Re: Linux Popularity
On Sat, Feb 26, 2000 at 07:18:06PM -0600, Tom Berry wrote:
> May I make a suggestion to all developers of Linux applications:
>
> 1. Put ALL Linux commercial applications on a single web site for sale. Tell
> the software developers to "bite the bullet" for a couple of years and sell
> the software at wholesale prices.
http://freshmeat.net/ serves this purpose Linux and UNIX software, both
commercial and free.
> 2. Use this web site as a CENTRAL LOCATION for ALL the Linux community out
> there. We would all like to be able to find applications for such a great
> operating system, but FINDING them is quite difficult.
Nowhere's ever going to be the "central location" .. there's merely degrees of
popularity. Everyone will have a grudge. If commercial companies wish to do
this themselves, they can .. however, Debian certainly isn't a commercial
company in this respect - and frankly I don't think many people who read this
list could give a toss about most commercial software (if it's also of a
proprietry nature).
> 3. Make sure the developers and customers around the country know about this
> web site. Market-market-market. Include shareware and freeware on it too.
> (Give everybody a chance)
Gee, sounding more like Freshmeat. Linux.com has links to it, slashdot.org
has links to it. I think it's pretty well known .. except to you, of course.
> 4. When marketing, sell Linux's stability, robustness and tell the public
> that Unix (from whence Linux has its roots) has been around much longer than
> DOS or WINDOWS-that large companies around the world have relied on UNIX
> variants for decades to do their business.
I'm sure linux.com has the relevent details .. this is the first place most
people will go to learn about Linux.
> 5. Publicly ask Microsoft to put a daemon in their operating system that
> monitors the number of crashes/hangs/reboots. I guarantee you they can't
> afford to, as we all know how unstable their operating systems can be.
Good idea - the event log will do it, however (note when it comes up without
it shutting down) .. but 99% of the people wouldn't bother about saving the
details or reporting them anywhere .. and you won't be able to do it
automatically without having the users agree to it .. plus they need
connectivity, etc. I'm afraid this task is limited to those that actually
give a damn about proving Windows crashes.
> 6. Sell the point that Linux has "the good will" of all the programmers on
> the internet working towards a common goal: a robust, stable, truly
> multitasking operating system whose code is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN, therefore
> allowing 100 times the inspection compared to anybody else's operating
> system.
It's not in the public domain. Public domain is a legal term meaning (pretty
much) "without license". Never EVER say GNU/Linux is in the public domain.
> 7. Once the public has a web site to purchase their applications for Linux
> and the developers community sees the need, Linux can overtake Windows.
Linux is making its way quite nicely. I think it would be a good idea for a
prominent site such as linux.com to have links to companies supporting Linux
and their products. It lets people know what Linux supports. It would also
be deemed "official" by companies. I suggest you talk to people from their
about it. For all I know, there may already be such a thing. Same for you,
you didn't look around before writing this obviously.
- rmt
--
<rw-rw-rw-> That begins to have an effect on you after a while.
<rw-rw-rw-> It's like being a bartender. You know you shouldn't be pouring
these people yet another Microsoft cocktail, but you do it anyway, and
listen to their tales of woe.
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