[Desktop_architects] Xandros?

[Avery Pennarun]

On Wed, Nov 09, 2005 at 12:31:40PM -0800, John Cherry wrote:

> On Wed, 2005-11-09 at 14:57 -0500, Tim Ney wrote:
> > On Wed, 2005-11-09 at 12:06 -0800, Bastian, Waldo wrote:
> > On Wed, 2005-11-09 at 12:14 -0600, Robert Williamson wrote:
> > > Was Xandros (www.xandros.com) invited to this meeting.  Although  
> > > they have
> > > various desktop packages for sale, they also offer a free "Open
> > > Circulation" version as well
> > > (http://www.xandros.com/products/home/desktopoc/dsk_oc_intro.html).
> > 
> > > Wrt distributions the criteria that is used was whether the distribution
> > > had an open community-oriented development process, not whether the
> > > resulting product is freely available. 
> > 
> > Isn't the focus of the meeting on .org community development rather than
> > company packages?
> 
> I tend to agree with Tim and Waldo.  It is the packages with a community
> of developers around it that should be at this meeting.

While I think this is generally true for the majority of the discussion, the
discussion of market segmentation and use cases could be greatly aided by
having some desktop companies present.  Companies specialize in doing things
like use cases and market analyses, and those analyses include things like
"why don't people buy our product?"  Even though the answer is about a
commercial product, we would presumably like to know what it is in order to
guide the evolution of the Linux desktop in the right direction.

It's not exactly about helping people make money - it's about making a
product more useful to customers, which coincidentally also makes it more
sellable.

Anyway, I don't know how to work that into the programme.  But it would be a
shame if we have a conference about how to expand usage of the Linux desktop
and completely omit the idea that companies might know how to do that.

Have fun,

Avery