Reality check! [was: Re: Debian goes big business?]
amacater@galactic.debian.org (Andrew Martin Adrian Cater) writes:
> On Wed, Jan 20, 1999 at 12:47:52PM -0500, Harrison, Shawn wrote:
> > So that's what I think we should focus on. -- What is the best way to get
> > Debian out to the world?
[ ... ]
> Install it at your workplace, tell people, support new users - every time
> one of my colleagues wants a "Linux box" I build them a Debian disk. If
> you _really_ want to get Debian out into the world:
[ ... ]
> Stress the security and upgradeability of Debian: install RedHat and
> ask people to upgrade - then show them Debian with APT
>
Give these people a Debian CD and let them install it all on their
own. Guess what? They will hate it!
Then let them purchase the most recent shrink wrapped SuSE-6.0
distribution for some 50 US$ (is this the current US price?) and let
them do the install all on their own. They will _love_ it because
it's *easy* to get started with Linux. They will *happily* spend
quite a sum of money for a SuSE because it saves them *lots* of time
and annoyances they'd have with Debian. They won't care about
Debian's rather unaccessable technical superiority if the installation
hinders them from getting the beast at least easily up and running and
will recommend SuSE to the rest of the world. That's how SuSE became
the biggest player on the Linux market in Germany. And because SuSE
is even easier to install and maintain than Redhat it will eventually
become a major player in the US as well. Debian in comparison is
still a far cry from what it's really all about becoming popular for
the world. Ease of use and maintenance is not about succumbing to
cluelessness but about saving lots of time and unnecessary efforts.
I wouldn't recommend Debian to my non Linux savy friends either
because i want them to *like* Linux and currently it is really hard
for a newbie to find something likeable about Debian. I myself like
Debian a lot because i already know it well enough to appreciate it.
Debian surely is great regarding maintenance, upgradeability and all
but i still do hate to make fresh installs with it, although i easily
know how to do it. It's just that i hate babysitting this damn
install routine for hours repeatedly answering setup questions i
definitely don't remotely want to bother about. And now guess how a
newbie might feel about such first contact issues...
The first thing a future Debian entrepreneur interested in financial
success would have to address would be to fix all those things which
we Debian propeller heads have preferred to mostly neglect up until
now: ease of install and ease of useability for both sysadmins and
users. These things have to become *at least* as dead easy as it
*already is* with SuSE. It would be a very healthy experience for
everybody to go out once in a while and purchase a SuSE copy and do a
fresh install with it. Some would be astonished and some might even
be frightened to see what Debian definitely lacks.
A superior distribution which is making you feel it's superiority
wherever it can right into your face instead of simply going out of
your way and function nonetheless is IMHO still far away from really
being superior. Just guess why Linus doesn't run Debian?
Everybody think about it please, P. *8^)
--
--------- Paul Seelig <pseelig@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de> -----------
African Music Archive - Institute for Ethnology and Africa Studies
Johannes Gutenberg-University - Forum 6 - 55099 Mainz/Germany
------------------- http://ntama.uni-mainz.de --------------------
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