Enterprise open source Toolkit
Story: Device support 'key' to desktop Linux
Posted by: Arthur B. (Sunday 9 April 2006, 10:59 PM)
The experts are wrong. The loudest voices within any market are the ones you don't hear. Sure, we hear loud voices yell out for "instant driver support", "ease of use", "better user experience", "educational programs", "nationalized support" and what not. And you know what? They are all wrong. OK, it's important but it's not a top priority since the focus needs to be on largest group and that's the group you don't hear.
Let's focus on the people who can't keep up with the latest and greatest. Because that's the largest group. Let's focus on the people that can spend less then E100 each three months or so on whatever hardware they currently have. Service the needs of that group and you'll have found your "killer app". The "killer app" isn't that what makes people buy the latest and greatest. The "killer app" is allowing most people to make most with what they have. And the fact is, that ain't much. So focus on providing, focus on enabling, focus on making due with what one has. Many small ones still make a large one. It's a perfectly viable business plan. Just think big and small at the same time. Think total.
For Linux the focus should be on mainstream games support because that's what I've been hearing for years now: "if it wasn't for the games I would have dropped Windows years ago".
Start simple. Start with a CD that can also be used to boot a PC into a Linux environment in which your game starts. Add a loader so that those that want to play the game under Windows actually load a little, stripped down, virtual Linux OS in which the game starts.
Most people that currently buy mainstream games wouldn't care less how it starts just as long as it starts. So simply by doing that under (virtual) Linux you would reach several markets without splitting your developer R&D. Don't let bad strategic decisions in the past get in the way of that because someone, someday, will be the first to go mainstream with a more modern approach and they'll hit it big if they go about it in the right way.
Don't listen to the markets. Read their signs in order to understand the larger, underlying, picture. The market are your neighbours down the street and a nation or two away. Expert opinions are an echo of statistical research you read in a published news flash somewhere. There's a difference between the two.
Full Talkback thread
