On Friday 26 November 2004 10:05 pm, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-11-26 at 18:19 -0500, Mike Dittmeier wrote:
> > The idea in mind is to create a simple install pack that will reduce and
> > standardize the installation of smb servers for customers as well as
> > spreading the work on Linux.
> > A large portion of the business industry is small mom and pop
> > businesses, that I feel have been left out of the linux world.
>
> Most of it is due to unrealistic expectations. If you're a consultant
> planning to cater to mom & pop shops, I don't want to deter you, but
> it's really not an area where you want to be charging money. I find it
> has the same problem as many other industries, the savings are expected
> across the board, including how much people expect you to charge them.
>
> I often got stuck trying to solve unrealistic application requirements,
> where the shop got themselves into using a mission-critical application
> that was very eccentric.
Having dealt with many smaller companies I've found "mom and pop" companies
can easily become a liability.
The problem being that they for one (usually) have NO realistic assessment for
what is needed. They don't understand the pro's and con's between things and
have so many false ideas that one has to very clearly have that worked out in
writing before doing anything.
Let's say (for example) mission critical sounds great to them and someone said
you can have that if you use a Dell server. Now that is partly wrong, as Dell
is not the definition of mission critical, but a brand name. But they are now
certain it is and you come in and may not notice it. If you don't handle that
misunderstanding you can end up with some weird problems dealing with them.
Likewise (sticking to this example) it's highly unlikely they need a mission
critical setup. They usually go home at 6pm and have lots of downtime.
If they do trust you and know they don't know, it can be a nice and easy job.
But then we come to the next problem with many small companies. Can you
afford to work with their budget?
How about support?
For these reasons I really prefer real business to business relationships.
> > Commercial software developers don't provide as many aps for linux as
> > they do for Windows for a reason.
>
> Marketshare? But even beyond that, there's another reason. Because
> Linux _is_ more popular than we reality.
Yes, definitely. But it IS changing. And will reach big saturation soon as
they realize this is something many will need to do to stay competitive,
> When you see Windows, you know it is Windows. Microsoft ensures this.
> They don't cater to vendor black boxes -- at least not until recently.
> And even then, it's still the "Microsoft support is external" issue for
> an OEM/vertical vendor.
Yup.
> > That can be changed very quickly if we can convert a large portion of
> > these smb businesses to linux. My plan is to pull together alist of
> > commonly used packages that provide all of the services and apps used
> > by smb business to include accounting packages, pos sytems, and so on.
>
> I wish you the best of luck. If it's a Freedomware project largely done
> for free, it will do well.
Yes, me too. If you can consult with in-house MIS and just charge for
consulting time it could be viable. Or you better have small overheads.
--Steve Szmidt
"They that would give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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