From: "Timothy R. Butler"
From: Cliff Sarginson [mailto:cliff@raggedclown.net] Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2000 5:28 AM To: Togan Muftuoglu Cc: SuSE Mailing List Subject: Re: [SLE] This is an RfC for SuSE, Inc. and SuSE GmBH.
Come to think of it I rather object to people implicitly describing themselves as "gurus" because they have fast internet connections. They maybe rich, but that doesn;t make them Gurus... which is a silly word to use anyway.
Keep on rocking...
Cliff
"Timothy R. Butler" wrote:
Hi, Timothy
To SuSE, Inc. and SuSE GmBH, I find it funny that over one month after I petitioned for a
response to my Guru
Edition proposal, I have heard nothing. Other users, indeed, have agreed with me
What makes you think that you have the hear a reply from SuSE ? What makes you think that they have never considered you approach ?
that this is a product that would be useful. Pure common sense that more and more people have broadband internet and a cd burner alone hint at the fact that there is little reason for a knowledgeable user to buy a $70 distro.
In where do people have broadband internet? That is a relative point as where I live a non diconnecting dialup is considered to be excellent.
The knowledgeable user has the option to buy the upgrade not the full version so not $70 distibution. The knowledagble user who has the broad internet connection has the option to do ftp install freeofcharge for the OS not limited to SuSE
That is why I, along with other SuSE Linux users, have said that a full version without all the manuals and support for a dirt cheap price would be great. This is a win/win situation for both users and SuSE. If people like me go download SuSE off FTP, how much does SuSE make? Nothing. If I go spend a $20 or $30 (the price Linux distros should be, IMO) and buy a SuSE, how much does SuSE make? I don't know - but it's more than if I download SuSE.
How you define the customer can be different from SuSE !
I do not think SuSE is aiming to make millions of dollars from the sales revenue of the personal /pro/upgrade edition packages. This would be looking to a forest and seeing the tree only. If I was a member of Sales and Marketing at Suse I would have focused on large support sales; corporate accounts (making transition to use SuSE linux at the corporation). These would pump more cash in to the company than selling the packages alone
One examaple that comes in to my mind is the Pareto rule 80 % of the customers make 20 % profit and vice versa.
The moral of the story is, you can't endlessly bundle services with an open source product to inflate prices.
IMHO service is something else and yes you can bundle it endlessly depending on how creative you are at creating services and how succesfull you are at marketing those services
Eventually, knowledgeable users will just burn their own CD's. However, if SuSE gives an affordable way to support SuSE's continued good work, but doesn't force the user to buy more than he wants - we both win.
AFAIK you are not forced to buy anyhting at all. Waiting patiently will allow you to do a ftp install when it is available.
This is a request for comments for either SuSE division, I would greatly appreciate a response.
The best solution I think is rather than sending to suse-linux mail list (which is just a community service from Suse to the users) sendit to feedback@suse.com if you have not done yet. Then you can be sure than someone responsible for listening customer feedback is hearing you. Again I would say that does not obliged them to implement the idea. Over all what do we know about SuSE business and marketing plan and the blue print for growth. These are internal things and Suse does not need to make them open source also.
Once again this is what I'm proposing:
Guru Edition: - 6 CD's/1 DVD - Small 10 or 20 page booklet with errata, getting started, etc. in Jewel Case - Sold at retail stores (could be in section where they sell software that is only in a Jewel Case - No box, no support, just 6 CD's and 1 DVD in a Jewel case or if necessary - a paper CD case. - Sold somewhere between $20-$30 (There is no reason for it to be more, it has no support, no manual, and most of the software is developed around
On Mon, Nov 20, 2000 at 09:54:48AM +0200, Togan Muftuoglu wrote: the world for
free) - Could replace the current Upgrade Edition
replacing the upgrade edition what is you reasoning ?
here is mine that I disagree why should I buy the full product where I can get the upgrade and still have the limited support
-- Togan Muftuoglu toganm@turk.net
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