Re: [libreoffice-marketing] The LibO developers need input from former users. A proposal. (readable version)

Hi Riemer, *,

On Tuesday 19 April 2011 16:13:21 Riemer Thalen wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> My name is Riemer Thalen and I am not a programmer. I'm a marketing guy.
> For the last couple of years I have been wondering: how come so many
> people pay hundreds of dollars for MS Office when they can have OOo/LibO
> for free?
>
> Apparently, many people feel LibO does not match MS Office. Maybe they
> are missing functions MS Office has, maybe they think LibO behaves
> oddly, or maybe... we don't know.
>
> And that's a real problem. Because if we really want LibO to become the
> number one office suite in the world, we need to find out what keeps
> people form switching to OOo/LibO permanently.

"Because if we really want LibO to become the number one office suite in
the world"
Do we really want _that_?
I do not believe in maximizing market share of free software.
I think of two goals with a > b.
a) make free software, open standards and LibreOffice known.
b) deliver the best possible software you can.

I guess, the problem is, that the importance of freedom is not known at
all for the average user. So, I would modify the questions so that they
reflect a) and give some more insight into that.

And to be honest, if a) and b) are in a good shape, I really do not care
if the business in my neighbourhood uses free software if they willingly
decided against it.

This is not in contrast to the rest of your mail, just that paragraph
struck me right away.

But anyway I would be careful with user surveys, or do you want ordinary
people you meet for example in public transport or in shopping malls have
any influence on the direction of software you love and care for? ;)

Regards,
Michael


-- 
Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to marketing+help@libreoffice.org
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/www/marketing/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted