J++

Surely the easiest way to filter spam is to use a Neural network to process the dialogue from incoming emails, getting it to learn the literary traits of the regular the emailers. I mean, what is the probability of a regular email displaying the 'literary traints' of spam?

I had an idea about how to market linux creatively. The creative part being the ability to make marketing 'self funded'.

To explain here is a link to a thread I made on ooo forums about it. I didn't get much of a response.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.ph...0714&highlight=

Create a cashback site to fund opensource project advertisin

 

 

There are many sites out there that offer cashback rewards (hard cash) for people who buy products from online retail stores through their cashback website. What many of these sites don’t tell you is that of the commission they receive from the retailer around 50% goes directly into the cashback site’s pocket, so the consumer only gets a 50% cut of this affiliate cash.

 

Examples of cashback sites

 

www.rpoints.com (community based one)

www.linemypocket.co.uk

www.mycashback.co.uk

http://www.greasypalm.co.uk/

 

 

If the opensource world were to set up its own cashback site, it could offer the consumer more cashback by taking a smaller amount of commission for itself, eg. 80% of affiliate cash would go to the consumer and 20% to open source projects. If we’re only concerned with raising money for opensource projects (Not lining our own pockets) we could make adjust it so we get very little of the affiliate cash whatsoever this would have the effect of driving the profit hungry cashback sites above out of business and all the users would flock to our site. The more users, the more affiliate cash and the more money there is to spend on open source projects. If greasypalm were to donate just 20% of the money they’ve earnt through site cashback referrals they’d have pumped ~£300,000 into opensource projects.

 

There is also an added dimension, in that people would flock to our cashback site to find out where the cheapest offers are (rpoints is an example where people already perform this service for free) in doing so they’d be exposed to our opensource alternatives and in effect this is a form of advertising for opensource projects. If our site is a place where people can find out where to get the cheapest washing machine etc, then it will attract price conscious people, people who are likely be attracted to the cost benefits opensource software to the consumer. It’s quite possible that this would increase the number of users of software like openoffice.

 

On the whole it seems as though this is a way to get corporations to fund opensource projects indirectly by tapping into the cost conscious mentality of the consumer,. It’s a win-win situation, the corporations get more customers, the consumer gets better prices and cash rewards for shopping, and the opensource community gets extra funding.

 

I’m under the impression that given the non-profit nature of spreadfirefox, the opensource community would probably offer a cashback service to consumers for free and as explained above, would give them higher cash rewards than the other points sites out there.

 

You could end up with the bizzare situation of microsoft offering cashback to consumers for buying windows and in doing so, giving money to the opensource community to enable them to advertise openoffice in national newspapers etc, in direct competition with another one of their products. hehe

Please let me know what you think. I would take the time do develop this myself but I understand it requires alot of work so I'd have my hands tied with having to put so much time into my reallife job. :) The beauty of having the FOSS world create something like this is the flexibility in software design and the functionality that will result in the FOSS finished product.

One thing I think we should keep in mind: are we aiming for the general windows user, or the general windows user who wants to learn and use linux.

If mandrake wants to make money (i know that's not its primary aim) it should target novice windows users. If it's been doing the above all along I'm not surprised it almost went bankrupt, there just aren't many of those 'general windows' users out there imo.

If no-one caters for those users, none of us have any right to complain about Lindows, as it's clearly filling a niche in the market, one which we refuse to fill.

That's precisely what I'm saying, an opensource cnr client is likely to be far more complex than cnr etc because of what you say about Lindows being static. But do people see that as a challenge or an impossibility?

I still think alot of peoples heart is in the right place here but they don't quite understand the mentality of the basic windows user. The basic windows user doesn't want to mess around with dependecies configerations etc, doesn't want to type a single command into the console, many just want an alternative to microsoft. UNless the OSS world comes out with something similar to Lindows, Lindows will gobble up these users and lock them in. Good or bad, do you really care about people like that? Personally I'd help develop such an app just to get them off MS.

There is no way on this earth a basic windows user could use apt-get rpmdrake etc, they'd give up pretty quickly. I admit at first sight mandrake appears to have a cracking support community but even that is likely to sway the windows user who really doesn't want something that he thinks has gone wrong.

Make installing software as easy as it is in Lindows I would say is a top priority if you want to market mandrake to windows users.

btw, what baffles me is if mandrake is marketing linux towards the desktop user (Windows) why doesn't ijust concentrate its efforts into making a robust gpled version of click and run? Forgetting the problems with not being able tomarket it properly it would still make alot of sense if mandrake are indeed serious about attracting users. This changes of course if mandrake actually want people to have the dependcy + configeration nightmare, but I don't think that's what mandrake is about. So why not someone develop a more robust front end for this urpmi? to rival click and run.

also have you guys heard of or tried onebase? www.ibiblio.org/onebase

Thanks for the welcome, I really like this forum already not just down to you two but the forum software is really quite good!

II just posted this on the lindows forum, my take on what Lindows have done, my thoughts, cue boredom! :P First here is a user impression of click and run, after I made a silly comparison with a proprietory WM.

I do not believe that your CNR and Windows Manager comparison is fair. Once a Window Manager is coded, the cost is done. But CNR is a continuing expense. Bandwidth and web hosting are two things. Testing for package dependency errors is another.(A big thing). This is all in addition to the initial cost of development. That's why I believe there will never be a TOTALLY free CNR product that works on par with CNR.

My ramblings

Don't forget, package managers have always been a big part of distros. Lots of users may be the only reason why lack of bandwidth would become a problem.

 

The OSS world clearly has momentum, pump some money into it and it might gather abit more momentum, but that requires alot of faith. I understand michael pumped some money into wine when he first started out. IMO the best way to push linux into the mainstream is to throw money at it in the right places, ask for things here and there and let IT decide which direction it takes. I'm sure it wants to unseat Microsoft in the long term, and I'm sure the OSS world is just as capable as michael at marketing itself given the right resources etc. It would be foolish to say it wasn't given the amount of talent outthere, by simply noting the number of people involved in OSS.

 

IMO the best way then is to set up a business that doesn't necessarily have to be computer related but directs a certain amount of its income into opensource projects. Perhaps Michael has the perfect such product, Lindows. The only problem is he's marketing a product that's is ultimately a much smaller, less diverse product than what the opensource world is capable of producing and is working towards. He's jumping the gun alittle bit. There is a good reason why mandrake was created, to act as a GNU/Linux distro for newbies to linux.

Now my main point is surely mandrake needs to look for extra sources of funding? maybe some Mandrake people start innovative business in other areas. Now Micheal has a TRUMP CARD in this respect, he's just developed L>Tunes the truth is if that takes off, he'll have the only viable alternative to i>tunes on the linux desktop, if he then gets alot of users he's going to make a packet even though judging from his experience with mp3.com his service will be quite different from iTunes and really quite cool. I might be wrong tho as i heard on the grapevine that he's not intending to make any money out of it as such.

Would you say it's reached the ease of use of click and run? Click and run has become quite robust but to me Lindows just isn't linux, it's missing alot, it's ashame but it's to be expected I suppose.

With regards to Mandrake marketing, if mandrake is truely just as viable an alternative as a desktop solution to windows users then that's fair enough, but there are loads of small things which will sway the windows user. OkI appreciate this isn't the official mandrake forum, but does mandrake try to market their product toward the majority of windows users ie- those who really don't care about the inner workings of the system and just want to use something that works?

If so I'd love to know why mandrakes marketing is so poor, is it just down to money? Is there any other way mandrake can attract investment other than shares and donations etc?

And for your info, Mandrake is loads bigger (in terms of users) than Lindows/Linspire - and I don't see Lindows getting as big anytime soon...

That's precisey why you have my backing, mandrake seems to have an amazingly strong and big community. Your support is well developed and I commend people on their efforts here. Lindows could learn alot from mandrake on the support side imo. Mandrake doesn't appear ont he face of it to market towards windows users who don't really care about how their system works. This would make sense as FOSS isn't about getting rid of microsoft and that's great, but it would be nice to see mandrake steal microsofts crown.

and lol it won't load but could you explain this one to me. :)

http://timedoctor.org/boycott_winex.php

LOL!

Hi, I'm quite a gnu enthusiast but I just haven't really had the time for it ever since I discovered it :-/. My first distro was redhat 7.2, then later mandrake 9.2 for alittle bit. Unfortunately with lots of uni work snapping at my heels I gave up with liunx installed windows and just kept uptodate with news and events. I decided I still wanted to use linux but without messing abit with dependcy issues etc. I noticed Lindows were offering a lifetime membership to their click and run warehouse at the time so I snapped it up. So started my journey into the world of a wholey commercial linux distro.

I've had alot of good experiences with Lindows, they have a nice little community but something is definately missing. It also strikes me as abit of a difficult move on their part, surely a click and run client is something that a distribution like mandrake is working towards and sooner or later will have? As this is a wholey GNU/Linux distro such a solution is likely to be far supier and wide ranging to a techniology like click and run? IS mandrake working towards the same sort of thing? Or are their hands tied this is so opensource that it's difficult to develop something like that without money? It's just it strikes me that Mandrake's philosophy is geared towards newbies to linux, surely such a thing is preferred to attract windows users to linux? To me it just seems such a shame that it's Lindows that is getting these new LInux users from Windows and not mandrake, afterall mandrake is the most wellknown linux distro geared to newbies is it not? imo Michael Robertson should have given all his money to you and left the job to you guys.