Re: [Fsfe-uk] Stalls at Marxism 2003

[Mike Taylor]

> Date: 20 May 2003 08:27:44 +0100
> From: ian <address@hidden>>
> 
> > Free beer is much more exciting to penniless Marxist than to a
> > wedged-up suit-wearer who's probably already whacking it down in
> > an expensive wine-bar on a company expense account.
> 
> Don't you believe it mate, how do you think the suit-wearer got his
> cash? Not by squandering it on stuff he can get for free, that's for
> sure ;-). Ok, there is a hearts and minds thing that might be a
> no-brainer for someone with no money, but the economic arguments
> still make sense if you want your business to have a competitive
> edge.  Certainly working for us. Just had an enquiry from a LEA via
> BECTa about suppliers of GNU/Linux with education knowledge and
> background. Not many competing firms on that list at the moment :-)

OK, but you're surely not telling me that LEAs have a lot of cash to
splash around?  If they did, they would not even be bother to _think_
about ditching MS, just like most big, successful companies aren't.
It seems to be that it's precisely because schools are always so
strapped for cash that they're interested in your free-as-in-beer
low-cost alternative.  (Though it would great to get schools more
interested in free-as-in-speech too.)

> > The strategic decision that needs to be taken is, whether having
> > those particular allies [Marxists] would do us more harm than
> > good; and I don't think it's at all obvious (either way) what the
> > answer to that question is.
> 
> I think its a risk not worth taking. One of the biggest boosts to
> GNU/Linux was IBM - not exactly a left wing organisation. Fair
> enough if you can be demonstrably even-handed, but one of the things
> that has held Linux back is the Geek/Anorak image - until IBM made
> it respectable for corporates, now backed by Oracle HP etc.

Makes sense.

> In marketing you have to think like the people you are marketing to
> [...]

That's why I'm not in marketing :-)

(Among many, many other reasons!)

> With the right approach we can capture them all :-)

That's tellin' 'em!  Go, Ian!  Preach it, brother!

 _/|_    _______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <address@hidden>  http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "You can use the format-string `percent-thingummy, doohickey,
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