____/ 7 on Tuesday 05 February 2008 20:14 : \____
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> Open source Aussies: Not poor, bearded loners
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Responses from 327 participants were included in the details revealed
>> | from the online study, which aimed to dispel the myth that open source
>> | supporters are invariably bearded geeks, male and impoverished, company
>> | co-founder Jeff Waugh said.
>> |
>> | "There are certain perceptions of the community that are somewhat
>> | inaccurate," he commented. The survey was sponsored by Fujitsu, IBM and
>> | NICTA.
>> |
>> | Facial hair growth wasn't captured by the questions, but the survey
>> | still showed a gender imbalance with only seven percent of respondents
>> | being female. However, notions of poverty seem somewhat misplaced.
>> `----
>>
>> http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa
> Open-source-Aussies-Not-poor-bearded-loners/0,339028227,339285610,00.htm
>
>
> I think people who cling on to those bearded
> beliefs are a mixed bag of nuts in a far away land called Redmond.
>
> Embedded Linux alone is selling 3 million+ devices PER DAY and thats
> at least $1 billion in commerce PER DAY that Linux currently enjoys.
>
> If you are going to say all those people that
> are selling flat TVs, DVD recorders,
> MP3/MP4 players, routers, photoframes, UMPCs, Sat Navs
> etc are bearded, then you MUST be a member of the
> spliffing mixed bag of nuts community.
As you say, these myths are intended to turn suits away from Linux. One
analogy/argument I've heard from a businessman who does FLOSS is that people
are led to believe (a myth originating in north-western USA) that FLOSS is
written by acne-ridden teenagers.
Now, imagine yourself a young engineer approaching an old MBA who read some
Microsoft .doc files about the GPL, read not about RMS' philosophy but
criticism of his appearance (it's a diversion tactics) and has this mental
image of poor teenagers standing behind FLOSS which "isn't supported" (if
proprietary software really any more supported?).
Perceptions are important.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | "Slashdot is standard-compliant... in Japan"
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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