Author: Sune Fischer
Date: 14:32:37 04/06/04
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>There is no way that figure is correct, unless you count the web servers that >people connect to. I often see these commically overblown figures quoted. They >are rather funny. Walk into any computer store. What do all the computers have >installed on them? Hint: It's not Linux. Linux will never be the desktop for >the coporate world precisely because the Linux community thinks that the world >is composed of computer geeks. Not all Linux users are geeks, in fact many of them are quite ordinary people. It's not impossible and it does not require geekness to get working. >>The problem is most people are just not aware of the high quality engines you >>can download for free. If they were I think it would hurt sales of the >>commercial engines. Marketing is everything here, and nobody markets the free >>stuff. > >It will have no impact at all on the commercial products. A commercial chess >program has the engine as a tiny fraction of the work, and the commercial >engines are all stronger than the best free ones. They are also more reliable. B.S. Marketing is their main force. Playing Garry really puts your name out there, having a box placed in every computer and toy store sells automaticly. Free engines are for those who know what they are looking for, you don't just stumble on them by coincidence. I also disagree the engine is a tiny fraction, I'm pretty sure the engine is the main selling point. Strength only matters to the really serious players, this demanding group will probably buy the commercial products because they have better engines, not because their GUI has more eye candy. >>That is now your worst criticism? >>I suggest they download SCID which is all so free. > >But the games stored in it are crap compared to a commercial system. Even after >a careful cleansing of the free database systems that you can download, you will >find 50 different spellings for Fisher or Kasparov. Remember Dann, we are dealing with people here who aren't able to install from CD's and edit a txt file. I can practicly promise you they won't care much for the quality of the database either :) Good players will need the best of course, they are the ones who should be purchasing the commercial products. >>The average user can then make do with what comes pre-installed in Arena, which >>is also plenty for the un-interested idividual anyway. > >Actually, that's not such a bad idea. It's not nearly so good as a commercial >system, but it will be far easier for them than Winboard. Yeah, that's my point. There is so little difference beside perhaps the strength of the engines. And Ruffian 1.0.5 comes in that bundle so it's not exactly weak. The question is how many of these techno-phobes who doens't know what a path is will actually care if they are using Ruffian or Shredder? I think not many, hence there is little need to buy a commercial product. The best would be for them to start out with the free stuff, and if these do not satisfy their needs then they can spend their money on a stronger package. It seems the process acts in reverse, they first buy the commercial stuff and later discover they could have saved some money :) >>Supporting the winboard engines is just a bonus, something the user should be >>happy about! >>The Fritz GUI is just being cruel to the users expecting them to fiddle with >>adaptors. > >They make a few open source engines available. Most users won't care what >engine that they play. Right! :) >>Perhaps that is why you are so negative, you have been around the worst of the >>worst and think this represents the average user. > >The system I supported was very much like Winboard. You had to edit >configuration files. It was called G-Wiz graphics and used a driver set called >the GSS*CGI from Beaverton Oregon. The operations you had to do to operate the >system were very nearly equivalent to what you have to do for Winboard. > >>Have you any idea how many who _didn't_ need to call technical support because >>they figured it out on their own? > >No clue. Probably about half [wild guess]. I did programming and even sales as >well. It was a small company (10 people). The reason I brought it up was to >point out that I was speaking from experience. Yes I knew you were, just asking you to keep the perspective. :) >>If you don't know these techniques, don't worry about playing with a chess >>program, worry about taking a computers 101 course! > >A bazillion users of chessmaster did not have to take a computer course to use >it. Probably these people has needed help to get the internet and the new sound card to work. Then they can get someone to show them how to edit a text file too. >That is why they sold 5 million copies. And if people have to edit text >files, that product will not sell 5 million copies. That is not why they sold 5 million. Try and stop marketing the product, take it off the shelves and put it on a free download on some geocity machine using a different name. It is still chessmaster, it is still as good as ever. Will it get many downloads, no, because nobody knows what it is and nobody knows where to find it. "Branding" is the world we live in. -S.
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