[plug] poll, linmag

[Jon Miller]

Point taken, but with all the recent issues with IE and their swiss
cheese web browser you don't see much in the press regarding how bad it
is.  Some folks have been brainwashed so bad that they believe that is
the way it's suppose to be.  I've had clients say to me they thought
that was the way it's suppose to work (faulty) and they just reboot to
fix.  Then I asked them to calculate how many times in a week do they
"reboot" and how much time do they lose in production if you multiply
that by the number of employees.  believe it or not they still want to
go down the M$ path.  
When you have companies such as Quicken telling all their consultants
not to support any issues regarding clients using Linux as their server
and the like.  The client finds it hard to make the change although they
can see the difference in cost and stability.  But they fear losing
their support contract with their vendor if they switch to Linux.

I just remind them of the difficulty we went through when companies
started switching from DOS and mainframe programs to Windows and now
everyone is comfortable with Windows it's the same thing switching to
Linux with one big exception, cost savings and stability is there from
the beginning.

So I just keep plugging away some make the change and other will take
time.  The real issue is getting these brainwashed CEO's, CIO and MS
consultants to take off the blinders and open their eyes.  MS isn't
going to be on top forever.

jlm

On Sun, 2002-12-29 at 06:41, Brenno J.S.A.A.F. de Winter wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> > So, back to the Linux section of APC.  I think these guys know where the
> > money is.  At least, they can afford Market Research.  I am thinking, the
> > minute that they get the report:  "Linux Mag Now A Goer - APC Internal
> > Market Research", out it will come.  I am thinking that their MR says that
> > the Linux market can afford a few pages in their current mag, and that
> > advertisers will pay for that space.  Maybe cos a lot of non-linux people
> > will read the ads anyway, cos they buy the mag and will flick thru the Linux
> > (and Mac etc) sections out of (dis)interest.
> The risk is that the Gartners and IDC's of this world don't do a good 
> job. I have a hard time convincing customers (during consultancy) trying 
> to show them that the market is changing and that Linux is really 
> gaining momentum. Until I wrote an article that proved the power of the 
> community (how it really is affecting the market) the only view was: 
> 'everybody uses Microsoft'. A Dutch research showed that three months 
> ago 95.1% of hits on pages was IE, in december this was down to 95.0%. 
> So nothing changed. When I pointed out that out of 600 million web-users 
> apparently 600.000 thousand (support with examples) changed browsers 
> they started to see that. If you want convincing evidence you have to 
> calculate the market to grow. Convincing such a company may be a hard 
> sell (always worth to try). Business cases help out here.
> 
> > So what does this mean for LinMagAU or whatever it is to be called?
> 
> > 1.	It's going to be hard to get advertisers at this stage.  See 2.
> Amazingly this isn't necessarily so. IBM, RedHat, SuSE, etc. recognize 
> the potential and are willing to advertise. In the Netherlands that 
> wasn't really the issue.
> 
> > 2.	It's going to be hard to get readers at this stage.
> That is true. This will be the most work. For that reason you have to 
> clearly determine what audience your targeting (end-users, geeks, 
> businesses). The magazine has to be written in that language.
> 
> > 3.	As soon as it looks like there is a market for it, entrenched players are
> > going to come in and try to squash you.
> Yes, but if you do a good job you've build the name already. I notice 
> many times that this really helps. Windows & Networks may be smaller 
> (not fancy, very factual and very focussed at administrators) than other 
> similar magazines, but we have more authority. As soon as people want to 
> address admins, they come to us.
> 
> > So, this is the game as I see it.  I will write (or preferably edit) the odd
> > article, but it is going to be a terribly hard slog.
> Yes it will be and I sincerely hope you'll get the money to start and 
> the time to make it a success. Make sure that the plug isn't pulled too 
> soon.
> 
> > I am happy to put a bit o' effort into the Business Plan, as I think it is
> > more likely to lead to a successful magazine than a bunch of randomish
> > articles.
> Yes, that's the whole deal: Getting your focus right. Just articles will 
> end in failure.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> 
> Brenno.
-- 
Jon Miller <jlmiller at mmtnetworks.com.au>
MMT Networks Pty Ltd