Can someone tell me what in the world I've done wrong?

Question

Dear HN,Like many of you I am a dreamer for things like free software. I spent 7 months designing what I consider an ideal system package (called LibreStudio, see libre-studio.com) for distribution on a self replicating USB high speed thumb drive. So far I've not been able to get a single person to try it. I've only sold one copy on eBay. I never got feed back and I don't know if even he tried it. Perhaps he bought it thinking it was something else? So far I've tried putting it on a sales price, trying to give it away (could not even give it away.. lol). This is the sysytem I'm using now, I've been using it without any issue now for over 5 months. I've not had Windows on my computer now for over 4 years. So tell it like it is.. Please be as brutal as you can. Because nobody has honestly told me why this whole idea is pure crap yet. I can move on now, it's ok. Perhaps tech is something I was just never meant to be apart of.

marshman · Accepted Answer

I went through the page, but it's still not clear to me what problem it solves.
Also, I won't be keen to try something like that for the following reasons:
1.) When I want to try a different OS, I'm used to just downloading the ISO and spinning it up in a VM.
2.) No screenshots. I have no idea what I'm getting.
3.) I prefer to have my OS installed. And nowadays, installing an OS is not really that "painstaking" anymore, so that's not a feature I need.
4.) Having it on a flash drive that I can lose gives me an uneasy feeling.
I do, however, find the idea of it coming with books appealing. If the OS is really worth it, then it might be worth paying at least for the books. I miss the days that software came with physical user guides :)

geoah · Answer

It's not clear to me who this product is for and what you are getting for your money. Doesn't even mention the apps included. -- What problem are you solving and who has that problem? Reword and restructure the site to target them. -- You mention "studio" and music/animation/photo editing so you might be losing the moms ands aunts that wanna speed up their old laptop. -- There are many many live linux distros out there that you just install on a usb and you're done. Most are open source and from well known developers, you need to help people understand why anyone would pay for for your version.

pestatije · Answer

I'd say there's a mismatch between the product and its distribution.
So you want to sell USB drives with an all-integrated OS. The main specific target for that is someone with a computer but unable/unwilling to download a distro and write their own USB.
Someone in those circumstances is very unlikely to go: yeah, I'll look in the internet and see if I can buy a USB with a distro for my computer. They probably don't know it is even possible.
Now, if these drives show up in a flea market promising to resurrect your old computer... How does that sound?

ohiovr · Answer

Thank everyone for the advice. I've removed all domain renewals and the shopify website. Goodbye HN.

quantumofalpha · Answer

No product-market fit. Your target audience (FOSS enthusiasts?) does NOT like paying for software.