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

[Navindra Umanee]

Kurt Pfeifle <kpfeifle at danka.de> wrote:
> > I think it is just Ximian marketing, that's all...
> 
> I think, this should be taken very seriously.
> 
> It shouldn't be dismissed in such a light-minded way.

Well, if you do can something about it, that's great.  

I suspect that to get credibility vis-a-vis Ximian, we would need to
get the KDE League or some similar entity in action, pro-actively
pursuing these cases and new ones.

How can I help?

> 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.

Sounds great.  It would be quite interesting if you find that they are
quoting Ximian's own internal studies and facts and figures.  Because
this is the kind of research Ximian has told us it has already done.
Or maybe Ximian helped them conduct the study, or Siemens ran another
one to confirm the existing Ximian ones.

> > 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?

Well, KDE as an entity as far as I know, does nothing.  Nor does
GNOME.  But GNOME has Ximian which actively goes around and courts
these companies, selling them the GNOME party line inevitably at the
expense of KDE.  That is Ximian's well-known modus operandi.

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

I don't care about the figures so much as the Ximian press quoting.

> 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?

Ah, I suspect this *is* the key.  They did not go over to Ximian.

==> Ximian went over to them. <==

At least, that is what I suspect is the likely scenario.

What I *do* know is that Ximian is aggressively courting these
companies and feeding them these lines about GNOME, KDE and how XD2 is
so much better for them.  In fact, there seems to be very little point
for Siemens to go over to Ximian when they can get practically
everything they offer, software-wise, from a distro like Red Hat.  But
Siemens had nobody to tell them that.

Plus, Ximian no doubt offers them something (perhaps: services,
internal company party-lines, "support", indemnification, comfort and
hand-holding) that we as an OSS community can't.

This is the sort of thing the KDE League was founded for.

Cheers,
Navin.