My experience is that data-driven companies get into self-reinforcing circles:
- Data shows not a lot of customers use Linux
- Which leads to poor Linux support
- Which leads to not a lot of customers using Linux
That's not specific to this either. I've seen companies discount continents of people due to lack of customers on those continents, which was often due to inanely easy-to-solve problems. But if you only have 0.1% of your market in China, why bother with servers which are inside the Great Firewall? If 0.1% of your population is Spanish-speaking, why bother with i18n?
Data driven companies have an inherent bias towards /current/ customers, and away from /potential/ customers....
Isn’t there some saying about analysts and how they often tell you what’s already the case, but almost never tell you what’s possible? I feel like that applies here.
- Data shows not a lot of customers use Linux
- Which leads to poor Linux support
- Which leads to not a lot of customers using Linux
That's not specific to this either. I've seen companies discount continents of people due to lack of customers on those continents, which was often due to inanely easy-to-solve problems. But if you only have 0.1% of your market in China, why bother with servers which are inside the Great Firewall? If 0.1% of your population is Spanish-speaking, why bother with i18n?
Data driven companies have an inherent bias towards /current/ customers, and away from /potential/ customers....