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.
>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.
>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.
In other words "you don't want to buy the Linux netbook because
it doesn't run Windows applications"
True, however it includes Linux equivalents which is the part the
sales person leaves out due to ignorance.
>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.
>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.
>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.
Microsoft is very aggressive when it comes to marketing at the
gum shoe level IOW the sales force who hit the streets each day
for face to face.
>And how to do /that/?
>
>Ask Neelie.
Who is Neelie?
George Barca
georgebarca1981@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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