ryan%neon-tetra@Sun.COM (Michael Ginn) (05/08/90)
You can help me show that a certain software distributer should feel
really embarrassed about something he said the other night.
He said that there aren't any fantastic programs out there which are
having problems getting distribution. He says if they're good, they almost
invariably get wide distribution.
I was having a beer the other night with a guy who is charged with
finding programs for a, shall we say, fairly large IBM PC software
distribution network. (This isn't a plug, I won't name names).
In any case, I told him the traditional software start-up sob story. You
create an awesome program, you try to get someone to distribute it, and nobody
will distribute it unless you have established a high volume. You won't get
high volume without a distributer, so it's a catch-22. You're dead in the
water.
He said this was a total lie. He's been searching for innovative, truly
useful horizontal-market applications for several years, and he hasn't found
any that aren't already selling like hotcakes. He said that small companies
like to blame their failure on unwilling distributers, but that in fact, he's
totally open to innovative programs-- there just aren't any around, as near as
he can tell.
Needless to say, I disagreed with him. But when he challenged me, I
couldn't come up with a single example of a program which is "uniquely much
more useful" than existing horizontal applications.
I was wondering if anybody out there has some specific examples of
fantastic horizontal-market programs which are having major problems because
nobody will distribute them. In order to win a couple of beers back, I need a
name and a description of the functionality that makes the program a lot
better than what's out there already.
Based on the tempers I've seen flare on this topic, I feel this is an
important meta-issue, so I'll post a summary unless people specifically
request that I not use the information they give me.
---Michael Ginn, ryan@sun.com
P.S. Needless to say, this message has no bearing upon Sun Microsystems.