CNET News.com: “Microsoft knows its sales model for emerging markets around the world isn’t working. But just how to fix that model isn’t clear, company executives said this week.”
CNET News.com: “Microsoft knows its sales model for emerging markets around the world isn’t working. But just how to fix that model isn’t clear, company executives said this week.”
I can witness that here in Argentina. At least the OEM market doesn’t belong to them any more. Xandros is making a very aggresive move here, selling 8k licenses/month, AFAIK.
Anyway, this move doesn’t have anything to do with the “linux community” or the “Free Software Sense of Freedom”. It’s merely a “lower cost answer to a big cost problem”.
If this is good or bad? I don’t know. I would support this move if it were a truly Linux Company with a new business model, instead of a Redmond’s clon.
Hi Dario,
I agree that “lower cost” is where it starts, but from what I’ve seen, it appears to grow into more than that eventually–I’d be interested in your experience here. In the places I’ve been, the adoption of Linux and free software seems to be as much about empowerment as money. It represents an opportunity to build local communities, and from local communities grow local economies, and strong local economies change fortunes. This way of thinking has been especially pronounced in Extremadura, and given that other regions seem to be modeling their own plans after Extremadura’s, I suspect this way of thinking will spread. I don’t think you can get this same kind of dynamic from a company like Xandros, which is essentially fitting the same old mold on top of this very different thing called Linux.
Well, that’s my concern. In Extremadura, the governtment didn’t just “install linux”. Even if it started as a money-saving thing, there’s lots of free software advocating, in part to convince people that gnu/linux, more than computers in general, can help them reduce the gap with the more advanced regions. This has obvious impacts in the private economy too (companies offering solutions on top of an open platform).
Now, in Argentina the scope is totally different. Of course there is a Linux Community, but it is not participating in the Xandros Affair at all.
For example, take a look at xandros local web site: http://www.xandros.com.ar and pay attention to the IExplorer logo in it. That website looks bad (if you’re lucky) in most OS browsers.
Try to “download the demo”. It’s a .exe file with a flash animation in it.
Go to a mall, and try to buy a computer. You’ll see a sign, next to the computer specs, saying “legal licensed linux”.
The bad thing here is the fact that the general idea of linux is becoming “Xandros is Linux”, which wouldn’t be bad if it weren’t a closed port of Debian. Most of the benefits of FOSS aren’t mentioned (even when it’s a great sales argument IMHO) and it’s difficult for other companies to build their businesses on top of it.
So, the Xandros’ business model is just focusing as a Windows replaclement, no matter if the guy that buys a PC wipes out the hard disk and installs an illegal XP copy. They already sold their license to the OEM.
Even when technically there are lots of PCs running linux, reality says that people don’t use it, don’t know about it, and the business model stays the same.