[Mageia-dev] Identifying Target Markets

[Graham Lauder]

On Friday 01 Oct 2010 03:09:25 Frank Griffin wrote:
> Marc Paré wrote:
> > Le 2010-09-30 07:21, Graham Lauder a écrit :
> >> The "feel" to me that came from the brainstorming was that Mageia
> >> could be
> >> marketed as the "Family Distro".
> > 
> > I think that if you target the software packages that are compatible
> > with Educational software advocated by educational organizations, we
> > could make quite large inroads in the adaptability of Mageia.
> 
> I think that these are endeavors for an entity which is exactly what
> we've just got done saying Mageia *isn't*, namely a commercial venture.

In a phrase: Horse Doo doo (not exactly what I wanted to say but I wanted to 
protect the "G" rating!  :)  )  This is not about commercial, it's about 
market.  

Mageia has a donation system, in my culture the nearest thing is called Koha 
(Yes the name of the open source Library Management Software) It is a sort of 
open source value assignation system, it's not that it is "cost free" but more 
that it's "Cost optional" and the simple fact that we have a donation system 
in place means we follow this model.  Branding is also about this but we'll 
come back to that. 

We do this because at the end of the day infrastructure costs, marketing 
costs, a whole pile of things cost.  One day some patch or application, which 
is essential but completely non-sexy could require us to pay a dev on contract 
and so on and so forth.  

Now our problem is that in these days of "everything free off the Internet" 
getting Koha is problematic. However there is, obviously, a proportion of the 
market that is willing to give Koha.  That proportion in a market is generally 
but arguably fixed, so the bigger the market the greater the Koha.  Our 
advantage is that our "costs" vary little with the size of the market.

There could be an argument made that "Cost Optional" is a commercial model, 
but a commercial model demands profit margins and I don't think that's where 
we're at.

> 
> Currently, the package inventory of Mandriva is fairly all-inclusive,
> and I don't think we should abandon any specific interest group.
> Mandriva may have to do this to remain commercially viable - we do not.
> 
> However, let me try to translate your desires into a more technical
> objective that would meet the need..
> 
> Traditionally, the MDV ISO-building process has been complex, not
> well-documented, and difficult for anyone outside of MDV to use.

[.................]

>  You want it, you design it, you press the button
> and build it.

> 
> It should not be too difficult to write a utility that goes through a
> content list and automatically updates the package names to newer
> versions, so maintenance could be minimal.  Of course, you'd need to
> fire up the build utility to see if there are new package requirements
> or if you've exceeded your space constraint.


There is already a way of doing that, it's called OBS (OpenSUSE Build service, 
it's free software, install it or in fact use it) and with that and SUSE 
Studio, OpenSUSE have that corner of the market targeted and nailed.   

[....]


Cheers
GL

-- 
Graham Lauder,
OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html

OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant.

INGOTs Assessor Trainer
(International Grades in Open Technologies)
www.theingots.org