[Mageia-dev] Identifying Target Markets

Thu Sep 30 22:41:51 CEST 2010

On Friday 01 Oct 2010 03:09:25 Frank Griffin wrote:
+> Marc Paré wrote:
+> > Le 2010-09-30 07:21, Graham Lauder a écrit :
+> >> The "feel" to me that came from the brainstorming was that Mageia
+> >> could be
+> >> marketed as the "Family Distro".
+> > 
+> > I think that if you target the software packages that are compatible
+> > with Educational software advocated by educational organizations, we
+> > could make quite large inroads in the adaptability of Mageia.
+> 
+> I think that these are endeavors for an entity which is exactly what
+> we've just got done saying Mageia *isn't*, namely a commercial venture.
+
+In a phrase: Horse Doo doo (not exactly what I wanted to say but I wanted to 
+protect the "G" rating!  :)  )  This is not about commercial, it's about 
+market.  
+
+Mageia has a donation system, in my culture the nearest thing is called Koha 
+(Yes the name of the open source Library Management Software) It is a sort of 
+open source value assignation system, it's not that it is "cost free" but more 
+that it's "Cost optional" and the simple fact that we have a donation system 
+in place means we follow this model.  Branding is also about this but we'll 
+come back to that. 
+
+We do this because at the end of the day infrastructure costs, marketing 
+costs, a whole pile of things cost.  One day some patch or application, which 
+is essential but completely non-sexy could require us to pay a dev on contract 
+and so on and so forth.  
+
+Now our problem is that in these days of "everything free off the Internet" 
+getting Koha is problematic. However there is, obviously, a proportion of the 
+market that is willing to give Koha.  That proportion in a market is generally 
+but arguably fixed, so the bigger the market the greater the Koha.  Our 
+advantage is that our "costs" vary little with the size of the market.
+
+There could be an argument made that "Cost Optional" is a commercial model, 
+but a commercial model demands profit margins and I don't think that's where 
+we're at.
+
+> 
+> Currently, the package inventory of Mandriva is fairly all-inclusive,
+> and I don't think we should abandon any specific interest group.
+> Mandriva may have to do this to remain commercially viable - we do not.
+> 
+> However, let me try to translate your desires into a more technical
+> objective that would meet the need..
+> 
+> Traditionally, the MDV ISO-building process has been complex, not
+> well-documented, and difficult for anyone outside of MDV to use.
+
+[.................]
+
+>  You want it, you design it, you press the button
+> and build it.
+
+> 
+> It should not be too difficult to write a utility that goes through a
+> content list and automatically updates the package names to newer
+> versions, so maintenance could be minimal.  Of course, you'd need to
+> fire up the build utility to see if there are new package requirements
+> or if you've exceeded your space constraint.
+
+
+There is already a way of doing that, it's called OBS (OpenSUSE Build service, 
+it's free software, install it or in fact use it) and with that and SUSE 
+Studio, OpenSUSE have that corner of the market targeted and nailed.   
+
+[....]
+
+
+Cheers
+GL
+
+-- 
+Graham Lauder,
+OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ
+http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html
+
+OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant.
+
+INGOTs Assessor Trainer
+(International Grades in Open Technologies)
+www.theingots.org
+