Microsoft Segments Linux "Personas" 558
RJ2770 writes "Microsoft has started a project for their partners to help identify the personas of different Linux users in an attempt to sway them toward Microsoft products. In addition to the web site there is a podcast on the market research behind the project, again directed at Microsoft's selling partners."
The gloves are off (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft is taking you seriously now - you better start doing the same thing.
From the popup window ... (Score:2, Insightful)
I see that Microsoft is taking good, strong steps to prevent those evil Linux users from viewing this secret data!
Re:Shooting themselves in the foot (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is this a hoax? (Score:5, Insightful)
I personally wonder at what point "innovation" was defined as get in the way of the two functions all ones users need. Just make an OS which is fast/efficient and doesn't throw up cryptic error messages regularly and I will be reasonably happy with whatever else goes on.
drilling further (Score:3, Insightful)
...I find http://www.stacymunn.com/resume/index.htm [stacymunn.com].
Either she made this for Microsoft, or there are more Stacy Munns at that company than I would usually expect.
Domain WHOIS (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's just say... it just oozes professionalism. And seems to have nothing to do with Microsoft
It's not that difficult to figure out... (Score:5, Insightful)
* People who like knowing what their computer is up to (kind of like motorheads for the information age);
* People who don't like M$ deciding how their computers will work;
* People who don't want to spend money when a more reliable solution exists for Free;
* People who believe that competition is a Good Thing (tm);
* People who resent being called pirates (at least without being able to make others walk the plank!)
Missing persona (Score:5, Insightful)
FSF True believer: If it ain't Free it isn't an option.
Disgusted Ex Microsoft customer: Experienced Microsoft products since they were in ROM chips and hasn't found one yet that wasn't a roach motel. Doesn't plan on wasting money on more of the crap until they manage to get several in a row right... i.e. never.
Political MS hater: Hates evil corporations in general, believes Microsoft more evil than Exxon-Mobil, AT&T, IBM or the MPAA. Believes Microsoft is an unrepentant monopolist hellbent on enslaving the world.
Then there is me, a little bit of all three.
I think I can help (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's my demographic.
I'm a computer user who likes my machines to be as crash-free as possible. Failing that, I'd like access to the source code so I can fix whatever problems I perceive, rather than waiting for someone else to do it.
Ok - that's my "Linux Persona". Now let's see you cater to me.
Re:drilling further (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The gloves are off (Score:1, Insightful)
MS does what they ever do. Marketing instead of better products.
Re:Maybe we just don't like you... (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:winning against linux? (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? Because for years, I've been seeing posts and articles on slashdot that talk in terms of winning people over from MS to Linux. Unless that continually played tune is also trolling, then I don't think that MS trying to understand the different stripes of people that are (or might consider) using Linux is anything other than basic market research. Not all of the Ubuntu crowd may consider themselves to be "winning" someone away from Mandriva, but I'm sure that language gets used sometimes. Just like people in the Firefox camp often talk about winning a larger share of browser users away from MS.
Re:Shooting themselves in the foot (Score:5, Insightful)
Not sure if "enemy" is the right word to describe a (hopefully) potential customer.
This site is a sales tool to help sales folks penetrate into different environments where Linux has some level of establishment. Based on a set of simplistic characteristics (how ingrained is Linux? how risk adverse is the customer? are they frothing-at-the-mouth OSS-kool-aid punch drunks?), the tool gives generalizations as to the type, size and length of each opportunity across 5 broad categories.
This type of tool is great for sales folks trying to get their heads around something they don't really understand. Right off certain approaches with broad strokes, and push the blue kool-aid instead.
Where a lot of this falls down is the reliance of already-proven sketchy evidence (Get The Facts, TCO studies, etc...), and some overly simplistic anecdotal evidence ("Customers are already switching from Apache/Linux to IIS6/Windows" ; "Customers are finding that development with ASP.NET is quicker and easier" ; ...). The reason that the sales cycle is longer for some of the types is that either they are rabid OSS drones (medium-length cycle; note to sales folks - do a political end-run around the geek) or they actually have successful experience with the alternative platforms (longest cycle; note to sales folks - it is going to be a hard fight and a lot of the "sales tools" relied on for other profiles likely will fail here).
feedback (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Selling Partners (Score:3, Insightful)
*(which would have made a fun episode of ST:TOS)
Re:So where's the poll? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I ddin't see my persona in here (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Very simple, and not limited to Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The gloves are off (Score:3, Insightful)
-Gandhi
But that's not how business works. (Score:5, Insightful)
Or I could have this all wrong, and be corrected below.
Re:Shooting themselves in the foot (Score:3, Insightful)
In fact I think the open source movement should be waaaay more worried about this type of thing than the usual rantings from Redmond - this has the hallmarks of a well researched strategy, with good identification of the reasons people might be using Linux. That will allow much more carefully planned attacks on Linux market share.
Re:But that's not how business works. (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd like to see them classify my Linux persona (Score:2, Insightful)
* I am a former Microserf (I was a fool to leave thinking dot bombs would pay off bigger but that is water under the bridge)
* I've played with Linux since it was first posted to Usenet, before I worked for M$. I loved having a Unix on my home PC but for day to day stuff preferred Windows
* When I worked at M$ Linux was my primary OS at home. Even so I was a Microsoft fan, because even with BSOD issues, Windows worked out of the box
* Part of the attraction to Microsoft was their viral marketing. They intentionally made earlier versions of Windows easy to copy and share to increase popularity. This was intentional.
* I began to hate Microsoft when they turned on average customers and took away ownership rights. Right of first sale DOES apply to over-the-shelf software but they have successfully rewritten the rules, for all intents and purposes
* I hate how restricted Windows has become. It used to be trivial to run an alternative desktop, all the way through WinMe it was a System.ini setting, and in NT4 and Win2K it was a registry entry. Now, to do something as trivial as change the theme, one must buy a Microsoft-approved "signed" theme, or must violate the EULA (and break the DMCA in M$'s eyes, although interoperability clause allows for it) by reverse engineering or patching the theme loader to allow unsigned themes.
My dream OS would be the Windows kernel to allow for 100% hardware support, but BSD userland tools and the KDE desktop, enhanced by Beryl.
So pray tell, Microsoft, how do you win users like me back as customers? Are you going to open up your OS, drop the DRM and actually make it as usable and extensible as Linux? Or, are you going to continue to tighten your fist, losing more and more previously-loyal customers in the process?
In summary: Fuck you Microsoft.
Re:Windows user personas anybody? (Score:4, Insightful)
2. Your Parents - they don't really know much about computers and will use whatever the computer they bought came with.
3. Market Follower - M$ bitches.
4. The Windows Enthusiast - these people are extremely rare. They actively believe that M$ products are superior to anything else out there and believe that if something is free, there must be something wrong with it.
5. Scientists, Engineers, Professionals - use Windows due to vital software existing only on that platform.
Re:Shooting themselves in the foot (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose they tried ignoring it and it didn't go away so now there are no other options but still.
Good luck guys (Score:2, Insightful)
Now if I were to suggest to these people - any of them, in fact - that they deploy on Windows, they would roll around on the floor laughing for a few minutes, before permanently writing me off as a complete idiot.
This is Microsoft's problem. They can fool the old guard for a while longer perhaps; no-one wants to do any large scale Exchange migrations anytime soon - not anyone who's ever tried before, anyway. But the new guard, all the innovation online, doesn't belong to them and moves further away every day. All the exciting new developments on the web are OSS and without even a single exception no-one I know would consider using anything else. Even those who still program on Windows wouldn't use it server-side.
So this marketing effort might pay off a few percentage points here and there as MS squeezes Joe Company's backroom for a few more Server 2003 licenses but the really big ship has already sailed, a long time ago. Can you name even a single new online service you're excited about that uses Windows? Even one? Thought not.
So hell, let them squeeze the old guard for all they're worth. The new platform, the web and the internet itself, has slipped through MS's fingers
Re:The gloves are off (Score:5, Insightful)
Eh, fuck 'em. You can't stop people from working on software in their free time and giving it away.
Not everyone cares about "beating" Microsoft.
Are you sure you are not talking about this story? (Score:3, Insightful)
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/bro
Me? Proud user of Linux as my primary desktop since kernel version ~0.91 and big fan of lisp since even before then, but do not assume that seeing a picture of a boot-up sequence, even from the first-class seat is necessarily a good thing!
Re:It's not that difficult to figure out... (Score:2, Insightful)
* People who will trade in their anti-monopolist principles for proprietary Flash plugins
Licensing is a big deal (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Targeted survey (Score:5, Insightful)
I looked at all the personas and found every one of them fell in the range of 25-28 servers with the exception of the Unix one at 31 servers. Looks like a limited market segment survey to me. The segmemt missing is the SOHO or Home Office where computing is dependant on applications such as Quicken and an Office product and web browser. TCO is a big deciding factor. Instead of upgrading from MS office 97 and such, we built a white box computer and put Ubuntu on it. As a bonus, for our graphics arts we use the Gimp instead of Photoshop. We don't need another copy of AV software. The software savings has paid for the hardware. To share files, we picked up a NAS using Linux. It uses an encrypted Reiser filesystem and we have put all our printers on stand alone prinservers. The NAS and Printservers are all Linux. Other than some drastic price changes, there is little MS can do to get us to be an all MS office. We can't justify the cost. One copy of MS office is expensive. 4 copies (main office, kids PC, & 2 laptops is a show stopper. Linux does the job with either ABI Word or Open Office and doesn't break the budget. It also works with newer MS office files sent to us. Office 97 doesn't display them properly if at all.
When the adoption rate reaches critical mass where I can pick up a copy of Turbo Tax for Linux and Quicken will be the day MS stock has a bad day. There isn't many markets with more price concious buyers than the SOHO market.
Re:It's not that difficult to figure out... (Score:4, Insightful)
They are broad with the term. If I retire my Dell PC and scrap it and put the XP OS on a white box replacement, I have Pirated XP.
If I buy a Copy of MS Office for my personal use and put in on my laptop and desktop, I am a Pirate.
A personal use site license is lacking in their EULA. I don't have either of those problems with any of my Linux installations.
I can pick up a CD, Play it in my CD player, Rip it and play it on my PC, and put it on my MP3 player for personal use. MS made sure their products won't do that. Office won't run live on the CD. It fails WGA if installed on your PC and laptop. It's broken. Linux is not broken out of the box. The applications work if installed on your desktop and a laptop.
Re:It's not that difficult to figure out... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Shooting themselves in the foot (Score:1, Insightful)
Is Microsoft Really That Insecure? (Score:4, Insightful)
I do not quite understand Microsoft's strategy here, for many reasons, which I'll try to enumerate logically. I am not trying to troll. I am trying to be objective, and when I do criticize Microsoft I do so purely academically, so please do not turn this into a flame war.
Further, the main buyers and users in this segment are not average users who need to use computers for nothing more than word processing, email, and web. They are power users who are well aware of the strengths and limitations provided by the different systems. They know first hand the problems of using Microsoft server solutions.
If they really want to capture this smaller market (again, I am not sure why they would except for the pursuit of total monopoly), it seems that they need more than a new sell technique. Instead, they should develop their new programs and services to inter-operate with existing standards and systems. As they develop server solutions for power users, they'll win over the server crowd with their commitment to excellent products, not some new half-hearted add campaign, which many (such as the
I know I do not have all the answers, but I think that Microsoft is getting everything wrong here. It seems that capturing the server market has a very small return when compared to the desktop market. Additionally, the cost of "doing it right" with inter-operability-centered design of new products while maintaining backwards compatibility would greatly reduce margin (e.g. look what happened with all the grand ideas of Vista). Nevertheless, if Microsoft is determined to win this market, they need to do so with more steps of good faith and less aggressive talk about intellectual property (happy, willing customers are
Google (Score:3, Insightful)
And what of those who use Linux, daily, in the form of Google, Amazon, et al? How does one (MS in this case) sway users away from these?
Sounds like a big job.
Re:Windows user personas anybody? (Score:2, Insightful)
4. The Windows Enthusiast - these people are extremely rare. They actively believe that M$ products are superior to anything else out there and believe that if something is free, there must be something wrong with it.
Extremely rare? Have you ever ventured outside slashdot? They are extremely common!
Re:The gloves are off (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The gloves are off (Score:1, Insightful)
Cause I started on computers 27 years ago using unix on big iron machines
When PCs finally got powerful enough to run a real multi tasking operating system (in the early 90s) I switched to PCs again running unix (I did say 'enough to run a real multi tasking operating system')
And what is the cutting edge of unix type operating systems ??
So my choice has nothing to do with microsoft at all
the only way I'd ever use a microsoft OS is if they release a unix that was better (including better priced) than linux.
Re:But that's not how business works. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's not that difficult to figure out... (Score:3, Insightful)
* People who believe that collaboration is a Good Thing (tm)
Even though the great majority of Linux users are by now non-developers (a fact that has Monkeyboy & Co worried about Linux having reached the "good enough for most people" level), the idea of open and public cooperation (+ open standards), or rather awareness of their value, remains strong in the Linux user community. Somehow I doubt that MS would be keen to shine light on this aspect of Linux usership.
"Collaboration Without Borders" makes for a great PR story as well; it's something that juxtaposes with the various unnecessary global rifts caused by corporatism (incl. multinational giants dominating over indigenous industries, esp. in the developing world) and the regrettably aggressive unilateral acts by some bigger countries.
Interestingly, someone just put up a Windows Personas [windowspersonas.com] site. I wonder if the two "personas" sites should exchange link banners... :-)
Re:But that's not how business works. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Shooting themselves in the foot (Score:4, Insightful)
This article is a sign we're deep in the fighting stage now.
Re:But that's not how business works. (Score:3, Insightful)
Windows, on the other hand, has a pre-ordained release chedule to conform to. Sometimes Microsoft even have to invent their own new thing themselves, just to make it apparently worthwhile releasing a new Windows version! And they always have to keep something back for the next version, just in case nothing major changes during the lifetime of the current one.
As for what it would take to convince me personally to switch to Windows
Visual Studio "resolution" (Score:3, Insightful)
I think you've got this wrong, shouldn't it be, "We'll SELL you the fix in "a future release"."
Re:Very simple, and not limited to Linux (Score:2, Insightful)
As a developer, who makes software for living and for fun: C#,
As normal user: MSN Live Messenger, Windows Media Player 11 (great UI)
Non-Microsoft products, which I really like: mIRC, Guitar Pro 5, some games
And oh yeah, I use these every day on Windows XP and they all work great for me.
Re:Very simple, and not limited to Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
Their mice and keyboards aren't bad.
Re:Very simple, and not limited to Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
Quoted for truth! Well, actually I think Windows 2000 was a similar "sweet spot".
Re:Maybe we just don't like you... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's been a long time since I've had to deal with Microsoft's products and I've forgotten what a mess it is. It's so bad that it makes setting up and configuring Oracle's stuff seem simple.