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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: why is there so little KDE PR ?
From:       Martijn Klingens <mklingens () yahoo ! com>
Date:       2001-01-20 0:58:38
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On Saturday 20 January 2001 00:02, Lotzi Boloni wrote:

(...)

>
>    Well, there are two development books out, David Sweet et al., and mine,
> and I think there are 2-3 more in preparation.
>
>    But books are not hype machine, and we need a bit more of that, too.

Definitely. In Germany and many parts of Europe, KDE is extremely popular, 
but in Holland it's about equal with Gnome (at least on my school when 
counting students using it - difficult to judge the rest, although the 
magazines tend to be supporting both). In the US it's even worse with Gnome 
being much more popular.

And the fact that especially US people are very sensitive to 'hype' marketing 
doesn't make this any better. Maybe the fact that when Windows 95 was 
introduced, even people who did not have a pc bought their copy is the best 
illistration of this fact. Sad, but true. For us techies it's simply the best 
that counts, for most people it's whatever had the best marketing.

1. Video 2000 or VHS? First was technically better, but VHS had better 
marketing.
2. Windows or OS/2 (back in 1995/96)? OS/2 was better, Windows had the better 
marketing.
3. HP or Epson inkjets? It gets better, but many people still buy HP though 
Epson tends to be better.

Need more examples? Some of these can be argued, like saying MS also sells 
vapourware. True, but the initial marketing was definitely a big boon for 
them. If less people were using it, there would be much less complaints. On 
the whole, the more advanced users complain. And they use MS software just 
because they have to - because everyone runs it and expects them to use it 
too.

Why is still 99% of all (non-server) software development done for Windows? 
Market Share. Why does Windows have market share? Marketing. Period. Not 
quality, because OS/2, MacOs, Unix (all flavours) and many others are better 
in any or all respects, just marketing.

Marketing counts.

Martijn

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