Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1998 10:20:57 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Device Drivers for Linux and Intel's annoucement Message-ID: <13683.907435257@time.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 03 Oct 1998 10:54:25 MDT." <4.1.19981003104553.04120400@mail.lariat.org>
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> Well, then, where are the ads? Where are the value-added utilities? > Where's the advocacy? Where are the press releases? Where are the > announcements from Intel, Corel, Caldera, Novell, Oracle, Sybase, > etc.? 1. There are adverts, just not necessarily in every trade journal you read. Pick up a Dr. Dobbs sometime, for example. There will also be more adverts as our new marketing director picks reasonable targets, but it is of course impossible to put adverts into every single possible publication since advertising budgets are not infinite and it's also pretty damn hard to determine just which adverts generate sales. Since you have a finite amount of cash and there's no point in spending money on ads which DON'T generate sales, you have to move carefully and measure the results as closely as possible. WC has lost more than a small amount of money on ineffective print advertising and they're hardly alone in this - it's a big problem which those who actually make their money selling advertising space would rather not admit to. 2. We're working on Applixware right now, something which cost a very healthy 6 figures to license, and will move onto other applications as time and money permit. Again, this is a bit like the advertising - we could spend millions of dollars licensing everything under the sun if we were stupid about it, but we don't have millions of dollars so won't have the chance to make that mistake anyway. 3. Press releases are a real sore point and hopefully the new marketing guy will help us get those out. I've been looking for volunteers to do this for ages but they always flake when release time rolls around. 4. Your final point about Intel, Oracle, etc. is nothing but a straw man. Those sorts of people will show up when FreeBSD can demonstrably point to 3-5 million users (3 million being Oracle's stated figure before they'll be even vaguely interested in FreeBSD) and not before. Blaming Walnut Creek CDROM for not being appetizing enough is a bit like blaming them for the state of the Asian economy in general. They may have a very small contributory effect, but they're hardly to blame for everything which happens on the Tokyo exchange. Similarly, Red Hat is a lousy point of comparison because Red Hat is also riding a much much bigger wave. You might as well blame Walnut Creek CDROM for not being Microsoft, while you're at it, and for single-handedly losing the desktop to Windows. Why think so small? In any case, this is the last message I'm going to post in response to your trolling. I think we've long since passed the point of diminishing returns with this whole, pathetic argument and I'm just going to whap "delete" on future Brett Glass emails. Call it being in denial if you wish, but from my point of view it looks more like simple, elementary noise control. - Jordan To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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