[TriLUG] Novell & Microsoft - sleeping with the enemy

[jonc at nc.rr.com]

You don't work in the VoIP industry.

Open Source is one of the driving engines of that new industry, and
cold-calls are dirt cheap for folks in the industry :-).

Con Jarnes

----- Original Message -----
From: Shawn William Taylor <STaylor at torexretailna.com>
Date: Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:33 pm
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Novell & Microsoft - sleeping with the enemy
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list <trilug at trilug.org>

> I have been working in technology for 10+ years and have never 
> received a 
> cold call from a company that is trying to generate its revenue by 
> marketing or selling Open Source technologies.
> I don't think the failure is with the technology piece, I think 
> it's in 
> the sales and marketing piece. Most people (From what I can gather 
> by 
> being a pretty green linux user and observer) on this list are 
> either 
> using open source or contributing to open source (or both). 
> However, I 
> don't see a lot of people marketing those solutions or actively 
> selling 
> those solutions.
> 
> The reason the manager in Jim's example will buy the name brand 
> recognized 
> solution is the same reason we all make our everyday buying 
> decisions. 
> Either:
> 
> 1> We have used the product and continue to buy it.
> 2> We trust someone enough to value their opinion about the product 
> as a 
> referral.
> 3> We have a relationship with an existing brand that adds the 
> product to 
> their portfolio.
> 
> Companies selling Open Source technology need to be more aggressive 
> about 
> getting that piece of their operation functioning and it's not an 
> easy 
> task. Especially for a small company that doesn't have large 
> marketing 
> budgets.
> 
> Shawn
> 
> Jim Towers Wrote:
> 
>  I believe Novell thinks SUSE is netware and will try to sell it 
> the same
> way. Maybe in their mind they are not providing Linux but are 
> selling 
> SUSE.
> I guess this is probably a good business strategy for them.  
> "Linux" costs
> more but not "SUSE". E.g.
> novell salesman: "You're not thinking of using that Linux distro 
> are you?"
> bank VP: "Oh no, we need reliability."
> techie (former microserf): "Send me to SUSE training. I like GUI's."
> softie: "But don't forget you need the Windows OS for Sharepoint 
> and other
> stone soups." Heck, why not port those stone soups to Linux? As 
> long as 
> they
> have GUI's and the big name then some manager will buy them even if
> mediawiki, tikiwiki, egroupware, zope, joomla!+docman etc are free.
> 
> My $.02,
> TimJowers
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