Re: [PLUG] OSX "middleware"?

[Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net>]

William H. Magill wrote:

> On 25 Feb, 2005, at 08:51, Art Alexion wrote:
>
> > I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but these sorts of marketing 
> > decisions that override engineering considerations fascinate me.
>
>
> Throughout history, Marketing has always trumped Engineering.
. . .

> Neither Michael Dell nor Bill gates are "Engineering Giants" -- but 
> both are marketing geniuses.
>
> The only reason that Linux became a household word was because a 
> certain evangelist [who, I think is still on this list :)] got Linus 
> on the Cover of Forbes, Fortune and Time (I think those were the 
> covers). And as they say, the rest is history. [Many of us in DECUS 
> had long before recognized what Linux was all about, but the marketing 
> folks in DEC could only say "VMS." Finally, after much finagling, 
> Maddog managed to get him an Alpha to develop on. And early versions 
> of Linux were ported from Alpha to x86 as a result.]

Agreed.  So how does free/open source fit into this?  While f/oss 
eliminates acquisition costs, administration costs continue.  That means 
some profit motive is eliminated while some remains.

Is there any reason to believe that the oss model avoids some of the 
marketing dominance over engineering?

BTW. I think another factor is "ergonomics" (I don't like the term 
"usability").  Some of what passes for superior marketing is really 
superior understanding of how people use or want to use products.  I 
think an example of this is Microsoft's inability to crush it's PDA and 
smartphone competitors the way that it has crushed other competitors.  I 
think that is because MS doesn't understand that a PDA is not just a 
tiny laptop -- that people have different needs and uses for them -- 
where simplicity trumps power.  Likewise, even a smartphone is primarily 
a phone for most people, so it should be one ergonomically.  The MS 
powered phones tend to be about 25-33% larger with touchscreen rather 
than physical phone buttons.  The MS units have more memory, but it is 
irrelevant to the user because it is used for the OS and the display.

Another example of this ergonomics thing is the enduring popularity of 
J-Pilot vs. Evolution.  The latter is in continuous development and much 
more powerful, but the former -- while not seeing any development in 
years continues to be more reliable and easier to use for the things 
that people use it for.

--

_______________________________________
Art Alexion
Arthur S. Alexion LLC
arthur [at] alexion [dot] com
aim: aalexion
sms: 2679725536 [at] messaging [dot] sprintpcs [dot] com

PGP fingerprint: 52A4 B10C AA73 096F A661  92D2 3B65 8EAC ACC5 BA7A
The attachment -- signature.asc -- is my electronic signature; no need for alarm.
Info @ http://mysite.verizon.net/art.alexion/encryption/signature.asc.what.html

Key for signed PDFs available at
http://mysite.verizon.net/art.alexion/encryption/ArthurSAlexion.p7c
The validation string is TTJY-ZILJ-BJJG.
________________________________________

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug