Assuming We Want FreeBSD to Grow: Who Is It For?

[Anthony Atkielski]

Chris writes:

> Not intended to implicate a hatred for MS. Pure and simple, people get
> tired of a company that puts out an upgrade to either an app or an OS 
> and must pay a somewhat healthy price. Home folks and companies alike 
> are hit with these high costs.

Not if they don't upgrade.  I find upgrades to be expensive, too--so I
don't upgrade (I don't need the upgrades).  There's no need to change
operating systems.

> That's why OpenSource is looking more attractive to your "non-average"
> user and company IT nuts.

It looks superficially attractive, but it's not really a viable
alternative to Windows, mostly because the vast majority of desktop
applications are written for Windows.  If any application could run on
any OS, a large segment of the market would probably leave Windows
tomorrow, but there's no change of the application situation changing
any time soon.

> I never mentioned a "hatred" to Uncle Bill and his empire. Simply people
> growing tired of the same old, same old.

People don't get tired of it, though.  Most people just don't care.  A
computer is like a washing machine to them.  They don't care what is
running on the machine, as long as they can send e-mail and surf the Web
and write homework, or whatever.  Windows is the easy solution for them.
There is no reason for them to change, and it doesn't bother them that
they are running Windows, no matter how "old" it might be.

> Somewhat true however, Think of Porsche. Certainly there is a market
> place for the auto - albeit somewhat limited, but yet there still is a
> demand and a market.

Among fans of sports cars, yes.  But if Porsche tried to sell to people
who normally drive pick-up trucks, how well would it do?

> So I say, why not? Target the people that want to do more with the PC,
> that happen to be a bit more sophisticated in "geek-dom"

Target people who want to run servers.  They are largely an untapped
market.  The desktop is locked up, and that's not going to change.

> Again - I never implied a "hatred". I specifically said people whom are
> tired of (insert reason).

Same thing.  These are people with emotional feelings about Microsoft.
But most people feel nothing at all towards Microsoft.  They don't care.

It's like suggesting that people should buy Miele washing machines so
that they can get away from Maytag.  Who cares?

> Again - I never mentioned MS-Haters. Linux users tend to be that.
> Re-read the wording I typed.

You still are targeting people based on their emotional response to
Microsoft.  Such people are a very tiny minority, and not a very
promising one at that.

-- 
Anthony