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  • From: Jaanus Heeringson <jaanus AT heeringson.com>
  • Cc: sm-discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [SM-Discuss] Marketing SMGL: Competitors and differences? Help needed
  • Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 14:21:50 +0200

Eric Schabell wrote:

On Mon, Apr 26, 2004 at 01:34:05AM +0200, Jaanus Heeringson wrote:

So I'm at it again, burning the midnight oil.

I have recently read a lot of different articles about Linux in general to try and get a grip on the "feel" out there, and this is some things i found out:


I have been around since before SMGL existed, so will try to say a few
things inbetween here and you can take them for what you think they are
worth:


3. A lot of the intermediate users are very tired of choise. They simply don't want to research at every corner to install the appropriate stuff (which MTA, DNS etc) and are asking for a "preferred setup". This maby don't concern us yet, but it might in the future.


A basic right we have always tried to keep in Source Mage is that it is
about choice. Whenever we were confronted with a point in development
(spell creation, sorcery defaults) we tried to make the choice be set by
the admin installing our distro. Of course we have some profile spells,
but they are minimal and I hope they stay that way.


My gut feeling is that in order to get some attention we will have to compete with Gentoo to get it, and since they actually are a for profit company, it will be quite a task. In my opinion we need to find a couple of point on how we differentiate us from Gentoo in a good way.


We have never been interested in topping Gentoo (at least I never saw
that as a mission statement while I was PL)... I would rather aim our
distro as far away from their targets, ideas and behavioural pattern as
possible.
What I was referring to is that we have to compete with them over attention within the narrow niche that sourcebased distros have cut out for themselves, not that we try to emulate them or their ways.

This does not mean we can't do this marketing push, but I hope that
there will be much thought given to what we really are about (shame to
lose our identity if you ask me). I realize that this is what you are
now attempting to do, I just see the focus being a bit too much with
Gentoo and not enough on what we are about.

I am mentioning Gentoo because we will be compared with them every time. This is where we need to inform the potential users of the differences, and it would be good prepare for it. Another reason is that it is much easier do find the unique qualities of something (SMGL) if you can compare with someting else (Gentoo).

I don't mean any sort of flame about your work, it is definatly a start.
You made me think and respond so that is good! ;-) I may also be alone
or in the minority with my opinions, but I toss them out there for
discussion and as input into your process.
Flame? Naa, my skin is made of asbestos with an outer layer of teflon :)

This actually made me think in another direction. Since we are source-based I just took the ball and ran from there, but maby there are other, more important values toSMGL? Being source-based is actually only a method of acheiving a goal, not a goal in itself. We could find some other point of focus, and just accept source-based as a method. So what are the goals?

If source-based was our goal, we would have fulfilled it by now, so what more is there? Is it about having the best management system? Delivering the most choise? The most stable or bug-free? Is it all about having fun?

Choise, as you so kindly pointed out is definetly one, but there must be more? For my sake it's speed and the ability to optimize. Please add your arguments!

Carry on and I watch here from the sidelines with eager eyes,

erics

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Jaanus Heeringson

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