[ale] Re: This bites (was Re: [ale] More on Mozilla/Java)

[James P. Kinney III]

As is always the number 1 rule:
Customer Service.

It's not enough to make the best widget/gizmo/distribution since sliced
bread. It's when a person calls in with a problem that the company has a
chance to make a lifelong long, or just royally piss of a customer. A
statistic I've seen many times is that one pissed customer will tell ten
people, but one happy one will only tell two. 

On Sun, 2002-03-24 at 23:20, Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> A couple of summers ago when I first built the box I'm typing on now, I 
> ran into a real problem with Red Hat and Gnome - SCSI CD reads would 
> have these long pauses every few seconds.  I reported it as a bug and 
> they were real jerks about it, acting very "so what's your problem?" 
> about it.  I switched to KDE and went on with my life, but for months 
> afterwards I'd get these automated e-mails every once in a while with 
> some new comment from someone looking at the problem and it was clear 
> that the whole thing was just going nowhere.  
> 
> I guess I feel like Linux will have really arrived when I can deal with 
> a distro vendor like RH and have it be pretty much like when I'd 
> occasionally have to call up DEC about something with VMS.  I actually 
> found a serious security problem once (password mistakes were getting 
> logged with the mistaken entry) and reported it, but it turned out that 
> I wasn't the first.  My point, though, is that I could get people on the 
> phone that took my problem seriously.
> 
> - Jeff
> 
> Kevin Krumwiede wrote:
> 
> >No kidding.  When Mandrake 8.2 was in beta, I posted my thoughts on this
> >to the Cooker list.  I'm no guru, although I have a good general
> >understanding of computers from years of tinkering with Windows.  I
> >consider myself a good problem-solver.  I do a little programming as a
> >hobby, but I am no great hacker.  I have only been using Linux for about
> >a year.  I can't submit bug reports in hex like the maintainers seem to
> >want.  Sometimes the best I can do is say something's not working and be
> >as methodical as I can about describing the circumstances.  MandrakeSoft
> >thinks a simple mailing list is adequate for bug tracking and
> >reporting.  People feel like their bug reports are being ignored.  In
> >many cases they are.
> >
> >And what they don't get is that most people don't care how much "better"
> >Linux is.  They won't notice that their downloads are 2X faster if the
> >first thing they see is that Nautilus crashes, gmc's tree view doesn't
> >work, browser windows constantly pop up halfway off the screen, and
> >cut-and-paste doesn't work half the time.  And even with Mandrake, the
> >"easiest" distro of all, I still spend countless hours tweaking things
> >before it's right.  If someone like me has this much trouble, how do
> >they expect to win over people who are completely computer-illiterate?
> >
> >On the other hand, how many of those people could do a Windows install
> >without running ito trouble?  Probably not many.  I think the only way
> >Linux will ever really reach the masses is if OEMs start shipping boxes
> >with Linux pre-installed and configured.  And I think that will
> >eventually happen, considering Microsoft's latest extortion schemes and
> >legal troubles.  But until then, it's up to people like us to carry the
> >load and give the newbies a hand up.
> >
> >Krum
> >
> >
> >On Sun, 2002-03-24 at 21:33, Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> >
> >>Do any of the distro makers realize that this kind of crap just isn't 
> >>going to fly as far as "desktop acceptance" goes?  This stuff needs to 
> >>"arrive working."  
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >---
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> >sent to listmaster at ale dot org.
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
James P. Kinney III   \Changing the mobile computing world/
President and COO      \          one Linux user         /
Local Net Solutions,LLC \           at a time.          /
770-493-8244             \.___________________________./

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7 



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