Commercial port advocacy howto

[Douglas Loss <dloss@csrlink.net>]

I just finished the first draft of a commercial port advocacy howto (I forget
 who asked me to do that, but there it is).  I'm going to add it to the end
of this message, and I'd like to get some discussion on what needs to be
changed.  Some of the advice in it is only my opinion on what works best; if
anyone has better ideas or reasons why my advice isn't so good, let's hear
them please!  And now, the draft howto.

-----------------------------------------

This is my first try at writing a howto, so you'll have to allow me a little
leeway if this doesn't seem up to the normal standards of such things.  With
your help, we can refine this to address all the questions and caveats people
 will undoubtedly have about this attempt.  You can send any comments about
this to dloss@seul.org.

WHY WRITE THIS?

I read over all the other advocacy howtos for Linux that I could find.  They
were all addressed to convincing end users (either business or personal) that
 Linux could meet their needs on a day-to-day basis.  That's a very useful
thing to do, but it wasn't what I was looking for.  I wanted something that
would help me approach organizations making software for other platforms and
convince them to port their works to Linux.  Since I couldn't find any howto
concerning that, at the urging of a few others here at SEUL I decided to
write one.

In this howto I'll cover how to approach software companies and what
arguments may be most effective in convincing them to port their programs to
Linux.  I won't talk about trying to convince them to release their Linux
ports under open source licenses.  While that might be a good idea, I think
these things should be done in small steps.  Advocating a port to another OS
is much more likely to meet with interest that advocating "giving away"
product.

HOW TO CHOOSE COMPANIES TO APPROACH

First, you need to identify an area where Linux is deficient in programs.  I
wouldn't try to convince any company to port their web server to Linux.
There are plenty of such programs available.  I'd much rather use my time
trying to convince companies to port games or kindergarten through 12th grade
 educational programs to Linux, as there's very little of those types
available (none in the educational area, so far as I know).

Second, you need to identify companies that are most likely to be interested.
  I have no hard evidence of this, but I strongly suspect that your efforts
will meet more success if you concentrate on second-tier companies rather
that on market leaders in your chosen category.  I doubt that Disney or
Davidson and Co. would consider porting their educational programs nearly as
quickly as say, Soleil Software or Ohio-Distinctive.  Also, if a company
provides it's software for both Windows and Macintosh currently, it may be
more likely to consider supporting yet another OS than one that is exclusive
to the Windows or Mac world.  If all the companies in your target category
are Windows or Macintosh exclusive I'd try the Mac shops first, as a Linux
port would give them a much greater market expansion (on a percentage basis)
than it would a Windows-only company.

THE ART OF COLD CONTACTING

What you will be doing is known in the fund-raising business as "cold
contacting."  This means that your "target" company won't have know that
you'll be contacting it, and won't have been primed to hear your message.  A
1% response rate is considered normal.  We're going to do better than that.

In a sense all target companies will be slightly primed to hear about Linux
due to the remarkable amount of publicity it's been getting of late.  In that
 respect your contact won't be completely cold.  That's good.

The first thing to do is to identify someone in the company to contact.  It's
 always best (if possible) to identify an actual individual rather than a job
 title.  Depending on the size of the company and its organizational
structure, your best bet is the head of program development.  If that isn't a
 possibility, try for the head of whatever technical section the company may
have.  If _that_ isn't possible, read over whatever bios might be available
in the "about the company" section of the company's web site (they almost all
 have something like this) and pick the person who seem most likely to be
intrigued by Linux and to become an internal advocate for a Linux port.
Finally, if none of the above things works try contacting the head of the
company.  Incidentally, it won't hurt to contact more than one person in the
company if your bio research shows somebody other than the head of program
development as the most likely person to be interested.

Your initial contact should probably be via email.  First, email usually goes
 directly to the person addressed rather than being filtered through various
layers of the organization as postal mail and telephone calls are.  Second,
with email everyone starts equal.  Physical presentation and elocution don't
enter into the contact, so the logic of the message may be more apparent.

The subject of your message should be understated.  "Make Millions Easily!"
will just get your message deleted as spam.  Try something like "A good new
market for your programs," or "An overlooked market for your software."

The first sentence in your message should probably be a conditional apology
for sending the message to the wrong person if the person receiving it is the
 wrong person.  The next sentence should request that the message be
forwarded to the right person and that that person's email address be sent
back to you for future contacts.  This has a few effects.  The apology
establishes that you're not a know-it-all and that you are polite.  The
request reinforces the politeness and quietly lets it be known that this
won't be a one-time contact.  That's important.  It's a lot easier to blow
off a message if you don't think you'll ever hear from the writer again.

That brings up another point.  If things work out right, you won't be making
just a one-time contact with this company.  You will be signing up to be an
outside contact for them, a source of information about things Linux.  As
such, there are some guidelines to follow in all your contacts.  Be polite.
Be patient.  Be truthful.  Be helpful.  Stay apart from internal politics.

Be polite means responding civilly to all messages, even if you consider them
 insulting or moronic.  Remember, "A soft answer turneth away wrath."
Besides, it's just possible that you may have misunderstood the message.
Asking for a restatement of the message to clear up its meaning can't hurt.

Be patient means answering what you consider obvious questions calmly and
clearly, and answering them as many times as necessary.  Email isn't
real-time; you can take a jog around to block to cool down before answering
yet another, "But doesn't a Linux port mean we'd be expected to give our
products away?" message.

Be truthful means answering each question to the best of your ability, and
saying "I don't know" when that's the correct answer.  However, "I don't
know" is only the first part of that answer; "but I'll find out and get back
to you" is the rest of it.

Be helpful means going beyond just answering the immediate question and
trying to address the reasons the question was asked.  For example, one
company asked me how it could publicize the existence of a Linux port if it
did one.  I mentioned the standard places (comp.os.linux.announce, Linux
Weekly News, Freshmeat, Slashdot, Linux Journal).  Then I brought the
question up in the seul-dev-apps mailing list.  The discussion there
eventually started the development of the lu-news system [insert URL here].

Stay apart from internal politics means keeping a little distance between
yourself and your company contact.  However friendly your exchanges are, your
 role shouldn't be one of confidante but one of outside expert and advocate.
 You won't force the company into supporting Linux.  You can only make sure
they know about the opportunity and help them find the best way to take
advantage of it.

WHAT TO SAY

Okay, enough about what tone to adopt.  What do you _say_ to convince them
that the Linux community is worth porting for?  Here's what I did.

First, I explained as well as I could just who the Linux community is, and
why Linux users would be a receptive group for my target company's products.
 I very carefully didn't exaggerate, and made sure that I explained when my
figures were estimates rather than hard numbers.  If SEUL's research
questionnaire is a big success, we may be able to get the hard numbers we
need for market demographics, but till then we have to do our best.

Next I explained why I thought the Linux market would be good for the company
 to enter.

Then I laid out the ways in which the company's current program line could be
 ported to Linux.  I must say that I lean toward using Abacus Research &
Development Inc. (ARDI) Executor technology as a "wrapper" for Macintosh
binaries as the easiest and quickest way to do that, but WINE, the TWIN
library, and possibly the Mac Clone library are all possible tools to help
move programs to Linux without full-blown ports.  Incidentally, I cleared my
letter with ARDI before I mentioned any action that their engineers might be
able to take for the company.  You would lose credibility if the target
company acted on your recommendation, contacted someone like ARDI, and was
essentially told, "We don't know what you're talking about."

Finally, I ended with a personal note on why I was trying to convince the
company to port to Linux.  Here's a copy of my standard letter; don't copy it
 word for word, but feel free to adapt it's organization if you like:

MY STANDARD CONTACT MESSAGE

Dear Sir or Madam:

   If I've sent this to the wrong address in your organization, I
apologize; could you please forward it to the appropriate
person?  And could you let me know who that appropriate person is
so I can direct future communications to him or her?  Thank you.

   I know that [insert company name here] has fine educational
software programs for both the Macintosh and Windows PCs.
However, I'd like to speak on behalf of a computer community that
has heretofore been overlooked by the entire educational software
industry; the Linux community.  I'd also like to call your
attention to porting tools that can make moving Windows and
especially Macintosh software to Linux nearly trivial.

   Linux is the fastest-rising operating system in existence.
Although it isn't possible to give exact numbers of Linux users
(the operating system is freely downloadable from the internet),
the best estimates put the numbers at 6-7 million worldwide.
That's more than the worldwide total of OS/2 users and is near
(if not more than) the number of Macintosh users.  In addition,
these numbers should probably be in some part subtracted from the
Windows and Macintosh user figures, as almost all of the
computers Linux is used on initially had Windows or MacOS
installed.

   Just who are these Linux users?  They are primarily male,
technically educated, and in their early twenties.  The first two
traits are more standard than the last; Linux users range from
the teens to probably the mid-40s in age.  (I'm 45, so I had to
extend the range at least that far.)  This is a prime demographic
for the educational software market.  These are people who
generally have or will soon move into well-paying jobs in
technical fields, and who are often just starting families.
Linux users are usually not very patient with MacOS or Windows,
and so tend not to see or to consider software offerings for
those operating systems.

   To the best of my knowledge, there are currently _zero_
educational software programs available for Linux.  While many
Linux users will write their own programs if they can't find
anything to fit their needs, that has so far not been the case
with educational software.  This may be because Linux only
originated in 1991, and has only experienced explosive growth in
the last 2-3 years.  The market is completely open.

   This has only recently been noticed by the Linux community.
As more of us have young children, the awareness of the need for
educational software for Linux is growing.  I'm sure it will only
be a matter of time till someone begins to address this need.

   What is the easiest, most cost-effective way to enter this
market?  It's certainly not impossible to start from source code
and rewrite the operating-system-specific routines to work with
Linux.  That's what many Macintosh ISVs did when they wanted to
enter the Windows market.  However, there are easier ways.

   There are "wrapper" programs available for both Windows and
Macintosh programs, which enable them to run on Linux without
having to be rewritten extensively.  For Windows, there is the
TWIN library from Willows Software <http://www.willows.com>.  I
don't have any direct experience with TWIN, but the Willows
website gets quite specific on what Windows routines move across
cleanly and what ones need some touch up.

   For Macintosh programs, Abacus Research & Development, Inc.
(ARDI <http://www.ardi.com/>) has rewritten a substantial
fraction of the Macintosh OS and toolbox routines, and makes this
technology available in two different ways.  Executor is
available both as a Macintosh emulator for end-users and as a
porting tool for Mac ISVs.  Executor is available for Linux, DOS
and Windows.  A demo of Executor for Linux is included on the Red
Hat 5.1 Linux distribution, the most popular commercial
distribution.  The engineers at ARDI are fluent in Macintosh and
Linux and can evaluate how hard it would be to make a Linux
version of your Macintosh software.  In many cases it can be done
without your needing to change a single line of code.  A Linux
version of your program created in this way can easily fit on the
same CD-ROM as your Mac and Windows executables, thereby giving
you a three-OS program on one SKU.  The expenditure required to
open up this potentially lucrative new market is relatively
minor; certainly much lower than the cost of the ports many
companies made in expanding from the Mac-only market into the
Windows and Mac market.

   Finally, a personal note.  The reason I'm moved to write to
you proposing that you enter the Linux educational software
market is my 6-year-old son.  I run Linux because I can't in good
conscience support Microsoft in any way, and because I don't care
for Apple's extremely proprietary hardware and software.  If
there were good educational software available for Linux, I'd
snap it up.  I know I'm not alone; I've heard from other parents
every time I've mentioned the problem in various Linux forums.
There's a market out here waiting to buy your product.  Please
don't disappoint us.

THE FINAL INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGE

If you decide to take a turn at advocating commercial software ports to
Linux, remember that in so doing you're not acting as merely one individual,
but as a representative of our entire community.  I know we're more honest
than Microsoft; I like to think we're less self-satisfied than Apple; I hope
we're more generous in helping other users in need than any of the other user
 communities.  Show those qualities to the companies you contact--honesty,
humility, and helpfulness--and you stand a good chance of being successful.

--
Doug Loss            The time for action is past!  Now
dloss@csrlink.net    is the time for senseless bickering!
(717) 326-3987          Ashleigh Brilliant