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Mark Shuttleworth On Ubuntu's Lack Of Marketing
The LugRadio team writes "In the latest episode of LugRadio, the fortnightly Linux radio show, the team interview Mark Shuttleworth, head of the Ubuntu project. Mark talks about where Ubuntu is going, how (and whether) Canonical plan to make any money on the Ubuntu project, his role in the project, and (most importantly) why marketing isn't a good thing and what they're doing instead."
..with understandable docs that are easy to find when you need them.
for what's it worth, one non-geek friend of mine finds ubuntu easier than mandrake.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
why marketing isn't a good thing
Marketing 101:
Some marketing is a good thing. For example:
Who is Mark Shuttleworth, and why should I care.
Who/what is Ubintu, and why should I care?
What's Lugradio? Do I really need to download and listen to a big audio file to find out why I should care?
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Didn't slashdot ask a bunch of questions of Shuttleworth a good long while back? Did that interview get posted and I just missed it? They were good questions. I like Ubuntu and really wanted to see the answers. Also, I requested they ship me a bunch of CD's (for free) and just got 10 copies in a neat little sleeve with the liveCD in one folder and the installation CD in another folder. Popped in the live CD...looks very nice. No cleavage on the desktop though.
Slices, dices, eats your lunch.
In my opinion, and this is in no way a troll or flame comment, Ubuntu's theme/mantra might actually turn people off to the product.
I found myself so distracted by the strange mesh of the African name, earthy color scheme, and "we are the world" esque startup screen that I immediately couldn't help but be turned off to the product.
To me, and maybe I am being incredibly anal (I dunno), computers and "tribal" go about as well together as shrimp and licorice. I simply don't like a product that--despite its sincere efforts to create unity--immediately conjures images of apartheid for me. I mean, how many Africans have the luxury of a personal computer?
Instead we have yet another product that borrows/copies/whatever the spirit of the poor and gives it to the masses, in order to eventually profit. Thanks, I'll pass.
"The television is the retina of the mind's eye" - Videodrome
The show contains british gits swearing and ranting about open source.
How we know is more important than what we know.
I have no idea what Ubuntu is! Is it a software program? An African country? A hip new Xtreme sport that mixes parachuting with jai-alia (sp)?
?????
Yawn attention span gone, sorry, going back to what I was doing, with the mystery of Ubuntu unsolved.
2004 was the year of Linux in the desktop. It didn't happen.
It depends on your expectations. Nobody expects Windows to be toppled for a very long time. I finished the switch from Windows to Linux early last year. I only use Windows at my job now, but I still have it installed in case I ever get the urge. I'm currently running Ubuntu, and I'm pretty impressed. For example, I run this program called Synaptic and I get to browse through a repository of 14000 packages (most from Debian), including the latest versions of almost every open source program I've ever heard of, that I can install just by checking the boxes next to the programs I want and clicking apply. I tried out another 30 or so games last night, and found a few new favorites, not that I play many games.
Now my thinkpad 600X is no one's power machine, but with 320 meg of ram it certainly met the requirements for the Ubuntu Live CD. The hadware is many years old and should not be a mystery either. SuSE 9.0 installed found eveything and it runs just dandy.
I still have the disks. The time has not presented itself to drop the Ubuntu Live CD in one of my more powerful desktop systems and see what happens. Hopefully something better than with my laptop. So on a slow day I'll give Ubuntu another chance. Hopefully it will not end up in my forgotten OS pile with Linsipre and Yellow Dog.
However, going on first impressions it has failed to make a good one.
Garry AKA -Phoenix- Rising Above the Flames
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes
Thats funny you said that. I just switched to Linux last year, mostly because of the creation of Ubuntu. I liked it so much that I am tempted by no OS, and this "new craze" is lasting. I am using the Hoary development version, and it does everything I wish with minimal headache. Thats just what I want out of an OS. Not something odd like brand trollish loyalty.
Open Source Sushi
Ubuntu has made me think about switchin.
It is now my desktop of choice. Previously my choice was windows:(. I fell in love with Gnome because of Ubuntu(or was it the other way around). It reminded me of a Mac how smooth everything worked and fit together. But it didn't feel as restrictive as I find Macs. I like to play with linux so I knew a bit about what was going on. I also feel I should add that I could do more with Ubuntu than all the distro's I have tried in the last 5 years put together. seriously. Linux has come a long way since RedHat 5. (my first distro-didnt last long)
Ubuntu made me look past all the configuration files and .rc files and all I saw were applications that could help make me more productive. Also did you know Ubunto's install has no network services installed by default? Thats the way it should be.
BTW have you read this? good stuff, ontopic I think-->> http://home.earthlink.net/~android606/commandline/ index.html
What goes around comes around, kid.
Nah ... We're not doing marketing - surely we didnt jump at the chance to do a radio interview promoting ubuntu... not - us !
...
On the other hand I've tried ubuntu - I like it I've not really switched yet but Im certainly watching out for it as it seems to be quite a fast moving project.
Nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
It depends on your expectations. Nobody expects Windows to be toppled for a very long time.
Exactly. It's not something that happens on some specific date. What date did the Roman Empire fall? But it was falling, for an extended period of time, and that's what we're seeing with MS and Windows. It's observable, though like the Romans it's easier to recognise in hindsight.
It may well not be the case, anyway, nor be desirable for MS to be utterly wiped out - it will be sufficient for the OS market to become competitive again, and for other players to be forced to adapt to the new reality.
Also, MS may have to be dragged kicking and screaming into that new reality, as I'm not sure their corporate culture admits that it's even possible. The more they fight the tide, however, instead of addressing how they can work with what is happening, the further they are likely to fall before they can recover again.