[Mageia-dev] Identifying Target Markets

[Samuel Verschelde]

Le jeudi 30 septembre 2010 17:03:30, Gustavo Giampaoli a écrit :
> 
> > We do have to find a place in the market slice, or no one would care
> >
> > about who you are. All-purpose is great, but not for people who is
> > unfamiliar
> >
> > to our distro:
> >
> > It's too vague and not attractive since no one knows your strength.
> 
> I agree. If you have being in linux for a little time, you learn that
> all distros are Linux are Linux are Linux. Every distro, with the
> right packages, can be whatever the user whants it to be. Maybe some
> uses DEB, other RPM, Gentoo uses ports, Pardus Pisi. But these are
> small differences. The truth is any linux-based OS can be whatever
> user whants.
> 
> So, Mageia should say "this is is my target, my zone. I can do all,
> but this is what I do best"
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> 

The names Mandrake, and now Mageia, make me think about ease of use : "everything works like magic". The Mandriva Control Center is one of the strength of Mandriva and now Mageia. I hope it will remains such.
You change a parameter, and "voilà", it works like expected. (Of course you still can tweak configuration files by yourself, but you can do that in any distribution).

One of the tools we use most is "drakconnect" in console, for our customers (hospitals). They want to change the gateway, or IP address, and we don't have to make them tweak any configuration file (many wouldn't know how to do !) : just issue the drakconnect command, follow the steps, and everything works like a charm. Want to open a new port in the firewall ? Just run drakfirewall and type in the port you have to open.

The drakxtools, and the ability to chose between different desktops (KDE, GNOME, XFCE...), are what I value most in Mandriva. Sure, many will have different opinions, now you have mine. I saw people on forums say "at last we don't have to use the command line to configure everything. I went to ubuntu forums and they always give commands like 'sudo this', 'sudo that' to solve various problems". Don't get me wrong : I use the command line very often. But I like that in Mandriva if you don't want to, often you don't have to use it.

Don't know if it makes the discussion about marketing position go forward...

Regards

Samuel Verschelde