I'm not going to make myself any popular by this, but... the OSS community needs to learn to view and promote their work from a market perspective.
The majority of OSS projects is mainly running on proud, and that won't get you anywhere. Now, don't get me wrong! Being proud of your work is absolutely essential. It's essential for getting the job done, for being able to implement your ideas, for, well, being motivated.
But proud is proven to become a killer the instant you're going to sell your product - countless of business don't survive their first years because of just that: proud (and yes, if an OSS project is to survive, it's got to sell its product, although not neccesarily for money). And why would proud be a killer? Because your proud is merely based on YOUR view of the product, and that'll be for the majority of the OSS community the technical view, and the hard reality is that that's NOT of interest to 99% of your audience.
And boy, can proud be persistant, and can your technical background be blocking the view from that other perspective: the customer perspective. Not being able to tame your proud makes that your audience just doesn't get what on earth you're doing, and what value your product is to them.
Keep your proud, and keep the OSS community as technical is it is, but for heaven's sake, learn to communicate with your audience. I'm absolutely sure that you'll then be able to actually sell OS software. Probably not the application itself, but support. At least, that's what counts for businesses, support as guarantee for continuity.
"This smells like some smart marketing suit yelling out requirements "we need this...and that!... and an Ipod connection!""
Congratulations, you've won the jackpot. Indeed, it's marketing. What else did you expect? Someone starting up a business with the intention of going bust? Those people are trying to sell a product, which, consequently, has to appeal to their market's tastes. iPods have proven to fit in that picture. So, indeed, it's smart marketing. Good work, I'd say.
What do people have against business doing business? Sometimes people seem to forget that businesses are/required/ to have the intention of making a profit. That means marketing.
It really keeps amazing me how effective marketing can be. Why would an iBook be meant just for `schools'? People are letting themselves being fooled by their own greed. Just the fact that there's no `Power' in the name doesn't mean that it stops working the moment a `power-user' (whoever that might be) touches it. For heaven's sake, use what your job (or hobby or whatever) requires you to use.
As a matter of fact, I'm typing this on a 2-year old iBook G3. I'm an IT guy, so I guess I qualify as one of those power-users. I'm perfectly fine with it.
Syntax error: you made statements where you obviously intended to ask confirmation about some random thoughts you had. Next time, try using the question-mark construction. E.g:
"Isn't it true that testing is only a priority on closed source apps?".
Which would of course have been answered with "no". Recommended reading available on request.
I'm sorry, but that sound like Marvin got himself employed as the new university mascot.
Pffft pssst you will be working with management that does not know anything pffffft psssst and will have student help that does not know anything pffft pssst pain in my diodes pffft psst...
I guess that's really nice. But I can't say that I'm overly excited considering the horrendous quality of e.g Office's HTML output. Apple Mail chokes on HTML formatted messages generated by Outlook. And not without reason. A message containing just 4 lines of text is contained in some HTML spaghetti code of no less then 210 lines.
So even though XML is an open format on paper I guess Microsoft has shown us in the past that they're perfectly able of effectively locking us out again by just using the power of obfuscation.
I live in a rather old flat and I can tell from experience that old things tend to attract bugs. Here we have another example, though these bugs apparently have mutated into something more technologically advanced. Its a sad thing.
Slashdot Mirror
"it also turns out most drivers can't even name the high tech safety systems that are continually saving their butts."
...but why should I?
Lekker snuggere opmerking van jou zeg.
I'm not going to make myself any popular by this, but... the OSS community needs to learn to view and promote their work from a market perspective.
The majority of OSS projects is mainly running on proud, and that won't get you anywhere. Now, don't get me wrong! Being proud of your work is absolutely essential. It's essential for getting the job done, for being able to implement your ideas, for, well, being motivated.
But proud is proven to become a killer the instant you're going to sell your product - countless of business don't survive their first years because of just that: proud (and yes, if an OSS project is to survive, it's got to sell its product, although not neccesarily for money). And why would proud be a killer? Because your proud is merely based on YOUR view of the product, and that'll be for the majority of the OSS community the technical view, and the hard reality is that that's NOT of interest to 99% of your audience.
And boy, can proud be persistant, and can your technical background be blocking the view from that other perspective: the customer perspective. Not being able to tame your proud makes that your audience just doesn't get what on earth you're doing, and what value your product is to them.
Keep your proud, and keep the OSS community as technical is it is, but for heaven's sake, learn to communicate with your audience. I'm absolutely sure that you'll then be able to actually sell OS software. Probably not the application itself, but support. At least, that's what counts for businesses, support as guarantee for continuity.
"This smells like some smart marketing suit yelling out requirements "we need this...and that!... and an Ipod connection!""
/required/ to have the intention of making a profit. That means marketing.
Congratulations, you've won the jackpot. Indeed, it's marketing. What else did you expect? Someone starting up a business with the intention of going bust? Those people are trying to sell a product, which, consequently, has to appeal to their market's tastes. iPods have proven to fit in that picture. So, indeed, it's smart marketing. Good work, I'd say.
What do people have against business doing business? Sometimes people seem to forget that businesses are
Your remark was a bit naive.
If someone gives birth in space, would the child classify as an alien?
because not everything needs to be of practical value...
...who's gonna patent them?
It really keeps amazing me how effective marketing can be. Why would an iBook be meant just for `schools'? People are letting themselves being fooled by their own greed. Just the fact that there's no `Power' in the name doesn't mean that it stops working the moment a `power-user' (whoever that might be) touches it. For heaven's sake, use what your job (or hobby or whatever) requires you to use.
As a matter of fact, I'm typing this on a 2-year old iBook G3. I'm an IT guy, so I guess I qualify as one of those power-users. I'm perfectly fine with it.
Cheers.
Me.
...with humans. Evidence here.
Syntax error: you made statements where you obviously intended to ask confirmation about some random thoughts you had. Next time, try using the question-mark construction. E.g:
"Isn't it true that testing is only a priority on closed source apps?".
Which would of course have been answered with "no". Recommended reading available on request.
I'm sorry, but that sound like Marvin got himself employed as the new university mascot.
Pffft pssst you will be working with management that does not know anything pffffft psssst and will have student help that does not know anything pffft pssst pain in my diodes pffft psst...
It must be hell working for a university.
"...to have the ENTIRE Macintosh line transitioned to Intel CPUs..."
:-)
But that's fabulous. Can't wait till they pay me a visit to `transition' my iBook G3 with a brand new MacIntel PowerBook.
Please?
I guess that's really nice. But I can't say that I'm overly excited considering the horrendous quality of e.g Office's HTML output. Apple Mail chokes on HTML formatted messages generated by Outlook. And not without reason. A message containing just 4 lines of text is contained in some HTML spaghetti code of no less then 210 lines.
So even though XML is an open format on paper I guess Microsoft has shown us in the past that they're perfectly able of effectively locking us out again by just using the power of obfuscation.
...stupidity that matters.
I live in a rather old flat and I can tell from experience that old things tend to attract bugs. Here we have another example, though these bugs apparently have mutated into something more technologically advanced. Its a sad thing.