The Ghost In The Machine <ewill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
><newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote
> on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:20:55 +0100
><1853575.VlVkRBY4bx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>
>> Open source has yet to learn it pays to advertise
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Why is it that all these open source news sites, blog sites, and resource
>> | sites are still being sponsored by Microsoft?
>> `----
>>
>> http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2563
>
> What would they advertise? Who would pay the media costs?
>
> It costs money to run servers -- electrical energy, cooling
> (requiring more electrical energy), network connectivity
> costs, staffing, software licensing in some cases (GPL
> only goes so far in a commercial environment; a number
> of dual licenses require a stipend paid to the licensor
> if one uses the product in a commercial setting; Qt used
> to, but Trolltech changed its license and now Android
> leverages it), miscellany such as backup media, etc.
>
> I could see someone putting a relatively cheap spot (radio?)
> for OpenOffice, something along the lines of
>
> "Had it up to here with proprietary bugs, booboos,
> and bilge? Try an open source solution for
> your spreadsheets, documents, presentations, and
> E-mail...OpenOffice. See our website at
> www.openoffice.org for more details."
>
> Or some such. (Yes, that's extremely dry. Probably
> wouldn't be all that effective as a commercial.
> Not my primary function here at $EMPLOYER. ;-) )
>
> What I see far more often is a website contracting with
> a advertising provider, and providing a little bit o'
> space for something pushed at them. I frankly don't know
> the details -- on Linux, a number of the ads simply fail
> for some reason, leaving a blank windows, and I've seen a
> few decide to spit out Javascript as opposed to anything
> that looks like a salable product or service. Still others
> can goof up the layering or placement of the main webpage,
> leading to text on the main webpage being covered up. (The
> vast majority, to be sure, actually do work as intended;
> some of them can be mildly amusing, though one has to
> wonder whether one's hunting the duck/robber/rabbit/etc.,
> or whether the website's hunting you, for the privilege
> of capturing certain information such as e-mail address,
> snail mail address, interests, and income that they can
> use to sell later.)
>
> The advertisers of course pay for this privilege, and the
> contracting websites get a cut.
>
> [rest snipped for brevity]
>
The open-source world is about development, support, integration,
independence of vendor lock-in, lower exit costs, support independent of
development and so on.
The open-source world is not about selling proprietary binaries... we
have several years worth of expectation and experience to overcome in
this.
--
| mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
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| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| Open platforms prevent vendor lock-in. Own your Own services! |
|
|
