant for 'power over others' (even in a small way) is
an anathema to liberty and therefore to the 'style' of free software
development.
While likely anarchists at heart, the developers recognize the need
for project management. Even if not necessarily consciously they also
recognize the dangers of a 'boss'. Thus the developer have wrestled
with, continue to wrestle with, and I hope will always wrestle with
striking a balance between complete freedom for a developer to do
whatever they want and the constraints necessary to provide order.
> Anyhow, I think we all recognize we could use marketing help. You
> have to have a very thick skin, however, since so many Debian
> developers are coders employed in companies where the marketing dept
> is utterly clueless and yet calls all the shots. So you can forgive
> them occaisional irrational flamage towards "Marketing".
While probably everyone will agree that some improvement in
marketing would be useful to debian, I doubt that the perception
for what is needed and why is all that consistent. In particular
it seems that many of the discussions for marketing suggest that
it is somehow vital that debian increase its' market share.
There is fundamentally no reason why debian has to have a large
market share. It can be argued that debian needs to be able to
influence the 'movers and shakers' of the Linux and free software
field. The need for this influence is at the 'system level' and
is not much concerned with 'user presentation'. Thus, popularity
in the sense of Micro$loth is not of much use to debian.
Having debian systems being used by 10% of the developers of
free software would probably be worth more than having 50% of the
user community.
> However, Debian desparately needs marketing. Arguably, at least,
> Debian needs shelf presence (even minor shelf presence), hardware
> bundle deals, and just generally more exposure.. [Anyone ever talked
> to the Sparc aftermarketers or "hardware brokers" who buy from SMCC
> themselves? They might be a ripe target for bundled Debian/sparc
> boxes when Debian/sparc is ready.] How about applying for govt
> grants? I don't know, things like that. Pro bono legal assistance?
Govt. grants are the most certain way that exists to destroy
something like debian.
--
best,
-bill
bleach@BellSouth.net
b.leach@usa.net LinuxPC@Hotmail.com
from a 1996 Micro$loth ad campaign:
"The less you know about computers the more you want Micro$oft!"
See! They do get some things right!
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