OT: Siemens sees Linux desktops at 20% of market by 2008--recommends GNOME over KDE

[Kurt Pfeifle]

Navindra Umanee wrote:

> Kurt Pfeifle <kpfeifle at danka.de> wrote:
> 
>>Full article (with more interesting qoutes) at:
>>    http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/08/13/1424212
>>
>>I am asking myself: Has this thrust been prompted be the recent
>>publication of the KDE <--> Windows XP usability study,
>>conducted by 'relevantive AG'?
> 
> 
> I think it is just Ximian marketing, that's all...

I think, this should be taken very seriously.

> it sounds exactly
> what GNOME/Ximian people would say. 

It shouldn't be dismissed in such a light-minded way.

> Maybe if Siemens bad mouths KDE
> they get a better deal on Ximian desktops or something.

I believe KDE should make a serious effort to get hold of this
internal comparison study Siemens has conducted. We should see
it as an opportunity to learn about the results of that study.
We should tell them that we want to work on the shortcomings
they may have found, but we first need to evaluate them, of
course.

> And in any
> case we know what the Ximian people are like.
> 

Well, I don't. So?

And if we all *did* know it, and if they *were* liars, and *if*
their software was just so much worse than KDE's -- what *would*
then be the right way to react to such a public statement, IYHO?

> 
>>   "Siemens has no 'religious' attachment to a particular distro
>>    or desktop environment. Before settling on Ximian, Siemens
>>    evaluated plain vanilla Gnome and KDE as well. Siemens found
>>    KDE to be more 'Windows-like' than Gnome, but that lead to
>>    problems when non-technical users expected a more Windows-like
>>    experience. Gnome, particularly Ximian's version, was 'different
>>    enough" to set user expectations that the experience would be
>>    less like Windows, which led to fewer adoption problems.'"
> 
> 
> Incredible!  This is straight off market-speak.
> 

So?

> 
>>   "McNutt went on to say that Ximian's suite -- consisting of a
>>    Gnome-based Linux desktop, Evolution mail and calendar app, a
>>    tweaked OpenOffice suite, and Red Carpet admin tools -- can be
>>    deployed in very large enterprises at lower cost and with no
>>    greater disruption than a Windows upgrade, and with significant
>>    savings going forward. McNutt says that Linux will save 20% to
>>    30% in administration costs, 50% in hardware costs, and 80% in
>>    licensing fees."
> 
> 
> Flagrant.
> 

???   [ You want to say that in reality these figures are much
         less favourable towards Linux/OSS/Ximian? ]

If Siemens wants to just use these arguments to get a better deal
from Ximian -- fine. But what were the reasons to go over to
Ximian at all, if they could have KDE for free?


> Cheers,
> Navin.
>