Comments on: If Linux Didn’t “Suck” It Wouldn’t Exist http://whatan00b.com/if-linux-didnt-suck-it-wouldnt-exist Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:04:22 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2362 hourly 1 By: JohnMc http://whatan00b.com/if-linux-didnt-suck-it-wouldnt-exist/comment-page-1#comment-348 JohnMc Fri, 01 May 2009 17:16:57 +0000 http://whatan00b.com/?p=767#comment-348 To the extent that he touch on a series of broad topics he did pretty well 45min. Two things though that he misses -- 1) Canonical, Novell, Red Hat have carried the ball IN THEIR NICHE about as far as they can. Their niche of course is as OS providers NOT application layer purveyors. So though it is suggested the ball is in their court. The real matter is its not their court to be playing. The apps that are there in the distro exist out of their graciousness not their need. 2) Risk Mitigation. Remember it. Lets face it, companies are where the bucks are at. So if you want to be successful you need to be able to sell to them in a big way. It is key to Red Hat's success. Many say Red Hat will not touch the desktop market. Au Contraire. They do sell a 'Commerical' desktop to corporate clients. RH's key to success has been Risk Mitigation for business. Any Fortune 10K buying a product quickly heads into the weeds of 'the contract'. Price? Negotiated? Yes, but that is generally 10% of the effort, the other 90% revolves around who takes what risks and the defined support response taken on by the vendor. Bottom line -- companies are risk averse and base their purchase decisions on how much of that risk they push off to the provider. We all know that as an OS Windows is a less than stellar product but companies buy it in droves for the primary reason that by doing so they push much of their risks onto Microsoft via a support contract. Solutions: * The OS providers need to get together and develop a uniform risk mitigation program for Linux. HP did it 2 years ago for their HPUX --> Linux push. * Push not the cart about Linux when it comes to peripherals. The horse is the problem -- ie the hardware mfrs. The Linux Foundation should push for a development that implements a cross platform middle layer. Yes the driver layer may be closed source. But the Linux platform would have faster adoption by the vendors to provide those drivers. * Application products. Quite honestly it would be in business's interest to fund projects. An example would be the relationship Mozilla foundation has with Google. GIMP if it could find 10 Corps willing to provide $50k each would have the funds to push GIMP to Photoshop levels. The cost avoidance by those companies not having to pay for $150 per seat charge is the payback. Mere observations. To the extent that he touch on a series of broad topics he did pretty well 45min. Two things though that he misses –

1) Canonical, Novell, Red Hat have carried the ball IN THEIR NICHE about as far as they can. Their niche of course is as OS providers NOT application layer purveyors. So though it is suggested the ball is in their court. The real matter is its not their court to be playing. The apps that are there in the distro exist out of their graciousness not their need.

2) Risk Mitigation. Remember it. Lets face it, companies are where the bucks are at. So if you want to be successful you need to be able to sell to them in a big way. It is key to Red Hat’s success. Many say Red Hat will not touch the desktop market. Au Contraire. They do sell a ‘Commerical’ desktop to corporate clients.

RH’s key to success has been Risk Mitigation for business. Any Fortune 10K buying a product quickly heads into the weeds of ‘the contract’. Price? Negotiated? Yes, but that is generally 10% of the effort, the other 90% revolves around who takes what risks and the defined support response taken on by the vendor. Bottom line — companies are risk averse and base their purchase decisions on how much of that risk they push off to the provider.

We all know that as an OS Windows is a less than stellar product but companies buy it in droves for the primary reason that by doing so they push much of their risks onto Microsoft via a support contract.

Solutions:

* The OS providers need to get together and develop a uniform risk mitigation program for Linux. HP did it 2 years ago for their HPUX –> Linux push.

* Push not the cart about Linux when it comes to peripherals. The horse is the problem — ie the hardware mfrs. The Linux Foundation should push for a development that implements a cross platform middle layer. Yes the driver layer may be closed source. But the Linux platform would have faster adoption by the vendors to provide those drivers.

* Application products. Quite honestly it would be in business’s interest to fund projects. An example would be the relationship Mozilla foundation has with Google. GIMP if it could find 10 Corps willing to provide $50k each would have the funds to push GIMP to Photoshop levels. The cost avoidance by those companies not having to pay for $150 per seat charge is the payback.

Mere observations.

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