IBM's New Linux Advertising

Amit Shah writes "IBM is airing a commercial featuring Linux as reported on Economic Times. This could be the first major way to reach out to normal users and explain the benefits of open source and Linux. The ad says, "Collecting data is only the first step toward wisdom, but sharing data is the first step toward community""

Comments

I was promised flying cars...

[soren42]

For my money, I don't know if it gets any better than the IBM Linux ads that Avery Brooks did... particularly memorable was the ad that went something like "In the early ninties, a Finnish college student named Linus Torvalds develops a new operating system, and then he does something remarkable - he gives it away."

That and "Where the flying cars? I was promised flying cars!"

First Linux commercial?

[Faust7]

Perhaps it's just that I don't have cable (3 channels that I'd watch out of 60 doesn't justify $45/month) but this is the first I've heard of real Linux commercials. Things in print are fine, but everyone knows TV advertising is as kingly effective as it's always been in getting stuff to sell.

Any information on whether there have been mass Linux commercials before this? We may be witnessing the beginning of a new era of Linux advertising. Marketing, marketing, marketing--we make fun of the people that major in it, and even more fun of the people that work in it, but it's certainly one of the biggest factors that helped propel Microsoft to the very top of the software heap. With a someday-equivalent force of marketing behind it, could Linux perhaps finally obtain the financial and spiritual backing it needs?

Sharks

[Alizarin Erythrosin]

The esteemed P.J. over at Groklaw had an interesting analogy related to this IBM campaign:

AntiFUD is an important part of this battle, which is why IBM is launching an advertising campaign about Linux. But legally they're like circling sharks. Not a sound. Just water rippling ever so slightly on the surface, a brief glimpse of a fin, as they slowly circle. Until it's time to lunge.

I'd like to add to it by saying that SCO is that loud mouthed kid who's splashing around in the water yelling obscenities and other unpleasantries at the sharks, almost daring them to attack.

Re:Want to see the AD ?

[Aadain2001]

Damn, that gave me goose bumps :)

Does that make me weird, sad, or both?

Re:Linux. The Future is Open. IBM.

[ihatesco]

How naive. It's really simple. IBM is trying to rake in a few billion selling software they don't have to pay for.

Not totally true. If they want to sell it as a service then they have to test it TWICE or THREE TIMES than the usual since they can't trust that a single patch don't go over someone else's IP or don't start overwriting the system in an erratical way, trashing everything on the customers system. Still they have to pay a good deal for Quality Assurance.

I don't know what's giving you a warm fuzzy feeling. It's not charity. They're not "supporting the community", they're simply saving tens of millions on software development by letting gullible, naive college kids work for free.

Naive college kids certainly lack the interest to support exotic hardware like IBM's S/390. Also "Naive" college kids usually want MORE to haxx0r the neighbour box or to enter on teacher's pc and change their votes. I know this because I am still a CS student. (No, I am also working in the meanwhile).
Less naive college kids instead want to collaborate on the linux kernel, the gnu system or whatever other project (bsd, reactos, xfree, their own videogame emulator) because:
a) it is a system they use and they want it to work well for them,
b) they want to gain more expertise in security or programming in a certain language, or simply make that grade in the "Operating System Course",
c) they maybe are doing it as an hobby, since they otherwise would get bored with other hobbies,
d) maybe they also hope for a "head hunter" to notice their work, OR to be able to use their software for a private, succesful infrastructure on which they can sell support (see VALinux's Sourceforge for an example).

Helping the opensource community is a balanced act between greed and helping people, between learning and teaching.

It's the same thing that happens at my local food co-op. The food co-op plasters the word "community" on everything, and people stand in line to "volunteer" there. The co-op is a business, and they're just using the same kind of gullible, naive people to work for free for them. Same fucking thing. Fuck it. Labor is expensive.

Yes, labor is so expensive that you have to buy retarded software that helps your business to be competitive by cutting jobs, and sending people with 3 or 4 children to the land of the joblessness.
I bet that at least your local food "co-op" doesn't teach your children that treating people like a mop is rightful a thing to do. Hell, It looks like we got back to the time of the ancient romans, who used to have a philosopher that said that "slaves were talking tools".
Yes, let's go back to the Roman Empire, where if you didn't worship the empereor you were sent to the arena to be eaten by Lions while we are at it.

Maybe I'll convert my business to a "co-op", and let the "community" "volunteer" to run my business while I sit in the back raking in the money.

Why not start a TacoMcStarbucks instead? More or less the it is the same greedy business than a food co-op, Labor is cheap as well, but usually the returns are better than the normal "co-op" with food from the third world. Oh, and you don't also fuck people plastering the place with >, but instead you can honestly do the big bad ugly employer who juggles the careers of very young people. Ask them to work overtime then fuck them giving no extra unpaid holidays.

+ + + +
To be back ontopic: at least "co-op" give you a _good_ dream and _good_ memes as well. With everyone spreading bullshit like "enterprises and capitalism are better than the happiness and completeness of individual", "co-op"s are a useful point for stating that the individual IS the center of the society, and that if the individual is oppressed, the society loses.

Also remember that I reminded that IBM was a bad guy as well in the first place...

Transcript

[The Monster]

Here's the transcript on IBM's site. My favorite bit is the Latin teacher:

Res publica non dominetur.

I think that last word is misspelled, (dominatur) but the gist of the translation is something like

The commonwealth is not owned/dominated

which sounds like an in your FACE to the Smoking Crack Oraganization and their shadow overlords in Redmond.