[dot] Report: KDE at Paris Solutions Linux 2004

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1076784419/

From: Charles de Miramon <cmiramon at kde-france.org>
Dept: better-late-than-never
Date: Saturday14/Feb/2004, @19:46

Report: KDE at Paris Solutions Linux 2004
=========================================

    Solutions Linux [http://www.solutionslinux.fr/] is the main Linux
Trade Show in France. The French KDE team [http://www.kde-france.org/]
was there like the precedent year promoting our favorite desktop. Our
booth [http://www.kde-france.org/galerie/expo2004/] located in the very
lively Association's village was organised by the indefatigable Gérard
Delafond and sported an  impressive Xinerama screen-wall 
[http://www.kde-france.org/galerie/expo2004/fullsize/demo2_fr.htm]
demonstrating the brand new KDE 3.2. This wall was sponsored by
Mandrakesoft [http://www.mandrakesoft.com/] and Belinea
[http://www.belinea.com/].

     We were even more ambitious in our cottage business of selling KDE
branded goodies with a very popular KDE USB key
[http://www.kde-france.org/galerie/expo2004/fullsize/usb_key_for_sale_fr.htm]
and a less popular KDE ashtray
[http://www.kde-france.org/galerie/expo2004/fullsize/cendrier5_fr.htm].
The show was also a perfect occasion for KDE fellows from all over
France to get together for their KDinner
[http://www.kde-france.org/galerie/expo2004/fullsize/dinner2_fr.htm] and
welcome a jet-lagged but still valiant Georges Staikos.
 [http://www.kde-france.org/galerie/expo2004/fullsize/team_fr.htm]
     KDE and the French Market
     Solutions Linux ran for three days and welcomed around 9600
visitors this year. After speaking with our (prospective) users, my
impression is that there is no big migration plan to Linux on desktop
happening now in France. The boldest move is being done by the Homeland
Ministry (Ministère de l'intérieur) which is migrating to OpenOffice.org
on Windows. The City of Paris have just ordered a study for the
migration of its IT [http://news.com.com/2100-7344-5158001.html] to Open
Source. All in all, French administration is at least two years behind
German administration.

     No commercial booth was pushing a desktop solution, except Novell
which sported a strange combination of Ximian computers at the centre of
its big booth and SUSE-KDE at the periphery.

     Going round the show and looking at other people's computers, my
guess is that we have increased our market share in the French geek
community at the expense of Gnome and Window Maker. Some geeks told me
that they find that KDE is a different OSS project: serious, efficient,
punctual and hard working. We have not forgotten our German roots.

     Our big challenge is to market outside of our natural user base.
One interesting trend is that several IT people working for industrial
companies with strong R&D departments (like the defence industry) came
to our booth. They plan to replace their mismatch of Unix workstations
and Windows PC to a unified affordable development and testing platform.
I explained to them the way to go: KDE the developer platform
[http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-3.2_developers/whykde.php].
Another possible niche for KDE are vertical applications: using KDE and
Qt as a base to create a richer integrated solution (hardware, software
and service) for a specific trade. A KDE fellow is working in a company
in such a project (still top-secret).