[Desktop_architects] RE: [Lf_desktop] LF Desktop Linux Workgroup Conference Call - Minutes1/16

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier xonker at gmail.com
Fri Jan 18 05:42:38 PST 2008


On Jan 18, 2008 7:24 AM, Dave Neary <dave.neary at wengo.com> wrote:
> Plus: most people, I would guess, don't really want choice. Maybe I'm
> wrong here, but I don't know many people who feel that they're getting
> rodgered by having Windows on their PC. Plus, people already feel that
> they have choice - there is the Mac, after all.

<delurk>

Nope, most people don't care much about "choice" at all, which has
been one of the things I've had a hard time wrapping my head around
over the past 12 years that I've been paying attention to the Linux /
FOSS community.

The only thing that 97% of the population cares about is whether the
OS meets their needs, and isn't too horribly painful to use or
maintain. Choice, freedom, and community mean very little to most
users -- at least, in as much as I've found while talking to people
and trying to advocate Linux to people I know.

> What Free Software has going for it, more than any proprietary
> alternative, is freedom, choice, community. I was very happy to see the
> first slogans here targeting choice ("The third way" type messaging),
> but I have come to think that it's a weak message. I'd be much happier
> seeing us focus on freedom and community as the core message.

I think freedom and community are awesome things, but they don't
really appeal to most people that I've talked to.

Think about some of the typical folks who use computers to accomplish
a few set tasks like writing email, reading Web sites, messing with
digital photos and their media player, using video chat to talk to
friends or family, doing their checkbook and/or taxes, playing video
games like World of Warcraft...

How does "freedom" or "community" speak to those folks in a concrete
way? I don't think it does.

For those users, I'm not sure an abstract message about "Linux" is
going to really make a difference. A decent ad campaign around
specific Linux-based products that offer the features that they need
at a price-point they can afford, yes. Absolutely. But generic Linux
advertising is, at best, just going to muddy things.

At least, that's my two cents. I could be wrong.

</delurk>

Best,

Joe
--
Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier
Editor-in-Chief, Linux Magazine Media Group
jzb at zonker.net
http://www.dissociatedpress.net/


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