[CS-FSLUG] Sydney Morning Herald: Cuba to Dump Windows for Linux

[Don Parris]

On 5/20/05, David Aikema <daikema at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/20/05, Don Parris <evangelinux at thefreelyproject.org> wrote:
> > A lot of the guys on the SUSE lists buy the boxed edition *just* to support
> > the programmers.  And when people start asking about the gratis download
> > sites, the guys usually suggest buying the boxed set.  Many people recognize
> > the value of libre software, and are willing to help support the
> > programmers.
> 
> Why buy a boxed set?  Basically you get to wait longer, pay more
> (packaging/shipping), have more waste generated (environmental
> stewardship), and often the only extra you get over the download
> version is perhaps a few printed booklets which, if you're like me,
> you'll probably never end up looking at.
> 
Well, I refer to my manuals somewhat frequently.  I can also purchase
the "upgrade" for about $30 less than the regular, which omits the
books.  I guess it depends on the individual.

> The combination of the above is basically why I decided to opt for a
> MandrakeClub membership instead of buying a boxed set.  Why I didn't
> renew my membership: only bittorrent access to the distro with
> really-really poor seeding (it took me a couple of days to download my
> last Mandrake release), and I'm actually now using Fedora.
> 
> > An awful lot of people are merely cheapskates.
> 
> And this is the same reason that communism has been shown a failure...
> people are far from perfect.
> 
> > However, sharing a copy won't hurt a thing.
> 
> If this person freely shares with everyone, I would expect to sell
> significantly less copies of my book.  Any purchases would be entirely
> dependent on the purchaser's goodwill... essentially a donation rather
> than a purchase.
> 
> > another book.  No incentive, no reason to continue.  I'm willing to give you
> > some incentive for your continued development.
> 
> You may be, but, as you admitted earlier, a lot of people are cheapskates.
> 

Which is also why I think that using a different business model
altogether is a better approach.  We cannot assume that I am losing
money, just because someone shares my book.  Keep reading.

> > I said previously that a
> > number of people are cheapskates.  I'm seeing how true that is with 2.0.
> > PitP 1.0 has been downloaded 10x more than 2.0 has been purchased this
> > month.
> 
> Perhaps PitP 1.0 was enough to saturate the market for this sort of
> book?  Alternatively, (I have no idea what you're charging) perhaps
> people aren't willing to pay the requested amount for this book, but
> would be willing to pay a smaller amount.
> 

Inside the front of PitP 1.0, you may notice a subtle request for
donations.  I really learned what cheapskates people are then.  I have
noticed that no one is offering feedback on what they think is a fair
price.  The only comment I've seen (on a blog somewhere) is a
complaint about me asking a fee for it.  The only assumptions they've
made are that I'm a tech guy trying to set myself up in a lucrative
vertical market.  I have heard from the folks overseas that it might
be prohibitive for them to order the paperback edition.

Theres a book about open source for business managers on Lulu that
sells for $35 printed and $25 download.  I think if you check out the
price of PitP, you'll find it reasonable by comparison.  Different
audience, but still.  Until I hear from folks whether it's worth the
money or not, I won't know.  The paperback is selling faster than the
download edition.  So I think, in reality, my decision was the right
one.  I've made more money by selling than I did when I asked for
donations in 1.0 (only one person ever offered to contribute).

Mind you, the donations were to go to Oakdale (formerly Matheteuo)
Fellowship.  Since no one was contributing, I got stuck trying to
finance a LOSS advocacy campaign on my own, without having the
resources to back that effort.  As far as saturating the market, 1.0
was a good first effort.  However, it's a bit like OOo 1.0 - falling
short in a number of ways.  People got excited about PitP 1.0.  Since
2.0 is much more accurate in a number of areas, introduces people to
the Christian F(L)OSS community, and offers much more in terms of
reference info, I should think that people would be even more excited
about it.


> If something is freely available I'm a lot more likely to download it,
> even if it's only of mild interest, and file it away for later reading
> (and I may never end up getting around to doing that).  Or I might
> download it and just read the first few pages, and then discard it.
> A preview that may be available for a pay-for version might indeed
> fulfill this purpose.
> 
> > need to address the problems involved.  I do not think the current mode of
> > thinking will get us there without sacrificing too much freedom.
> 
> I happen to share your misgivings about much of the direction that
> intellectual property law is taking.
> 
Well, that gives us something on which to build.  The question we need
to address is, "how do we tackle that issue effectively?"  If we, the
Church, can come to terms with this - and perhaps even offer a viable
solution (perhaps beating the industry to the punch) - then that would
put the Church at the forefront of this issue.  I even hint at this in
PitP 2.0.

> > > > Mandriva,
> > >
> > > Mandriva seems to surviving, although at least some of this must be
> > > attributed to the club that they're running.  There aren't really that
> > > many benefits to a standard membership though, and I'm not sure how
> > > well the community would support multiple clubs of this sort.
> > >
> >
> > I used Mandrake 8.0, which is about when they started the Mandrake club.  I
> > did not buy into it because of my budget.  I really liked their program
> > where you pay, say $200, and get two upgrades on top of the initial distro
> > purchase.  I don't know how profitable that is.  They also went through
> > bankruptcy court, if I'm not mistaken.  It's been a touch road.
> 
> >From what I understand, their restructuring was successful and they're
> now making money.  I think that they claimed that the reason that they
> had to enter into bankruptcy protection was that the CEO they had
> brought in had thrown them into too many different markets (I think
> that they were working on some e-education software or something).
> 
That could be.

> > Novell's stock apparently soared fairly high, and has dropped off a bit
> > over the last year. However, it is climbing slowly.  Not sure what kind of
> > indicator that is.  SUSE's pricing is very reasonable.  I've passed along a
> > copy to someone locally.  He and his roommate have decided to get their own
> > boxed set in the future.  Of course, that's if they don't move over to
> > Mepis. ;)  If they stick with SUSE, they'll buy the boxed set.  While Novell
> > didn't make any money off them, they could.  And precisely because they
> > allowed the redistribution.
> 
> Well, if they downloaded a whole pile of security updates for the
> product off SuSE-operated servers, it could be that SuSE in fact lost
> money as a result of them.
> 
That depends on your business model and webhosting rates.  I think
it's possible to provide software while focusing on other services for
the income.  Mind you, that means taking into account your programmers
when costing the services.

Blessings,
Don
-- 
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
gnumathetes at gmail.com
Free software is like God's love - 
you can share it with anyone anywhere anytime!