Seriously... for all their evil, unethical, potentially illegal actions, Microsoft is doing some things _really_ well.
Marketing... um... Not intimidating new users... um... Marketing...
Surely there must be some lessons that the OS/FS community can learn (besides from "kill your competitors at dusk with.45's") from this. After all, for all it's flaws, more people like windows than linux. Yes, that's right. More people.
I think the reasons for those "more people" can be divided into (primarily) two categories, they think Linux is "too hard", or they have no clue that it exists. (I know, there are other reasons for people to not use Linux, but these seem to be the most common.) To quote from the joke about if operating systems were airplanes, Linux Air: Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself. When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is "You had to do what with the seat?"
If you are serious about getting someone to switch, help them put the seat together, or even put the seat together for them. If they don't have to put the seat together, the differences they will notice are the price and the quality.
And this is despite the fact that Windows (at least 95/98/Me) is still often quite unstable... but then again, so is a poorly configured system, which seems to be the rule these days, rather than the exception. Why?
Like mentioned above, many people are still with Windows because they don't know there are alternatives.
If there can be an awarness week for just about everything else, why not have an annual Linux awareness week? I'm not talking about an awareness week in terms of pestering peole who already know what Linux is, I'm talking about going out and telling friends who probably don't even know what an operating system is. Those are the people Microsoft seems to have such a control over. If they want to try it but aren't technical enough to do it themselves, help them set it up. Show them how to do the basic things they used to do under Windows (write a letter, surf the web, etc.). If they can do all of those same things, and someone else is doing the "technical stuff" they won't really care what OS they're using, they'll just use it (although they will notice the stability and price). I don't think it's really necessary to "wear a marketing hat and engage in evil marketroid ceremonies", you just help them get started and avoid intimidating them. A lot of the "real world dwellers" are fed up with Windows crashes, they just don't know that they can leave. ______________________________________
...This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, please contact the program vendor for resolution. _____________________________________ _
Bill Gates, exposed just a year ago as a ruthless and less-than-candid corporate predator, is today the King of the Corporate Republic, the CEO of Internet, Inc.
Like the article says, a year is long time in computing. A long time before this press conference. _____________________________________ _
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously... for all their evil, unethical, potentially illegal actions, Microsoft is doing some things _really_ well.
.45's") from this. After all, for all it's flaws, more people like windows than linux. Yes, that's right. More people.
Marketing... um... Not intimidating new users... um... Marketing...
Surely there must be some lessons that the OS/FS community can learn (besides from "kill your competitors at dusk with
I think the reasons for those "more people" can be divided into (primarily) two categories, they think Linux is "too hard", or they have no clue that it exists. (I know, there are other reasons for people to not use Linux, but these seem to be the most common.) To quote from the joke about if operating systems were airplanes, Linux Air: Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself. When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is "You had to do what with the seat?"
If you are serious about getting someone to switch, help them put the seat together, or even put the seat together for them. If they don't have to put the seat together, the differences they will notice are the price and the quality.
And this is despite the fact that Windows (at least 95/98/Me) is still often quite unstable... but then again, so is a poorly configured system, which seems to be the rule these days, rather than the exception. Why?
Like mentioned above, many people are still with Windows because they don't know there are alternatives.
If there can be an awarness week for just about everything else, why not have an annual Linux awareness week? I'm not talking about an awareness week in terms of pestering peole who already know what Linux is, I'm talking about going out and telling friends who probably don't even know what an operating system is. Those are the people Microsoft seems to have such a control over. If they want to try it but aren't technical enough to do it themselves, help them set it up. Show them how to do the basic things they used to do under Windows (write a letter, surf the web, etc.). If they can do all of those same things, and someone else is doing the "technical stuff" they won't really care what OS they're using, they'll just use it (although they will notice the stability and price). I don't think it's really necessary to "wear a marketing hat and engage in evil marketroid ceremonies", you just help them get started and avoid intimidating them. A lot of the "real world dwellers" are fed up with Windows crashes, they just don't know that they can leave.
______________________________________
blenderking sent in this Wall Street Journal story about
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Microsoft's new "Smart Tags" - auto linking to Microsoft
websites in any web page you visit.
...This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, please contact the program vendor for resolution.
____________________________________
Bill Gates, exposed just a year ago as a ruthless and less-than-candid corporate predator, is today the King of the Corporate Republic, the CEO of Internet, Inc.
_ _
Like the article says, a year is long time in computing. A long time before this press conference.
____________________________________