When your Leadership fails...

Story: What Good is it if They Don't Know it's Linux?Total Replies: 9
Author Content
helios

Jul 17, 2010
10:23 AM EDT
Jim Zemlin and I have been over this on two battlefields...

The Linux Foundation's line follows that of IBM and HP. Their focus is on the server, not the desktop. Zemlin stood three feet from me, eye to eye and stated as much in 2008. He dismissed the Linux Desktop as a potential driving force in the market.

When your most recognized leadership organization toes that line, is it any wonder that the desktop is considered "Irrelevant" by those further down the pipe? It's fairly clear to me the reason Zemlin touts such rhetoric. What major corporates help fund The Linux Foundation?

Nuff said.

h

phsolide

Jul 17, 2010
1:19 PM EDT
It's a mistake to "follow" HP on anything. They don't lead, they cover their own hinders with "best practices".

Anybody touched HP-UX lately? It's like waking up in 1983 again. Plus, the PA-RISC architecture has *segment registers*. HP doesn't readily admit it, but they're there, and they get used. Maximum suck.
tuxchick

Jul 18, 2010
9:14 AM EDT
Ken, I will forever treasure the video of you tossing the dung into the punchbowl at the Collaboration Summit, and disrupting their cozy little circle-er um well you know the word:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG9HhXBFDUM&feature=player_em...

"Linux is just a component!" Uh huh. So is Windows. So is Intel Inside. So is Centrino. So is AMD. And so on and on, all those "components" that are heavily advertised, and their stickers plastered all over computers. I am happy, Ken, that you disrupted their smarm and smugness, however briefly.
Bob_Robertson

Jul 18, 2010
11:15 AM EDT
That's a great video.

I get the impression that the IBM and HP people are very carefully side-stepping the issue, using talking points they have been conveniently provided.
helios

Jul 18, 2010
11:24 AM EDT
Can't for the life of me figure out why I have not been invited back. http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/collaboration-summi...

Maybe I am no longer considered one of "the best and brightest"

Oh well...As you can see, I am crushed...;-)

h
tuxchick

Jul 19, 2010
12:23 AM EDT
Quoting:Can't for the life of me figure out why I have not been invited back.


Ken, I'm sure it just slipped their minds :)
tracyanne

Jul 19, 2010
3:00 AM EDT
the way he embarrassed then probably didn't. Ken you're a loose cannon, we just can't have people who won't tow the corporate line at these ego stroke fests.
gus3

Jul 19, 2010
3:44 AM EDT
Transparency!
hkwint

Jul 19, 2010
12:11 PM EDT
Looking at this:

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/members

the Linux Foundation is "just another BSA", but without Apple and Microsoft. So what else should we suspect?

Problem is, you can't advertize something that's almost free, it's not economically viable.

In some province next to the one where I live, there's a highway. On one side of the highway, tap water is pumped from a source, and sold for €0,0017 per liter, settled per m3 (1000 liter). On the other side of the highway, the exact same water from the exact same source is put into bottles and sold as 'mineral water' for €0,90 per liter.

It goes without saying, the 'mineral water' is heavy advertized. Otherwise, such an expensive product which offers few 'bang for the bucks' wouldn't sell. Because the profit margins they make, they have money to advertize.

The tap water isn't advertized at all, people take it for granted. Far more people use the tap water than the bottled water, but they are not well aware of them using it because they take it for granted. Apart from that, they'll use it anyway, no matter if advertized or not. But the point is, even if the tap water company would like to advertize, they only make small margins so it's not that economically viable.

The reason the tap water company does advertize however, is because of the large amounts they sell.

My conclusion is, only if billions of cheap Linux support subscriptions are sold, advertizing is pretty hard. The only thing one could do, is create the 'Rolexes' of Linux: Sell an expensive distribution with lots of margins, and use the margins to advertize. I think that was what Linspire was about, but they failed at the advertizing however.
helios

Jul 19, 2010
12:19 PM EDT
but they failed at the advertizing however.

Which is to say they failed TO advertise. My theory still stands in my mind. Put the product into the living rooms of the consuming public with an honest effort and the product will sell. But you are right and I've said it all along...without a ROI, no one is going to advertise anything. My point to the panel had an implied constant. You use Linux to profit, help the community spread the word with some media advertising.

I fully understand why they won't...I simply felt great distain for those who talked around or ignored the dichotomy instead of being honest and addressing it.

h

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