Re: If I were marketing director of Suse...
From: David Wright (david_c_wright_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 07/05/04
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Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2004 14:34:22 +0200
init 3 wrote:
> nonesuch wrote:
>
>> Well, I dunno.
>>
>> I paid for 3 different version of Suse and I always went with the $89
>> version so that I could get the entire distro (and all the extra stuff)
>> on a single DVD. I'd just leave that in the DVD slot most of the time
>> and when I'd need to add an application, or just tinker with one it
>> would be right there.
>>
>> I think you can get all the same applications with the less expensive
>> version, but you have to download them, and the Suse download process
>> used to be rather slow (I haven't tried the last release though).
>>
>> Suse has always been my favorite distro to recommend to new Linux users.
>> I used it myself for my first year as a Linux user and then I decided
>> I prefered the flexibility of Debian.
>>
>> The existing Novell user base and their acquisition of Ximian, along
>> with their established business in China I think is going to be a bigger
>> problem for Red Hat than anyone else. Red Hat has unfortunately
>> appeared to flounder over how to approach the desktop and I think they
>> may regret that in the long run.
>>
>> The developers kits might be a good idea though since most people aren't
>> interested in that. I also think that if Novell would REALLY go head
>> to head with Microsoft for Desktop systems they could make quite a bit
>> of progress. They are being carefull what they say along those lines
>> right now though, no doubt Microsoft will threaten to de-support all
>> Windows software for any harware maker that is too cozy with Novell.
>>
>> Now that MS has finished making fools of the Justice Department don't
>> expect anything but foul play from them. Let them do it though... the
>> tighter they cling to their Windows monoply the bigger the splat will be
>> when it comes tumbling down.
>
> I totally agree with you on each and every point.
>
> However, I think Suse needs to get it's act together on critical points
> for
> the home user: media. Suse has to create a situation where the OS can:
>
> (a) play a DVD out of the box -- OR -- have an easy to do install step
> that acquires the libdvdss1 from the net
>
This is for legal reasons, SuSE have not licenced the relevant encryption
technologies, so they cannot legally include them in the download, and also
as the technologies aren't open source and distributed under GPL, they
won't be included.
If you have problems with this, talk to Hollywood (MPAA?)
> (b) insure that Konqueror is fully configured with all plug-ins including
> Real, and MPLayer for Windows media.
>
Read somewhere last week that Real are thinking about opening Real Player
up. But again, the copyright and technologies involved belong to Microsoft
and Real, and unless SuSE can get them to agree to release the relevant
code under GPL/open source, then it is unlikely to happen. "A bunch of guys
working for no profit," won't attract that much attention from Microsoft
when they release a library capable of playing their media encoding, but a
big organisation which has money will likely attract attention from the
Microsoft lawyers... Again talk to Microsoft if you want Linux to come with
their codecs as default...
> (c) Pare down the number of /options/ for configuration and installation
> for
> PE. Make YaSt the only option and make KDE the only option. The home
> user needs ease, not excessive choices.
>
Depends, if they have hardware which does not run KDE or it runs like a dog,
then they need a light-weight alternative. Also, what about users who
prefer Gnome to KDE?
> This easy to use version would be Personal Edition. And at $29 the home
> user would have /zero/ reason not to buy and install it on their machines
> if the above changes were made....
>
>
>
>>
>> init 3 wrote:
>>>
>>> If I were marketing director of Suse I would not break up my product
>>> line into Personal and Professional.
>>>
>>> It implies that somehow the underlying power of the basic kernel and
>>> subsystem is different -- and it's not. Professional just adds in more
>>> applications and development tools.
>>>
Professional adds on the servers, which take more know-how and skill to
configure. Perhaps renaming it SoHo Server edition or something might be an
idea.
>>> What I would do is have a single base version at the nice price of
>>> Personal, $29.00
>>>
>>> Then I would have a two levels of development add-on.
>>>
>>> A mono developer kit for say, $30 will everything to build mono apps.
>>>
>>> A java developer kit for the same price.
>>>
>>> And a SupraDeveloper Kit with all the necessary applications for
>>> building everything from a kernel module on up....
>>>
>
And what about the people who want the features of the existing Professional
edition? Where do they fit into your scheme of things?
What do you call a "mono developer"? Normally "personal" development doesn't
include database functionality, "professional" allows database development
and "enterprise" has collaboration tools as well, which let groups of
developers work together (source code libraries, code versioning, release
management etc.).
If you have the basic "mono" developer, they would need the make and
compiler tools, this would allow them to build a kernel. They would just
need to download the Kernel source. To be honest, anybody who wants to
build a kernel for themselves will probably not need a developer version
anyway, they can source the relevant tools themselves.
Personally, I think SuSE would be better off calling Personal "Desktop" or
something, it gives a better indication of what it contains, then
Professional should remain Professional. It contains development and server
tools, so unless you split it up into two products (SoHo Server and
Developer) and probably disenfranchise the people who want development and
server tools.
Dave
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