Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Free & Libre are bad "selling points"

On 2 January 2011 08:44, Tom Davies <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> In my country this is what people think of when they hear the word "free".
>
> Anyone that hears the words "free software" will find that
> indistinguishable
> from freeware which is much more widely known but only as something that
> has
> caused a lot of problems.
>
> I am beginning to accept that maybe my country is possibly a little
> different
> from other European countries but i really thought this was part of the
> human
> condition.
>
>
> I didn't start using OpenOffice because it was free.  I only moved away
> from
> MicroSquish Office because i had no choice when i moved to linux.  I did
> try to
> install it inside Linux but it wasn't easy and that was nearly a blocker
> for me
> so i kept re-booting back into Windows to do stuff with linux just being
> for
> fun.
>
> However when i did finally try OpenOffice (by mistake) i found it was
> superior
> to MicroSquish Office because it didn't keep changing styles, formatting,
> language, tab-stops;
> 1.  I didn't need to sort all the formatting after finishing the document
> 2.  Numbered lists were easier, numbers didn't get randomly missed out
> 3.  Numbered and bulleted lists lined up within themselves
> 4.  Bullet-points didn't randomly change size
> 5.  Spell-checker stayed in my non-american language throughout
> Also no pop-ups stole the focus while i was typing so i didn't have to deal
> with
> other stuff in the middle of writing and i didn't have to re-key anything.
>  This
> last point is an advantage of linux rather than OpenOffice/LibreOffice.
>
> So at the end i didn't need to spend ages sorting technical formatting
> problems
> and was able to use the time purely proof-reading and shortening things.
>  The
> whole thing was completed in less than half the time i had expected!
>
> However i would never have used it if i had any choice.
>
> Do other people here "settle for" LibreOffice purely because of it's price?
>  If
> it cost more would you really all run back to MicroSquish's "superior
> product"?
>
> Regards from
> Tom :)
>
>
>
>
> Am 01.01.2011 16:44, schrieb Tom Davies:
>
> > Free means "has no value", "is worthless", "cheaper than "cheap and
> nasty"",
> > "so bad it can't be sold", "not worth having", "about the same value as
> > garbage".
>
> If this is your understanding of the meaning of free software, then
> why do you engage yourself in a free software project?
>
> LibreOffice by its definition is free software (not freeware). IMO
> freedom is a good selling point, maybe the main point at all.
>
> Stefan
> --
> LibreOffice - Die Freiheit nehm' ich mir!
>
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A lot depends on who you are targeting. Some people now expect to get stuff
free. No-one expects to pay for social networking or search on the internet.
Young people can appreciate free and good enough. So let's intelligently
target particular markets based on evidence of what that particular audience
wants to hear rather than pre-conceived generalities that might or might not
apply. Market research is needed if marketing is to be effective.

-- 
Ian

Ofqual Accredited IT Qualifications
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