Letters

Mr. Searls, I've just read your article “Now what ...” in the April 2000 issue of Linux Journal.

My relations with salespeople have always been on the cool side. It has not mattered much whether the guy is trying to sell me something or if he is a colleague. And if sales guys get the fridge treatment, then marketing guys have been worthy of only the freezer technique.

I'd like to lodge a complaint. You are rocking my boat. You are moving my perspective. You are changing my world! I've been reading LJ for a couple of years and eyed this “marketing guy” who came onboard about a year ago with fear, uncertainty and doubt. Gradually that has changed, and I'm beginning to realize, “Hey! Maybe some of these marketing guys aren't so bad after all.”

I'm attending part of a Linux seminar next week. My boss okayed it immediately (when I reminded him of my request, that is)--a year ago, he would not even have considered it. It's not only the world of computers that is changing; it is the world. And, yes, we need marketing to achieve world domination, but maybe we can change the rules there as well. Articles like yours are changing the rules, attitudes and preconceptions.

Doc, you're all right.

—Stein Bjorndal stein@proact.no