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Postings from August 2001
Selena Sol [selena@eXtropia.com] quoth: *> *>I disagree. I would agree with Stas Bekman that the biggest thing that can *>be done for Perl advocacy is to find a big company to get behind it. Well, if people think Sun and MS are the big bad exploiters of the market why would a company behind Perl manifest itself any differently? Companies spend advertising dollars on things that will make them money. *>Although I believe that you are right and that word-of-mouth recommendations *>are the best, I think that market legitimacy is the first criteria for most. It is very true that companies and IT departments pressed to choose between something with an 'enterprise support solution' and an 18 year old hacker who hangs out on IRC have a rather clear choice. However, having a company pushing Perl in the same manner as Sun pushes Java may come at a high price and I think the grass roots community that makes it what it is would evaporate rather quickly. *>I think most CIOs who must choose an "official" platform for their company *>do not even consider Perl because it does not "feel" legitimate to them. If you put Perl in a shrink wrapped box and sold enterprise level support it might be a bit easier to choose Perl in the corporate environment. It worked for RedHat. Again, I am not convinced that advocacy is something mere money can solve. It might help but people who use it, have a good experience and then talk about it or write about are is worth more than an ad in the Standard. The beginners mailing list is also doing a lot of good in helping people have a good experience to build upon. Attitudes take time and good experinces to change. I recommend reading Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" since it reminded me a lot of the Perl pantheon and open source mythology :) e.