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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: [kde-promo] Re: as far as theKompany is concerned
From:       Navindra Umanee <navindra () cs ! mcgill ! ca>
Date:       2001-12-08 9:53:49
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Shawn Gordon <shawn@thekompany.com> wrote:
> > For example, as part of the KDE community myself, I must say I cringe
> > everytime you expound how you are "rebaptising" what was formerly a
> > KDE product and turning it into a pure Qt one.  Aethera immediately
> > loses value to me, personally, but I am not your paying customer
> > (yet).
> 
> You know, I've had people say this a number of times and I just don't get 
> it.  What are you loosing?  Especially with KDE 3 and the work we are 

Then how come you don't emphasize your KDE compatibility when
appropriate?  Mostly what I hear is how you are converting KDE
products to Qt.  Does it really matter to me the consumer, what your
business plans are with Qt?  Whether valid or not, me the customer
just wants KDE apps that are integrated with my desktop.  Instead I'm
confronted with jargon about "rewrites to Qt", and I lose interest.

And then when people complain, we see a lot of explanations in the
talkbacks.  That's what I mean when I say I think the PR strategy at
theKompany is lacking, the business strategy may be more than sound
but the message you are sending is not particularly well-tailored to
the audience.  

However, I do realize that perhaps I am not your target customer and
that you are looking for bigger fish to fry.  Long live Mutt. :-p

> properly under KDE then what are you missing?  You are also missing the 
> larger opportunity that we are creating by making it easier for people to 
> switch to KDE from other platforms if our software is in all these 
> places.  They might say "hey, this app is pretty darn useful, and it runs 

Well that's nice, but see above for what I was trying to say.

> whatever reason and just try to drive corporations out.  IBM was really put 
> off by the reaction they were getting, why do you think ViaVoice hasn't 
> been released almost a year after TT and IBM demo'd it?

Why?  What reaction were they getting?  It is not at all obvious to me
what happened.

> since I do the courtesy (that most busy CEO's don't) of responding to 
> emails and talkbacks, I get personally involved.  I also get a lot of 
> customers because we are so responsive.  The people who don't like us will 
> for the most part always not like us and it is purely a matter of ideology.

Well much of the time I've read public responses from you it's to
respond to petty attacks, which is fine, but often you seem to lose
your cool.  And then sometimes it's a battle of words about what "Open
Source" means or whose project or code is whose or how RMS insulted
you, and other such dirty laundry. That's just my impression, but I
don't think it's good for PR.  Why does this happen?  Can something be
done to improve the situation?  Food for thought...

Of course, people always love a quick response too, and you have no
shortage of fans and support.  Good luck and all the best.

-N.
 
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