Paul Vigay wrote:
In a dim and distant universe <4864AF36.4010902@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Phillip Marsden <phillip.marsden@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> enlightened us thusly:There are about 300 names in my programming agency database, which also has not been developed for years, but that does not mean that any of these agencies are still in business.By virtue of the fact emails don't bounce (or get returns as mailbox over-quota) I assume that they're still in use. I also assume that if people weren't interested, they'd unsubscribe. Anyway....You state that you know of many people who run RISC OS and are unaware of other RISC OS users and do not use RISC OS forums. Let us accept that there are indeed thousands of these people, rather than a figment of your imagination. Why don't you contact these people and inform them of the joys of OPro and ask them to contact David Pilling?Oh I do. I usually end up having a long chat with them, and point them to the various magazines, newsgroups and local usergroups in their area. However, this is the slow way of finding the RISC OS users - as it relies on them requiring help and happening to find my telephone number, which I imagine would also be a small subset of potential users.I know that you will not consider passing on the details of these people to David Pilling so that he can mailshot them (privacy etc), so why don't you make the first move? If there is any substance at all to your claims, then this might result in extra sales for OPro (RISC OS or Windows) and indeed any other software that is being developed for RISC OS.Will you (can you) do this, or have I called your bluff?Oh indeed. If David would like me to include an Ovation flyer in any of my mailshots, I'd be more than willing to include one. In fact, I just put a RISC OS Now flyer in with a batch of Orpheus re-subscription renewals, which I think resulted in about 4 new subscribers for RONow, just this week. :-) In fact, if David has a flyer as a document, I'll even print it out for him - can't say better than that. :-)
Paul,Your last statement is clear and unambiguous, which makes a change for you! David Pilling cannot complain at that one, but how many mailshots do you do, and to how many people? That is the big question.
Your other statements are not so clear, as are your methods of counting the number of people who might be interested in OPro. That email addresses are still extant and are not being un-subscribed does not make the owners of those addresses interested in RISC OS. They may, like people in many other areas of life, simply receive them out of a sense of nostalgia.
When you made your original statement that you knew that are thousands of prospective users for OPro, you didn't make it clear on what shaky grounds you were making that statement. For someone who is not used to your methods, it could have been taken that you knew of thousands of people, whereas what you really meant was that you have some (unquantified) number of email addresses that were at one time used by people who once had an interest in RISC OS. This does not equate to "thousands of prospective buyers of OPro".
Whilst you may interpret my postings as being anti-RISC OS rant, I would interpret your postings as a vain attempt to talk up the prospects of RISC OS without substantial backing. What is really needed is a proper marketing campaign built on solid ideas. I am not a marketing person and I have no ideas in that arena, but I do know that what you put forward is insubstantial fluff that is of no use whatever.
I do wish that something could be done about the situation of obtaining more interest in RISC OS. What RISC OS can do it does well and easily. I have no problems there, and if other people could see how easy it is to use RISC OS then they might be interested but (and it is a big BUT), once these people realise that there are many things that RISC OS cannot do because there is no software for these things, and that the hardware is not competitive in the modern world, then they will lose interest. Why buy a system which has to be cobbled and coaxed to do things that a Windows computer or Linux computer or Apple computer can do straight out of the box? That is the real problem and I feel that it is insurmountable, given the lack of development on the system, both software and hardware. While it is true that RISC OS Ltd are developing the desktop OS, where is the more powerful hardware to complement the OS?
But where is the push to come from, to get RISC OS to the point where it can compete with other systems?
One has to recognise that RISC OS is a commercial system. If the owners of RISC OS (whoever they are, I have lost track) are not mounting a sustained campaign of development of RISC OS and RISC OS hardware (which means ARM-based at the moment) and a sustained campaign of publicising the system then it indicates to most sensible people that the owners do not have much faith in their own product or perhaps they are not interested in the desktop market. The owners are not likely to lay out development costs unless they are confident of a return. This is normal commercial practice.
It may be that if RISC OS was open-sourced, really open-sourced, not the current scheme, then those few people of sufficient capabilities might be interested in developing the system, and one day it might have proper (powerful) hardware on which to run. From the comments that I have seen, I doubt that the current scheme will allow this to happen.
Now, Paul, if you wish to categorise my posting as an anti-RISC OS rant then so be it. It will indicate to me at least that you have lost the plot, as I think that I am in the camp of the realists. You can continue as you are, but I think that you are in the camp of the fantasists. Wanting something to happen will not necessarily make it happen. Saying that something will or can happen does not necessarily lead to that thing happening.
-- Regards, Phillip MarsdenFor quality bespoke acoustic guitars phillip.marsden@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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