[Linux-aus] Linux advertising ..the push to mainstream desktop acceptance?

[Andrew Donnellan]

On 6/8/06, Rohan M. <rohbags at purplesock.net.au> wrote:
> Thanks, and those people are already helping spread the word. Since I've
> told those newly converted Linux users that I'm looking at setting up a
> shop with some demo Linux PC's running and offering some arvo/night
> courses to teach Linux to the home users, I've had about 6 people call me
> up interested in learning more about Linux and free software. It's a great
> thing.

Great.

>
> Of course I'm prepared to commit money to advertising for my business, but
> when did you hear of a business designing and paying for the M$ posters
> you see in their stores? and again I know I could resale RHEL and get
> their marketing material just like M$ would offer, but I'm talking about
> free OS's for the average home users, sure RHEL is good for larger
> businesses, but not for home users.
>
> In this case, I would even be prepared to pay for the printing of material
> myself, but there is no material to be found to send to a printer. Thats
> more of a commitment that any other store would have to get their hands on
> M$ marketing material to put in their store.

How much does printing cost? Maybe if all the Linux-supporting
businesses in Aus got together we could make a big printing grant
request from Linux Australia.

>
>
> > Often volunteer groups are more informal about advertising because, as
> > you are finding, it is quite easy to have a fulsome load of work using
> > just word of mouth. There are some wikis that you can post your
> > activities to and linuxau folk are interested in case studies to use to
> > promote the kind of linux in the community projects youre talking about.
> >
> Could I get a link to the wikis and where would the Linuxau folk like the
> info sent. I'll get a bit more organised and send something more formal
> explaining the conversions if you'd like.
>
> Just as a note, from my experience I have found there is two types of
> computer users, those who care about their OS, and those who dont. Every
> person I have converted to Linux for their home desktop has been over 45
> years of age, only just been using a computer for 3 to 5 years(approx),
> and didn't even understand what a virus was let alone why it was in their
> system.
> They were all basic computer users with very little knowledge of how to
> use windows.

Just goes to show - Linux isn't harder, just different.

>
> The other type of user who does care about their OS is alot harder to
> convince to go Linux, and even when you get them to go for a dual boot
> setup often they have habits that are hard to break and they go back to
> windows for even the most simple things - they are what I call 'ms
> brainwashed'. No disrespect to them but they think they are smart but they
> can't adapt to anything that isn't windows, or they just refuse to. They
> are a hard market to crack.

This is a big problem - if you want to convince experienced users,
they must be experts or else they will be stuck.

>
> Like I said those who happily went Linux were 45+, and if you asked them
> about computers they would say "..hate the bloody things" or "..can just
> turn 'em on and off and thats it!". They are they type who would typically
> take their pc to the dump when it doesn't turn on or starts to play up,
> and would go to harvey normal to buy a new one. I have even converted one
> lady to Linux who's husband used to get so sick of her complaining about
> the windows machine playing up that one day he literally threw the pc out
> the door, then shot it with his shotgun (and no I'm not kidding!). That

Ouch.

> lady has happily been using Linux for over 18 months now and even her kids
> (ages 17, 20, 22) play games on the KDE desktop.

Yep.

> > There is a group called OSIA which you can join if youre a business
> > aiming to work in the open source sector.
> > http://www.osia.net.au/
> >
>
>
> >> I have an opportunity to open a shop in the rural areas of Darwin soon,
> >> and of course I'm going to be pushing Linux as much as possible (no M$
> >> posters in this shop!... I want Tuxes!). So far I haven't been able to
> >> find anything in the way of advertising and/or marketing for Linux thats
> >> as free and open as Linux itself.
> >
> > What specifically are you aiming to sell.
> > This will help to make it clear whether a standard poster will help you
> > or whether you need posters saying that you are purveying x service at x
> > per hour and have a special coming up for new users.
> >
> Basically I'm a fedora core and gentoo guy, so I'm familiar with them and
> easiest for me to support. I'm not looking for anything stating 'x service
> at x per hour' or specials or anything like that, just stuff advertising
> the distros them self (say gentoo and fedora). Even something generic
> about the Linux kernel or the GNU/free software movement itself.

Hmm...it would be easy enough to make a print ad up in Xara
(http://xaraxtreme.org) or Inkscape. Just get the distro logos, make
some sort of slogan, add background etc., nothing too difficult.

>
> > Do you have good knowledge of specific distributions which you would
> > like to promote?
> >
> I would have to say Fedora would be my main push (only because I'm most
> familiar with it) but even if i cant find material to promote Fedora Core
> as a distro something to promote Linux would be good enough.

I tend to promote Debian.

>
>
> > There are some nice posters available from ELX such as
> > This one is very nice, informative and also generic.
> > http://www.elx.com.au/item/anatomyposter
> >
> Yeah elx have lots of cool stuff and thats a cool poster for sure. I
> looking  for something the average consumer walking past a store would see
> and let them know there is an alternative.

That poster is an 'internals' poster, not something a first time user
would look at.

>
>
> > There is some chat and links to resources here:
> > http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/guerrilla-marketing/
> >
> >> Does anyone know of a community project or the like that is making
> >> available advertising and marketing materials for generic Linux use?
> >
> > Specific software projects and distributions will often have materials.
> > http://drupal.org/node/10769
>
> > Tux is available as a vector you can print out.
> > http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/
> >
> Thanks for the link, I guess if it come down to it I'll make my own up
> using tux and some cool slogan and see what happens. But would it be
> better if there was some kind of community project (Australian or other)
> that was making available adverts and material to promote Linux in
> general.

Maybe someone could register something like linuxadvertising.org or
similar, set up a wiki and use that.

>
> > Based on your email you have some good case study examples for
> > groups at the market running linux, and the people you are working with?
> > Would it not be good to chat with them to produce a fact sheet which
> > talks about a funky market stall using linux put them on your website as
> > pdf files and share costs in the printing so that youre promoting both
> > of your businesses? Same could apply to people if youre doing lots of
> > support for people you could ask them if it is ok to do a factsheet
> > about what they think about using linux and what they feel they are
> > learning or gaining in the process?
> >
> Great ideas, really great ideas, thanks! I can think of two in particular
> that would be great case examples. It may take me a little while to find
> the time to complete them but I'll post a link to the linuxau list when
> they are finished.

OK, sounds good. :)

andrew

>
>
>
> >> www.purplesock.net.au
> > Cute website. =)
> Thanks :)
>
> > Was wondering which open source software project
> > the paypal link contributes to?
> >
> I'm still trying to move bits and pieces from others sites to my main
> purplesock.net.au one (actually I'm still trying to finish the website
> itself). Mainly the paypal link is for the xmltv grabber I developed and
> have been maintaining for over 4 years (tv_grab_au). The grabber has
> actually been re-developed 3 times dues to legal 'hassles' from web sites
> such as ebroadcast.com.au, HWW and au.tv.yahoo.com etc. Those who use
> xmltv (freevo and mythtv users) would probably know how much of a pain in
> the butt it has been to maintain that tool over the years. I have recently
> completed a 'tv_grab_au_rage' which just grabs detailed data for rage each
> week and a updated 'tv_grab_au' plus a 'tv_grab_au_other' which grabs much
> cleaner detailed data from a website which doesn't want me to use as a
> source. There are still a few things I need in place before I release the
> new 'au_other' grabber and its holding back the 'au_rage' version.
>
> The most current information about the grabber can be found here
> http://www.onlinetractorparts.com.au/rohbags/xmltvau/ although thats just
> a quick page I slapped up there about a year ago when I last *had* to
> change data sources (its a long, long story). Apparently googling can find
> links to the emails between myself and yahoo a&nz and ebroadcast that were
> posted on that onlinetractorparts.com.au site for a short while.
>
> I am also working on a few freevo mods/plugins as well as a lot of old
> programs Ive wanted to release for a while. I am also working on some
> other projects that I hope to release very soon.
>
> The site is unfinished and the 'projects' and 'examples' sections are
> waiting to be completed. I'm sorry if the paypal request and an empty
> projects section put you off at all.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rohan.
>
>
>
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> linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au
> http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/linux-aus
>


-- 
Andrew Donnellan
http://andrewdonnellan.com
http://ajdlinux.blogspot.com
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