Re: [Fsfe-uk] Stalls at Marxism 2003

[ian]

On Tue, 2003-05-20 at 12:28, Mike Taylor wrote:
> > 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?  

LEAs have the ear of schools. They have a lot of targeted cash but not
much imagination. There are ways of giving them ideas about how to solve
specific problems in the areas they have cash to support. Eg school I
have just been in say they would like the LEA to support their IT. Local
etc quite low costs - but If we use Linux they won't touch us! Ok we'll
do it then ;-) Or let's talk to your LEA and say why they don't need to
lose your business.

> If they did, they would not even be bother to _think_
> about ditching MS, just like most big, successful companies aren't.

Its not about ditching MS. Its about including Linux. It doesn't matter
if they still use some MS stuff. There are two key strategic aims. Get
*enough* Linux in to make it worthwhile the education apps companies to
port their software, prevent people buying new MS licences. This really
has to come first. Eat the elephant a bite at a time.

> 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.)

Again its complicated. Use the arguments suitable to the particular
audience. Free beer is fine. When they understand that they appreciate
free speech much better.

> > > 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!

Don't worry, I'm working on it and in a way learning marketing is no
more difficult to learning programming. Its just understanding the rules
and applying them.

>  _/|_  _______________________________________________________________
> /o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <address@hidden>  http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
> )_v__/\  "You can use the format-string `percent-thingummy, doohickey,
>        blah blah'" -- Alec Turner
> 
> --
> Listen to my wife's new CD of kids' music, _Child's Play_, at
>       http://www.pipedreaming.org.uk/childsplay/
-- 
ian <address@hidden>