New Prepub Request - Logos for Linux

Bob,

Put a Logos "Pre-Pub" up for Linux version - I bet you will get a much different response.

If I'm wrong - you've wasted not much time and even less money.

I think a DOS type of program would be nice - but I guess the old Logos 2.0 version wouldn't work with the newer books - if it would it would enable lots of those little Linux netbooks to work like the eePC and MSI Wind.

Why not, Bob, put up a pre-pub - if your old Logos 2.0 code was written in some sort of language that can be recompiled easily to Linux (there are lots of compilers out there - python, C, C++, perl, ruby, etc.

If it works and you make even enough money to pay for the work it will open up a new market - the missionaries will want ALL the nice books and the parishioners would want a few books.

Then again, if the interest is few, you haven't invested more than a few electrons on your web page.

If it really kicks off, and you can make it pay - those people are happy, and it probably will open up a new market.  I'm sure if you sold 50,000 copies of one book and the Linux software you'd be happy - not to mention the public relations bonus of being THE company who opened up the small Linux netbooks that are to be distributed in the 3rd world.

It sounds like a good solution.

WINE is good but it is a large program - a native program with cut down features with low memory requirements would be the way to go in my opinion.

Why not ask your head of programming if the old Logos 2.0 program can be ported or re-compiled.  If it can, then some of the early Logos books can be used.

Maybe also you might have "how much would you be willing to pay for this" option to see if that would make it profitable.

Give it a try - it doesn't have to be the bells and whistles of Libronix - it can just be good old Logos 2.0 which was very fast even on Windows 3.0.

And if it doesn't get much attention - you'll have a perfect link to show us - "Hey, too few wanted it" - but untested waters may prove to be a different depth than you or I think.

Of course, I'm hoping for deep waters - but it may very well turn out to be the 1% your research says.  I can eat humble pie - if I bring  enough ketchup and soy sauce!

Best

David

The pre-pub could include the KJV and Strong's numbers modules.

I'd pay $150 for a copy of a Linux version of this program.

I'd contribute $250 if LOGOS would buy one of the small OLPC laptops - and include a copy of the Linux LOGOS program and send it to a missionary in need of such who is working in the field.  In fact, I'd give $150 plus the cost of the small Linux laptop plus airmail to the missionary - that would be better.

For years missionaries have wished for such.  The small netbooks that are being released are very efficient - and can be powered by a combination of a solar panel and their internal battery for hours.

The Zip-It Internet device has great potential - it is $50 or less.  See http://hunterdavis.com/archives/201#more-201

Using Codeweaver or WINE means that larger laptops have to be used.

If some of the programmers who wrote the Logos 2.0 code are still around, they might be able to port their work to Linux - these small machines could use that size program - and the Logos 2.0 code was very very fast and small - no bloat.

No one will ever know unless such a proposal is hoisted up the flagpole.

Put a price of $150 up there - make a X-Windows version of the code and a console version (even if simpler) of the code.  Blind people often like console programs because they don't have to play "Pin the Mouse on the Window" by blindly moving the mouse around.  With a console program (think DOS programs like WordPerfect) the commands are all key strokes. - and screen readers can read console - and do so with very little memory use.

Of course, if you're talking about a full-blown Linux desktop like Gnome (which is excellent) - their handicapped extensions managed by Orca will read and magnify everything very well.

Bob, try it - put $150 for the price - or even $200.  How many will it take to justify development? 1,000 or 2,000 - that would be $400,000 at the higher numbers - I'm guessing that the work could be done and profitably (which is a good thing).  Without profit, you cannot make the trip to market and we all suffer the loss.

Maybe a few more books could be added for that price - or a "gift" certificate could be included for some books.  It sure would be nice to have.

I'm guessing that while Linux might have an overall market share of 1%, in this particular market, it may well be significantly more - or there might be hundreds of users who would make the leap to Linux if everything they needed was available there.

Linux has Firefox, OpenOffice which is Microsoft Office compatable, GIMP which is like Photoshop, Inkscape like Illustrator - plus there are many ARTISTIC programs in Linux which do NOT have an equal in Windows or MAC - I was amazed when I learned this.

Plus Linux still has a console - and as I said blind users and computers with low horsepower just love the console.

Why not run it up the flagpole?  I don't want you to do it if you cannot make a profit - that would be suicidal - but perhaps the market is larger than you might expect because you are dealing with a niche within a niche.

As I said - I'd pay twice the price if you could give the program to a missionary organization - that would double your money flow - perhaps put that as a sub option - and if it is checked it means "twice the number of copies sold".

It doesn't cost much to put it up on pre-pub - and the idea does have its supporters.  Perhaps a missionary organization will say "I'll buy 2,000 if they will run on a small Linux laptop" - who knows!

Be well,

David

Bob Pritchett said:

That's a great idea, and I'd do it if I thought there was even remotely enough interest.***

-- Bob

Bob,

Why not try a pre-pub announcement for a small Linux Logos set of books at a price of $200?

You already said you'd do it if there was enough interest.

This is a chance to do a real market survey - it a necessary part for any intelligent business plan.

It might very well be another source of revenue for Logos / Libronix.

But without trying to fly such a pre-pub, you'll really never know because few people read this forum compared to those who receive your email announcements o pre-pubs.

I've bought a few of the pre-pubs myself, and I'd like to buy this.

Be well,

David

MJ Smith,

That's a wonderful idea.   That's one of the points of a "sub thread" I introduced in this discussion - the revolultionary change in publishing - it's happening as we speak with the newspapers.  I want decent, honest, balanced media that's searching for the truth - and willing to bring me all the facts.  I'll pay for it.  I live in a town where the better of two newspapers doesn't confine its editorial position to the editorial page, but it creeps in and constantly slants the reporting, the other doesn't meet my needs - so my needs go unfulfilled.  There is a distant paper that doesn't circulate here (who's circulation is growing by leaps and bounds) that I cannot get except by mail, and still it doesn't cover the local area.

This is part of the information revolution - it involves all types of media and how we access it.  If I have a budget of $XXXX a year I'd rather pay vendors of information premium prices rather than operating systems.  I have Linux and it runs rings around Windows 7 Release Candidate - even though Win7 is quite stable -at least with minimal programs installed.  Unfortunately Windows OS still allows vendors of software modification abilities to change the DLL files which often conflict with other programs, slowing down the computer, or even crashing it.  With Linux this doesn't happen, nor does Linux suffer fragmentation hard drive problems because the ext3 file system was built to avoid that problem.  Plus I get access to thousands of programs that do what I want, and if I want to modify them for my use, I can.

The focus is going to be on content and how we access it.  If LOGOS can produce an engine (perhaps in perl, ruby or java) that will run platform independent, they win.  If they can allow me to buy content over the Internet and open it efficiently with my PDA, cellphone, desktop, laptop - or even a reading appliance of some type, they'll be the winner.  Content will be cloud based and available for purchase.  The engines that perform actions on the content will be in the reader.

Thanks MJ,

I really hope Bob is still reading this - there are some excellent ideas worthy of his consideration - and hopefully with some market  research he will continue to lead the way in electronic books and expand it (hopefully) to be the format of choice for all electronic media - or at least produce a reader that will handle all formats - and the market will see how much better his format is.

A platform independent program to process the media on the reader (computer, pda, cellphone) would be perfect - but make sure we have a Logos "buy it here" button.

Be well,

DR

Note:  I sent Bob a CC: of the submission here by direct email as it seemed that he hadn't been able to read this thread.  I made my best pitch concerning this, and he (in the email below) gave me his best answer.  I'm sharing it with the other readers of this thread.

Most often the first few exchanges - or even just the first message carry most of the importance of the discussion.

I know (and hope) that he is busy producing his continued excellent product, and I thank him for the time and thought he has given to this.

Best wishes,

David Ring

from Bob Pritchett <-------@logos.com>

to David Ring <------@arrl.net>

date Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 7:37 PM

subject RE: Bob Bob Bob - Good Morning - Bob Bob Bob

Sent at 7:37 PM (6 hours ago)  

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but based on our Mac porting experience, we're looking at costs between half and a million dollars to port to Linux. (Our application is very large, with millions of lines of code.)

At $150 per copy, we'd need to sell between 3 and 6 thousand copies. Moreover, we'd have to front the half million or more before we finished and were able to collect the sales.

It's possible that it'll be easier to do this once we finish our next generation Mac application, but we're still working on that.

It's also a massive distraction. We'd need to hire Linux developers (which we've never done), and we'd have to buy new equipment, etc. We'd have to hire and train customer service reps on Linux. (It's easy to find call center staff with Windows or Mac experience. Linux tends to be used by technical people with technical jobs, not customer service.)

And then this would have to be the single best selling product in our history (unlikely), and LInux users -- people who self identify as fans of "free software" -- would have to pay $150 to get it. If we made it free, like everyone would expect (the way our Windows engine is free), we'd have to sell MORE copies so we could pay book royalties and cover development costs.

Sure, we could put it on pre-pub. We could put building a rocket ship on pre-pub to. As soon as we get pre-orders for $500 million we can start building the rocket. (I'm not being ridiculous -- you probably can build a private rocket for $500 million.) The problem is, it's unlikely we have or can get enough customers to make that work, and it would be a distraction in the meantime.

At some point, if Linux continues to gain share on the desktop, we WILL survey our users on this, just as we did with the Mac. But at this point it seems like a waste of time.

(I'd like to point out that the Mac has a number of Bible software packages, proving there's a paying market. There is no paying market for Linux Bible software right now that I can tell, and, in fact, the free projects don't seem to get much help.)

Sorry!

-- Bob

I guess the biggest problem is that for some reason Linux doesn't do encrypted media very well - but in Logos the media isn't encrypted.  It is the license key and that engine.  I see no reason why Logos programmers can't make that bulletproof.

By the way Linux is bulletproof.  I never have problems with Ubuntu or Debian.  It runs for days and days and days without freezing up.  I can do everything I can with Windows and even more - except for borrowing audio books that have digital rights management on them.

There is hope though, Logos is supposedly working on putting all our books on a remote computer and having any platform access them.  Hopefully this will also allow the remote missionary to get his books when he has Internet and to access them forever after.

My other alternative is going Mac - which is also Unix based.  But if I bought Mac, I'd have less money to spend on books from Logos :-)

David