Linux Wizard

Last time I talk about the Xtreem OS. As we could see, there were very few communication/PR about this on Mandriva website. This complete lack of communication from Mandriva about theses R&D projects is very strange. Nothing on Planet Mandriva, or in english linux news site like Linux Today, Linux.com, OSNews or LWN.net. If you want to see the different R&D Mandriva projects, have a look at Mandriva R&D page. This page is very well hidden as you can't see it from the Mandriva website front page. First you need to enter in the Pro section of the website, and then in little letters mostly invisible at the bottom, you will have the link to the R&D page. Don't expect to have after dedicated pages on the Mandriva website detailing these projects, or having news or further informations notably in the PR page ... only the minimum is done. So for everybody visiting the Mandriva corporate page, Mandriva is only doing a Linux distribution ( One and PowerPack ) and a Flash key ( Mandriva ).

If you look in the enterprise section, you will see things about Mandriva Corporate Server, Pulse ( is it a CLI or a GUI thing ? no screenshot ), and Mandriva Directory Server ( vs Linagora LinID ).

Suppose that you want to know the products containing Mandriva Linux products. Indeed, are the products from Mandriva use somewhere in the world ? Have a look at the OEM page ... Ok, you have pretty nothing. If you want more informations you need to send an email. But do they talk about what they can provide to OEMs ? IIRC, Mandriva is able to provide support ( vs Linagora support page ) and Consulting, custom Linux distribution and UI ( Mandriva Mini, tailored systems for computers/netbook ( Mandriva mini ) but also media centers solutions ( TouchDiva ), distribution and e-commerce channel ( store.mandriva.com/ ). Mandriva is sold in products like Hercules eCafe, EMTEC Gdium, however you have nothing about this. If I were Mandriva, i would have done the following :

• Reorganize the Mandriva Corporate site : End-user but also enterprise solutions should be promoted. R&D projects should be more visible and the link should be put in the front page.
• Visual : if you browse Mandriva website, you will noticed that you have few images. No images or diagram to illustrate the Mandriva products. It's as if you were selling a laptop or a camera without providing an image and by just providing a minimal technical sheet. Sorry but in modern world with high speed internet connection, people want to see image, video or hear audio ( podcast ) about the products you want to sell.
• References : When looking for example at Oracle or Microsoft pages, each time and for each of their products, they have references/testimonies from customers or known IT consulting companies like Gartner. Show that your product is known, used, and that your costumers are happy. Check also Linagora website.
• How do you compare : How does your product compare with other equivalent products ? What do you provide that others don't have ?
• "Veille technologique" : What do I mean by this french word ? I mean that your PR department should follow the big news sites ( Linux ones, but also general computers ones, and even news site ), but also big bloggers. A new buzz ? a FUD against Linux ? A new product ? Someone willing to ditch Linux after using distribution X ? Show how mandriva does positioned itself concerning this : react. Hype about cloud-computing ? show that Mandriva is involved in grid-computing. Linux on mobile ? Androïd hype ? show that Mandriva is in Moblin project and want to bring Linux further in the Mobile market with a big experience with the Mandriva Flash product. ARM based netbook ? show/tell that Mandriva is shipped on MIPS based netbooks. This could be an official PR, a mail dropped to the site editor or journalist, a demo products sent. A task force could be also done with the community where some communities users could be doing this for their own countries. At local levels, MUG could be involved. MUG can also be a commercial and marketing power ... by just talking about Mandriva, by just monitoring news and events at their local level.
• Communicate : encourage your dev to talk about their projects or what they are doing. You may have the best products in the world, if you don't tell it, nobody will know it and use it. 1 hour each week could be dedicated just for this. Now with blogs, social networks like Facebook or Twitter/identi.ca, this may help create the buzz.
• Marketing/ads : you should know about what you want to communicate. Price ? easy to use ? Powerful ? ubiquity ? features ? ecology ? new way of thinking ? new capitalism ? low end ? luxe ? Minimal publicity should be done in magazine, and please avoids as much possible doing publicity/advertising in Linux magazines or websites ... This is important to be known by Linux users, but you may want to go further ? Wall Street journal, Challenges, NY Times, Le Monde, Liberation, etc ... Users are reluctant to buy linux netbooks because they don't know Linux and feel more comfortable with Windows. At least Mac is known, so they can eventually buy it. Do people remember these stickers seen on some products ? "seen on Tv".

Please note that this article have been written 3 weeks ago. As of today, Mandriva corporate start page have changed, and it's way more easy to find the R&D page.