Delivering value with Linux

Brian Proffitt has written a very good article "Delivering value with Linux" concerning Linux and the loss of Linux "selling techniques" by various Linux advocates. But there is a missing point to his argument: it's not that businesses don't want to sell Linux, but that to sell Linux requires a lot more work to sell than Windows does. In other words, it's an up hill battle to sell Linux and since most businesses earn money by what they sell, which would you go after, the easier money of selling what most people want or the harder way of making money selling something which many may not be aware of?

Now, to counter this argument, Linux advocates need to change how this is discussed. There are a number of things that need to change. First, there is the mindset that most computer businesses get more and more services money from the same customer but at a greater and greater cost of poor quality to the customer, i.e. a bigger and bigger piece of the IT budget pie. Second, that if the businesses sell Linux it has now moved from a "getting more from one customer" to getting more and more of the market share (i.e. more and more) of the number of customers because you will visit the customer less often. Hence, quality is a significant factor here.

Now, most businesses will go after the first part to get more and more of the customer's IT budget until the customers pain is so great that the pain to remain with the current situation that it is too great to stay and thereby resulting in change. But this change can come from two perspectives: the business changes to reduce their charges to the customer and the customer stays with the business, or, the customer is so fed up that they change businesses/vendors regardless of what is offered. This last change is known as the migration factor, from Windows to Linux or Windows to Mac.

I've been selling Linux, Windows, and Mac for a number of years and in order to stay in business you have to make money. While most computer sellers want the "easy bucks" of what people want, the longer haul will be Linux and Free and Open Source software (FOSS). While the foundation for Linux is superior to Windows, the first and second floors (desktop and applications) are the next area in which Linux will gain ground.

But, since most computer purchases are "enterprise level" purchases, Linux will only make more inroads to Windows area when you see Linux on the Fortune 500 desktops. Why? Because once people use it at work they'll want to "bring work home with them" and will want the same thing at home. Once it has started in the Fortune 500 then the medium and smaller businesses will take notice. Unless, of course, the small business is like Ernie Ball's Guitar business did when he dropped Windows for Linux. Ernie is a leader. But many small businesses are followers.

Linux has the better value for sure in many ways, but getting people to change is the hardest part. People don't want to change. It took a friend a year and a half to get me to see and then begin using Linux. Most people will be the same. Linux selling should be in for the long haul.