Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 14:36:07 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: mavery@mail.otherwhen.com, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: PCWeek article by Anne Chen -- Comments Message-ID: <4.2.0.37.19990505143155.04513d60@localhost> In-Reply-To: <199905051757.MAA25014@hostigos.otherwhen.com> References: <4.2.0.37.19990505105712.00b51a20@localhost> <Pine.OSF.3.95q.990505112149.15848A-100000@poirot.umd.edu>
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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
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