[Mageia-dev] Identifying Target Markets

Thu Sep 30 16:51:25 CEST 2010

Choosing a target market is more than making a listing of your
+competitors' markets and combining some words to create a
+unique-sounding market. And it's more that guessing that some
+as-yet-unidentified market can be grepped from the imagination. For
+Mageia, it's an expression of leadership. It won't be found in a mail
+list survey or a popularity poll; it will be found in the Mageia
+leadership.
+
+There are many, many Linux distros in existence. Each has its own take
+on kernel patches, packaging managers, desktops, multimedia,
+programming languages, management tools, color schemes and  so on.
+These things are superficial since once installed, every Linux distro
+is doing essentially the same thing.
+
+The choice of those little pieces and their development is what
+excites and motivates the people that put together the distro
+
+The effectiveness of all these pieces is what excites and motivates
+the user of the distro.
+
+Meeting the needs of the end user determines if the distro will be
+popular or not.
+
+But it's picking the correct end user to target that determines the
+ultimate success of the distro.
+
+Mandriva never figured out who its end user was or what its market was
+and as a result tried to be everything to everybody and failed, not
+because it was a bad distro (it remains one of the best), but because
+it never had focus, it never knew its market.
+
+One of the most important things that the Mageia leadership needs to
+determine is the focus, the goal, the entire point of the existence of
+Mageia. The leadership needs to decide.
+
+They need to do it because they need the investment in order to be
+motivated to lead, manage and build the distro.
+
+They need to do it because it demonstrates that they are capable of
+leading us and are worth investing in.
+
+They need to do it because it needs to be done now.
+
+-- 
+Hoyt
+