max.lueb.be

Reading slashdot this week, I came across an article talking about a new effort by Microsoft called linuxpersonas.com, which is an online sales kit for Microsoft technologies at the enterprise level and talk various customer profiles out of using Linux. Needless to say, as a consultant that makes part of his living by pitching open-source, and doing installations and maintenance of these free platforms – it’s hard to flip through this site without doing some serious eye-rolling.

In any case, I think this site underscores a serious weakness in Linux/OSS in general – that is, that there is not very much in the way of organized efforts to expand the marketshare with regards to traditional marketing. All too often, Linux and related technologies seem to rely on Field of Dreams style promoting, “If we build it, they will come.” The development community at times seems to be so in love with what they have created, that they consider the dominance of their platform inevitable. To me this feels strangely similar to Karl Marx preaching about the natural evolution to communism, and the historical inevitability of the demise of Capitalism – the point being, both arguments as far as I’m concerned are pie in the sky dreaming.

If Linux is going to succeed and get the percentage of machines with it installed to the point where it becomes more than a buzzword seen in CNN technology section articles, or something a IT Manager will take a 24 hour crash course in, somebody needs to sell it. It is important to clarify here that I am not proposing that we go and throw a pricetag on a shrinkwrapped install disc – when I say sell, I mean that people need to get in the trenches and go out getting businesses and everyday people to get this software on their computers. We need to see sites popping up that are the equivilent of linuxpersonas.com, but are designed to help consultants convince their customers to run Linux in their company. We also need real, legitimate advertising by the dominant players of our platform. When Ubuntu 7.04 ships next month, billionaire Mark Shuttleworth should sink some serious money into conventional advertising to get his product noticed by people who have never even heard the term Linux before. We should see MySQL running some ads in Computer Publications comparing their product to MSSQL or Oracle offerings.

Novell has started to do this in some respects by making some parodies of the infamous Apple Computer Mac Guy / PC Guy ads, and introducing a girl character named Linux, but at this point these ads aren’t very effective at doing much more than getting a quick laugh out of nerds who already know about Linux and love it. I would like to see a Novell ad where the three characters are talking about going out for an OS upgrade (which could be new clothes or something) and they all open their wallets and show how much the overhaul will cost them. The PC guy takes out a stack of $100 bills and talks about how he’ll need Vista Ultimate and a copy of Office 2007, the Apple guy takes out a $100 bill for a Leopard upgrade, but also has a lot of smaller bills he plans on spending on the Mac shareware community. At this point the camera pans over to the Linux character who is having all of her stuff bought for her by a crowd of people, including some people with briefcases full of money, who are wearing shirts with IBM, Red Hat and other corporate logos.

Until we see a serious marketing effort on the behalf of Linux technology, I have a hardtime concieving any major marketshare growth of open-source technology. In the meantime, redmondpersonas.com is registered and under development. Check back soon!

Youtube is usually a great place for a quick laugh while at work, or to savor illegally uploaded copywrighted material – but it also occasionally is a great source for finding documentation on computing history.

One clip worth watching is the Boston Macworld Expo in 1997 – which was the return of Steve Jobs to Apple, his shuffling of the Board of Directors and his plan to return Apple to profitability. Among his key points are focusing on the markets where Apple was still relevant (Education and Creative Professionals) , as well getting Apple innovating again – the company itself needs to “Think Different”. In short, almost like a communist government in the 60′s, Jobs outlines a “5 Year Plan” to modernize the company and catch up with the West.

10 years later, Steve Jobs has delivered everything he promised and more.

I can’t think of one of my friends at Columbia College studying art who doesn’t either already have a Mac, or have plans for aquiring one as soon as possible. Steve mentions in this video that 60% of all websites are designed on Mac Hardware, and now in 2007 Mac’s are by far the defacto dev machine of choice when designing anything for the web due to their UNIX plumbing and the ability to run every browser on the market natively.

I find it interesting to watch the Macworld 97 video, where Apple was on extremely shaky ground with an uncertain future and then watch clips from this year’s conference where it seems Apple is only headed toward further forms of world domination and hightech conquest.

Something interesting to consider, is where was Microsoft during this 10 year period? With their oldest and classic competitor on the ropes, Microsoft chose not to deliver a knockout punch – instead it decided to go pick flowers or some other completely unrelated activity, while its historic nemesis rebuilt itself.

I know that cooperation was emphasized in the 97 Conference, but what Microsoft chose to do can only be described as “traditional Microsoft thinking”. That is, ignore the market, ignore your customers and overdevelop by committee thinking products designated by tradition and the insular culture at Redmond. The type of thinking that dictates, who cares what the rest of the world does, because we assume that they will all do what we tell them, use our standards and technologies as soon as we release them, that the world is ready to snap in line, repent their misguided ways, and do things the Microsoft way on release day.

What has Microsoft done in any of the area specified by Jobs? Web design with state of the art Frontpage? Edit videos with Microsoft Movie Maker?

Give me a break.

Any person in the creative fields use Microsoft products only because they are forced to by work or by budget. It is a coincidence that Adobe compiles their application suite for Windows because its a big market share, not because of any brilliant strategy by Redmond.

As a recent convert to the cult of Mac, I only regret not doing it sooner as my Macbook Pro is by far the best machine I’ve ever owned – and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for Apple 10 years from now.