Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Companies which sell GNU/Linux distributions could increase the profile and sales of their products in one way: install them on top-tier laptops, tune them up so that everything runs like a dream and then hand them out to those who write about GNU/Linux.
As even an intermediate level user of GNU/Linux knows, this isn't too difficult. And given that one is required to cater to just one hardware profile makes it even easier.
There would then be little question that the distribution in question would receive rave reviews. Not simply because the present of the laptop serves as a powerful influence but also because the distribution would be optimised to the highest degree.
It's time for Linux companies to start using such tactics - and it doesn't matter even if the previous version of any distribution was canned.
One reason why GNU/Linux distributions get reviews varying from very good to miserable is because the reviewers use their own hardware. And each person wants GNU/Linux to run like an F1 on his/her hardware.
Supplying the distribution on a single platform will solve that problem. Nobody will be able to say they encountered problems - indeed, they would feel a sense of guilt if they did point out problems after having accepted such an expensive gift.
There are a few other things that can be done to make the competition keener. For one, give the user the impression that there has been a visible speed increase from the last version - make the visible functions run much faster.
It doesn't matter if things are as slow or even slower behind the hood. The "look and feel" and the "desktop experience" are far more important.
(There'll be a few old fogies who'll shout themselves blue in the face over these tactics but don't bother - these are all yesterday's men/women whose opinions can be safely ignored).
Of course, there's an easy way to silence these critics - make sure that you send them laptops too, with the specs being slightly better than those you sent to the rest of the bunch. The criticism will die down and slowly morph into praise.
David Bass
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