<html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> On 22/09/11 10:50, alan c wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:4E7B04F6.5090808@candt.waitrose.com" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">On 22/09/11 09:47, Paul Sutton wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">We would have to do a lot of awareness raising and support things like install days to get round things like this. as the borg say "we will adapt" </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> The FLOSS world's lack of competence, or even appetite, for publicity or marketing is the elephant in the room. 1) FLOSS, GNU/Linux etc, 'marketing' is pretty well non existent compared to non free products. 'I advertise, therefore I exist' (apologies to Descartes). 2) Of all things, marketing is -very- unsuited to the free libre, distributed model. </pre> </blockquote> To me, the upshot of this decision (if it is allowed to go through)* , is that it will simply make it much harder for the non-technical user who might decide to try Linux, to do so. I started using Ubuntu, personally, after my Windows XP "exploded" (a bit), and so I googled Linux, and found Ubuntu. I do not think that any non-technical user of a computer is likely to want to even go into the BIOS, let alone possibly remove a cover and looking for small switches. It does act, in my view, as something that won't prevent non-technical users from installing, but make it seem too hard for them to continue bothering. * I do, however, believe that the move by Microsoft will see fierce competition, and possibly even legal contest, from groups such as the FSF or the European Competition Commission, or the EFF. Additionally, many OEM's, especially on server systems, do support Linux, or variants thereupon, and will possibly disagree. It does make me wonder if big OEM's will start pulling out of things like the Windows Logo Program, but I'm not sure if it's likely, as the lack of that little sticker could indeed make prospective buyers worried, or uncertain.** ** This makes me think of this as another method of spreading FUD, but perhaps that's only me. <big><big> Regards, John Oliver</big></big> </body> </html>