Verily I say unto thee, that George Barca spake thusly:
> On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:00:28 +0000, Homer <usenet@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Verily I say unto thee, that George Barca spake thusly:
>>
>>> The salespeople have to be educated
>>
>> Spot the oxymoron.
>
> I don't see any.
Well, the words "salespeople" and "educated" appearing together.
>> The problem is the retail channel is naturally biased towards
>> commercial interests, so getting them to give the hard sell for
>> something which is basically free, is rather difficult.
>
> I'm talking about netbooks, Linux vs Windows versions.
Which is exactly the same thing I'm talking about.
>> Now certainly, from the salesman's perspective, the Netbook is just
>> a product, and he shouldn't care if one component of that product
>> is free, but to compound the problem these salesmen are also, like
>> consumers, indoctrinated with misconceptions by marketing,
>> specifically in this case by Microsoft with FUD about GNU/Linux.
>
> Actually you are going far too deep into it. What it boils down to is
> a lack of knowledge wrt Linux on the part of the first line sales
> people.
I agree that these salesmen are ignorant, but more substantively they
are also biased, which means they are not even interested in curing that
ignorance. There is nothing more difficult than an unwilling student.
> In other words "you don't want to buy the Linux netbook because it
> doesn't run Windows applications"
And that is their bias.
> True, however it includes Linux equivalents which is the part the
> sales person leaves out due to ignorance.
Correct.
>> So how does one educate them, and who would provide this education?
>
> I would start with the companies that provide these netbooks in both
> flavors.
> Asus would be a good starting place.
Since these manufacturers already provide Linux Netbooks, it's natural
to assume they do actually want them to sell, and it's equally natural
to assume they are already aware of Linux's capabilities, since they do,
after all, develop and test those systems with Linux. So clearly the
problem is not with the manufacturers.
Retailers are entirely different proposition, however. They make
wholesale agreements based on volume discounts, and take new lines as a
matter procedure, so they very often end up with products they (as both
a company and as individual salesmen) don't necessarily "recommend".
This is not helped by the fact that Microsoft actually /pays/ companies
to "recommend" Windows, as recently exposed with documented evidence here:
http://boycottnovell.com/2008/12/01/leaked-oem-vista-ad-incentives/
>> The companies who employ these salesmen are just as biased, and are
>> not exactly diligent when it comes to training, much less training
>> their staff to advocate something which is free.
>
> You're missing my point. I'm talking specifically about netbooks.
And you're missing /my/ point, in fact you're even missing your own.
This is not /just/ about Netbooks, it's about Windows Netbooks vs Linux
Netbooks. What differentiates those two systems? Well the OS, of course.
Which one of those two operating systems is free, and which is the
retailer paid by Microsoft to "recommend"?
>> The only solution is to break Microsoft's stranglehold on the
>> retail channel, giving their competitors complete parity, forcing
>> consumers to make a choice, and thus evaluate those choices
>> (perhaps for the first time ever, in many cases). Like water, a
>> truly Free Market tends to find its own level, and the best product
>> will win (as opposed to the product most heavily "muscled" by the
>> most corrupt company).
>
> I agree with that as it is well known that money talks. Anyone who
> thinks products just end up on certain shelves and parts of the store
> because they happen to "fit" there is ignorant. It comes from the
> manufacturer paying the distributor and the distributor paying the
> store for prime space or offering discounts etc.
Yes, but since the /manufacturer/ offers /both/ kinds of Netbooks, then
surely that argument should be the /same/ for both types, from the
manufacturer's perspective.
> Microsoft is very aggressive
That's putting it rather euphemistically. They are engaged in wholesale
racketeering of a massive scale. Even the EU Commission thinks so, hence
their never-ending antitrust investigations into Microsoft's
anti-competitive practises.
> when it comes to marketing at the gum shoe level IOW the sales force
> who hit the streets each day for face to face.
Yes, very "Glengarry Glen Ross", as Miguel might say.
>> And how to do /that/?
>>
>> Ask Neelie.
>
> Who is Neelie?
You must be new.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neelie_Kroes
--
K.
http://slated.org
.----
| "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It
| is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." ~ William
| Pitt the Younger
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