From owner-freebsd-chat Wed May 5 13:37: 8 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from lariat.lariat.org (lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8F8FD14BFC for ; Wed, 5 May 1999 13:37:06 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from brett@lariat.org) Received: from mustang.lariat.org (IDENT:ppp0.lariat.org@lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by lariat.lariat.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA25709; Wed, 5 May 1999 14:36:19 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <4.2.0.37.19990505143155.04513d60@localhost> X-Sender: brett@localhost X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.0.37 (Beta) Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 14:36:07 -0600 To: mavery@mail.otherwhen.com, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG From: Brett Glass Subject: Re: PCWeek article by Anne Chen -- Comments In-Reply-To: <199905051757.MAA25014@hostigos.otherwhen.com> References: <4.2.0.37.19990505105712.00b51a20@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 12:39 PM 5/5/99 -0500, Mike Avery wrote: >Yeah - we've all been in battles where the lesser solution won >because the boss liked the company that sold it better. Sadly, as you >get older, you'll understand where the boss is coming from. The boss >has to defend purchase decisions to people further up the chain... >people who understand even less than the boss does. A very good point! FreeBSD needs to break the "Pointy-Haired Boss Barrier." >> You've got to get a native port AND a FreeBSD-knowledgeable > > support staff at the application vendor's site that pushes FreeBSD's > > cause. This means NUMBERS, and this in turn means evangelism. > >There's a big hurdle in itself - how do you get the numbers? No, not >"how do you get people to try and use FreeBSD" but "how do you get >numbers of systems in use that the boss and developers can buy >into?" This question is key, and gives a hint as to what the most effective strategies are. Strategies with linear returns aren't enough; they must trigger INCREASING returns. Evangelistic strategies -- i.e. strategies which cause converts to further propagate the message -- always win over non-evangelistic strategies. > Linux had the same problem. The first step for them was the >distribution houses making money on the product. The next step, and >it was a big one in terms of credibility, was when the RedHat's, the >Caldera's, and the SuSe's got shelf space in BestBuy, OfficeDepot, >and other mass market outlets. These trends generated numbers >people could point to untis sold, not just downloaded and installed. That's the idea. Positive feedback. --Brett Glass To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message