Alan Hodgson wrote: > On Thursday 18 January 2007 15:54, Steve Atkins <steve@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Anyone else get spam from EnterpriseDB today, talking about > > "Postgresql Support Services"? > > > > yep. You really would think that even the marketing weenies might know > better by now. I do think that the unsolicited email was not an effective marketing technique at all. Yet, I do not consider it on the same level as "SPAM" (even though it may fit that description) because I understand that many of the developers at that company are actively contributing to PostgreSQL. The reality is that postgres _is_ open source which makes it difficult to create a viable business model because most people will just download postgresql for free and get support on the mailing lists. What I think it suggests is that the company is having some financial difficulties. The sad thing is that in order for PostgreSQL to remain competitive, it probably needs paid developers working on it. Oracle and the rest have teams of professionals working on their RDBMS software 8 or more hours per day. It is naive to think that someone coming home after work spending 2 hours a day can compete with a professional team working full time. I think a good business market would be PostgreSQL hosting. Solaris 10 with PostgreSQL on a Zone. Maybe another server with OpenBSD. They could then upsell their support to those hosted sites that have growing traffic. As for mass emailing, I think instead they should create a newsletter they send out to subscribers. It could be filled with useful tips and ideas (at the bottom they could provide their contact information and services provided). This way, people would look forward to reading their material and have positive associations of the company. Just my 2 cents Regards, Karen
