Re: distro or add-on?

[Roger Dingledine <arma@mit.edu>]

On Thu, Apr 19, 2001 at 07:21:55PM +0200, Jean Francois Martinez wrote:
> > If you only distribute it via FTP and CVS repositories, the "end
> > users" will not have the ease-of-use you speak of intrinsic to Indy.
> 
> CD is not a problem: it is not that difficult to be published by the
> analogs of CheapBytes the problem is that Indy target needs paper doc
> and buys software who comes in nice boxes sold it at mainstream
> retail stores.  For this I still don't have a  clear solution exceptr that this
> trying to improve Indy and get users hoping iyt reaches critical mass:
> this kind of problems tend to be far easier to solve when you reach it.

I agree. An ftp site is not good enough. Even getting CheapBytes to sell
it is not good enough.

I don't think you can out-market a large company like Red Hat or Mandrake.
But beyond that, I don't think you should *try* to out-market them. Leave
it entirely to them to actually deliver Linux to the masses.

Leveraging somebody else's distribution channel is one of the few feasible
approaches to getting packages to end-users that I can imagine.
 
I think it's a hard enough problem without worrying about the marketing
side of things. Why not focus on improving Red Hat, and then try to get
Red Hat to distribute your enhanced packages? Why are you planning to
fight Red Hat when you could have them on your side?

--Roger