[CLUG] Desktop Linux Share Overtaking Macintosh

[adam beecher]

Sigh. Let me break it down to four words for you Mark: "Lies, damn lies,
statistics." If you don't accept that bean counters - most people in fact,
some might say most of America - aren't easily spun with stats, then yes, we
do have "some form of communication disconnect". (A sentence that itself
belongs on a Powerpoint slide.)

adam /mourns for synergies


> -----Original Message-----
> From: cork-bounces at linux.ie [mailto:cork-bounces at linux.ie]On Behalf Of
> Mark Twomey
> Sent: 14 February 2004 18:20
> To: cork at linux.ie; adam beecher
> Subject: Re: [CLUG] Desktop Linux Share Overtaking Macintosh
>
>
> On Feb 14, 2004, at 5:15 PM, adam beecher wrote:
>
> > I think you're still kind of missing my point Mark.
>
> Probably. We do appear to have some form of communication disconnect on
> this.
>
> >  I'm not suggesting that
> > a stat like this should be used to convince a technical chief of the
> > merits
> > of Linux on the desktop, more that it would be useful for a technical
> > chief
> > /that's already convinced/, to convince the bean counters.
>
> Well like anything when it comes to bean counters it's a matter of if
> it needs to be done and if the price is right. If things appear to be
> "okay" then no matter how cost effective you can prove something to be,
> or how good an idea it might be, bean counters won't go for it as they
> are wary about such a change being destabilising or in someway
> negatively impacting the business. The flipside of that is when they
> believe change has to happen and will force bad ideas even if the body
> of technical opinion believes that such a thing will be disastrous. It
> happens more frequently in large organisations than a person would
> imagine.
>
> > Moreover, I'm not saying that a stat like this is going to be a
> > clincher,
> > just that it's a (very) useful one to add to a body of evidence to be
> > used
> > to support the rollout of Linux on the desktop in an organisation.
>
> I can honestly say that such a factoid wouldn't matter a jot. Linux
> taking out Windows can be sold as a proposition in part because the
> existing hardware investment can be protected. You can't say the same
> thing about Macintosh. To put OS X on everyone's desk you need to buy
> them a Mac, that's why there's never been and probably never will be a
> mass market conversion to OS X in the same way there will be to Linux
> as time moves on.
>
> > I say "very" because, sadly, bean counters often seem to react more
> > favourably to meaningless stats than they do valid arguments that
> > don't have
> > a punchline.
>
> Yes they do, and the biggest stats you can throw at them involve a
> large short term retooled support cost as well as employee retraining,
> offset against the cost saved by Windows site licenses. The thing about
> large organisations is that they don't just standardise on a platform,
> they also standardise on applications and for the most part amongst
> those applications is MS:Office. Probably one of the largest hurdle
> Linux faces on the corporate desktop is the fact that it doesn't run
> MS:Office. Sure it has Open/StarOffice but to the bean counters that
> may as well be Lotus Smartsuite or something else they rejected years
> ago.
>
> Mark.
>
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