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Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy
From: |
ZnU |
Subject: |
Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy |
Date: |
Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:42:23 -0500 |
User-agent: |
MT-NewsWatcher/3.5.3b2 (Intel Mac OS X) |
In article <slrngnroul.pl2.jedi@nomad.mishnet>,
JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> wrote:
[snip]
> Linux is in wide use so no one has to worry about it "going anywhere".
> Furthermore, success in some non-desktop market might "spill over". This
> has already happened with one very prominent example:
>
> Apple
>
> The success of Apple in an area that's NOT desktop computing basically
> helped bring them back from the brink of oblivion and has put them in the
> center of the technological universe. So fixating only on the information
> you find convenient is not only not logical, it is also contrary to the
> real world.
There are essentially two mechanisms behind the "iPod halo" effect.
The first mechanism is simply increased brand awareness. The iPod is a
heavily branded product. Apple logos appear on the case, packaging, and
in several places in the user interface. They're also quite prominent in
iPod-related advertising, of which there is quite a large amount.
The second mechanism is through the use of the iPod as a showcase for
Apple's technical and aesthetic strengths. An iPod is a solid little
device that provides a great user experience from end to end: the
packaging it comes in, the device's own interface, the high-end retail
stores that sell and support it, the easy to use music service it
integrates with, etc. People see all of this, and then think about their
computing experience with Windows, and wonder if they wouldn't be better
off if their computing experience was a bit more like what they got with
the iPod.
Neither of these mechanisms really maps well to the situation that
exists with embedded Linux.
In terms of branding, companies that happen to use Linux on their
devices are typically far more interested in building up their own
brands than the Linux brand. It's virtually impossible to own an iPod
without knowing it's an Apple product, but how many TiVo owners actually
know TiVo runs Linux? Very few. And the fact that Linux is popular on
supercomputers and web servers is even more useless in terms of
promoting Linux as a consumer brand, because those aren't consumer
products at all.
In terms of showcasing Linux's strengths, yes, the fact that Linux is
used in some high-end applications does imply it's capable of high
performance and high reliability. But again, these high-end applications
aren't things most consumers have any contact with, so they never get to
see that. And embedded devices that run Linux don't really work in this
context either. Users of Linux devices like music players and GPS
navigation units typically only interact with proprietary shell
interfaces, so they learn nothing about Linux desktop user experience.
And few people are likely to say "Gee, my GPS device seems pretty
stable; I should find out what OS it runs so I can run it on my desktop".
If, say, Ubuntu decided to release an Ubuntu-branded music player which
implemented Ubuntu UI sensibilities and maybe played off of some common
themes in the Linux world (by, for instance, being a more open platform
than most players), *then* you might see the sort of halo effect Apple
has benefited from. But as things stand now, there just isn't much of a
halo effect with respect to embedded Linux.
> Plus, this sort of "fatally low marketshare" hasn't hurt Linux yet.
I would say this is a rather... optimistic statement.
> So it's obviously a meaningless metric.
>
> The Linux in my PMP makes that PMP less hostile to Linux or a Mac
> or whatever else may come along. That embedded Linux even makes that
> PMP more straightforward to work with in Windows.
A device that runs Linux can be just as "proprietary" in terms of its
interaction with other devices as any device running a fully proprietary
embedded OS. How open a device is basically determined by how open its
developer wants it to be, not by what OS it happens to run.
--
"What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them
that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer
apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too
small, but whether it works [...]" -- Barack Obama, January 20th, 2008
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, (continued)
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, Rjack, 2009/01/24
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, Rjack, 2009/01/24
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, amicus_curious, 2009/01/24
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, The Lost Packet, 2009/01/25
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, amicus_curious, 2009/01/24
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, Rjack, 2009/01/24
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, The Lost Packet, 2009/01/25
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, Rjack, 2009/01/24
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, ZnU, 2009/01/25
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, JEDIDIAH, 2009/01/26
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy,
ZnU <=
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, Rockinghorse Winner, 2009/01/25
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, Rjack, 2009/01/26
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, Hyman Rosen, 2009/01/26
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, David Kastrup, 2009/01/26
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, amicus_curious, 2009/01/26
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, Hyman Rosen, 2009/01/26
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, amicus_curious, 2009/01/26
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, ZnU, 2009/01/28
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, Robert Heller, 2009/01/26
- Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy, amicus_curious, 2009/01/26