[BlueOnyx:00282] Re: upgrading to BlueOnyx ?

[Steve Demore]

Michael,

Just to throw out another possibility for you.  I have been running RAQ/BQ for about 15 years, just to host my own website and have email for my wife and kids.  I would love to purchase ready made packages, rather than fight with figuring out how to make my own work, but there is $0 ROI in purchasing.  I have bought a few of the cheaper ones over the years, but some of these get quite pricey.  I am now a doctoral student, so money tends to get a bit tight at times.

When I bought my first RAQ3 and friends saw what I was doing, several of them did the same thing, so I know there are a lot of people in the same boat as me.  Perhaps a cheaper, non-commercial version of products would help to increase sales.  

We appreciate all that you do and would like to help support you, if we can.  Perhaps this is another untapped market that you could enter and help to offset your costs.

Good luck,
Steve 

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Stauber [mailto:mstauber at blueonyx.it] 
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 9:36 AM
To: BlueOnyx General Mailing List
Subject: [BlueOnyx:00279] Re: upgrading to BlueOnyx ?

Hi Michael,

> Now the only choice is Solarspeed, who I respect but with euro conversion
> it will cost me about $1000 to get spamassassin for 4 servers versus $200
> from Brian.  Michael any chance of a change to your price structure?
> Multiple server discount? Maybe charge for quarterly updates and charge
> separately for custom support or something.  If the price was a little more
> reasonable for a company running multiple servers I would do it.

Yes, I've always done discounts for bundle orders. Just contact me offlist and 
we can work something out.

Now the rest of this message isn't really directed at you, but the list in 
general. 

I probably shouldn't be telling this on a public list, but I think I have to 
go into more details here than previously mentioned:

Like said before, Solarspeed has been run fulltime by me since February 2002. 
Between 1998 and 2002 I was also "moonlighting" it while studying and later on 
also while on a regular 9-5 daytime job with two hours commuting each day. 
Those times where really hard and took a toll on me, so I really feel with 
Brian, who did run his "two jobs" for six years straight. That can really burn 
a person out and it is a tribute to his stammina that he managed it for that 
long and on this level. 

Now when I think back to the years 2002 or 2003, then those really were "the 
crazy times". The dotcom boom was still going heavily (although the painting 
was already on the wall that it wouldn't last). Back in those days both the 
software sales and the support business were going quite nicely. Somethimes 
there were days with 10, 20 or even 30 sales. Even if it were just "small" 
sales, it all added up nicely. Of course the USD <-> EUR exchange rate was 
also very favourable for US buyers back then. Like USD 1.00  = 0.63 EUR or 
thereabouts. Then came the big dotcom crash, Sun dumped Cobalt, ISPs were 
doing a firesale of their Cobalt servers and a successor of it wasn't readily 
available. Likewise, people were reluctant to invest any additional money into 
software for their aging Cobalts. When BlueQuartz came out and gained its 
footholds, things started to stabilize on a level which is a far cry from what 
it used to be in the past.

Nowadays the exchange rate is the other way around - on one hand. On the other 
hand: The number of straight software orders (meaning PKGs for BlueQuartz for 
example) I get has dropped to a level where I am unable to sustain my business 
with that. With that I not only mean: "It's not worth it, considering the long 
hours I have to pull". No, I simply mean: "Those few sales a month don't even 
pay the bills - period." And I'm living quite cheaply all things considered. 
Even doing a couple of straight "33% off on everything" firesales last year 
generated next to no sales, which was quite amazing. 

Had it not been through diversification like Aventurin{e}, support contracts 
and custom coding jobs, then my outlook today would be much different. There 
have been times during 2007 and 2008 when I was seriously contemplating to 
close shop as well (just like Brian did now - just for other reasons), but 
then - due to a mad strokes of luck, a lot of persistence and another very 
unfavourable loan - I've managed to stay afloat. 

Now while I try to keep my prices as fair as possible for everyone, there is 
only a certain amount of leeway that I can give - unless the volume picks up.

Now let us take a brief look at BlueOnyx: The groundwork for it was done 
between March and June 2008 - still under the BlueQuartz lable. I poured 
around 300 hours of work into it, but then had to set it aside as I could no 
longer afford the time to drag it to the finishing line.

When Brian and I gave it another go end of last year, I spent another 400 
hours into it 'til release, and there I'm not counting any of the hours that 
Brian spent on it last year. 

So in a typical company a fulltime coder would have needed half a year to get 
it done. Had this been a paid commercial project, the bill for it would have 
five digits - with a leading five. In Euros and before taxes. 

Still: BlueOnyx is given away for free and that will not change. Nor was it 
even contemplated to make it commercial to begin with.

Does this make sense from a business point of view? Of course not. 

Partially this is done in the hope that it'll re-vitalize the commercial side 
of things as well. Like generating new interest in the "Blue stuff", in 
software, migrations and support. Still, from a commercial point of view 
BlueOnyx can only be seen as a long term investments, as it'll take years 
until any add-ons sales will have (barely) recovered the development costs and 
efforts.

Of course I can see your point of views as well: You want an OS that supports 
your needs out of the box and don't want to have to spend too heavily on 
extras. That's only natural and I'd see it the very same way, too. 

However, on that we probably all have to make some compromises, or it won't 
happen.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber