New Contest Will Seek the Best "I'm Linux" Video

LinuxScribe writes "From Apple's ubiquitous 'I'm a Mac,' to Jerry Seinfeld, to Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' retort, operating system commercials have been flooding the airways. Except that Linux is the one OS that has been notably absent. Now the Linux Foundation is launching a video contest on their new video site to fill this void. The winner gets a trip to Tokyo next year to participate in the Linux Foundation Japan Linux Symposium, and some serious geek cred." The contest doesn't officially open until late January; the blog post has an email address to contact if you want to get a head start.

Comments

Novell already did this

[Anthony_Cargile]

Novell has already done this in several viral videos, just do a youtube search. The Linux foundation no doubt has less funding than Novell, so they should partner up on this and get a commercial out together, since Novell not only has experience/material on this, but a viable pitch as well what with the woman being Linux and more creative/better than the PC/Mac representatives.

And honestly, why are they still beating this whole "I'm a $PLATFORM" bit death rather than creating a new pitch, as Apple will undoubtably do once everyone has parodied their commercial to death.

Re:Novell already did this

[plantman-the-womb-st]

I know this meme with the I'm a *insert* has gotten out of hand, but this whole concept reminds me of the fact that no one ever seems to remember that linux isn't an OS. Red Hat is, Debian is, Ubuntu is... nevertheless my idea was this:

(wannabe hipster walks up): I'm a Mac.

(up steps the old middle management guy): I'm a PC.

(scene FILLS with people, 200-300, all dressed in various profession/regional/ethnic attire): *in unison* We, are Ubuntu.

Novel may have info, but people don't pay attention to info. Get their attention with the bagel, then hit them with the book, it's the only way to keep them from eating the pages.

Re:Novell already did this

[spisska]

I'm thinking something a little different. I would abandon the whole concept of trying to parody (or parrot) the Mac concept, and instead try to show what Linux is and what it's really good at.

Here's what I was thinking:

Open with a spectacular image from space, which pulls back to reveal an obervatory. Go through the telescope to the computers recording the readings:

System Name
Location
Base Distro, version (e.g. Debian 3.1)
Kernel version

Path continues through series of routers and hops, each flashes the above system stats. Continues through university network to research lab. Students in lab coats studying data, manipulating images from the observatory. Same stats:

System Name; Location; Base Distro, version (e.g. Debian 3.1); Kernel version

Path continues through routers/hops same as before, through a television news studio (stats as appropriate) and out to an LCD set in your average living room -- could be pretty well anywhere in the western world. It's showing the news we flew through before, which has the same backing image of space that keeps recurring. The anchor talks of 'astronomical discovery'. Show stats of TV:

System Name: Sony XXX LCD TV
Location: All over
Base system: custom kernel
Kernel version: 2.4.1, e.g.

Camera swings around living room to reveal a girl at a table (4th-6th grade). She's got various books and papers around her -- she's working on a project about space. She's also got an eee (or similar), which is open to the same image of the cosmos.

System Name: Asus eee PC 701
Location: The world
Base system: Ubuntu eee
Kernel version 2.6.24-generic

She's chatting with someone about the image -- 'wow, that's amazing' or some such. Camera goes back through the tubes, appropriately showing router stats, to a modern classroom in an unexpected place -- e.g. Africa or Central Asia, where a child is also looking at the image and chatting.

Continue through the tubes to other places around the world where the image pops up on a Linux system. Same system stats as appropriate.

Finish in Peru. It's night and there's a child looking at the same image on an OLPC, chat window open. He's sitting on a stunning cliffside with the ocean below.

System Name: OLPC XO-1
Location: SomeVillage, Peru
Base system: Red-Hat, Sugar
Kernel version: 2.6.?

He looks slowly from the screen up into the night sky. The camera zooms out and follows his gaze back out into space.

Fade to black.

Linux. There are no limits.
   

Re:Script

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry, that was just terrible.

Distros Cause Spartacus Syndrome

[Sean0michael]

With all the distros out there vying for this, I'm sure this will end up being like Spartacus.

User: Which one of you is Linux?

Ubuntu: I am Linux!
Gentoo: No, I am Linux!
Red Hat: No, I am Linux!
SuSE: Don't listen to them - I am Linux!
Shouts from Slackware, YellowDog, DamnSmallLinux and thousands of others fill the air.

Re:Script

[symbolset]

You're welcome. Maybe you would prefer the alternate version where PC has leprosy, and server share drops off.

The contest is over.

[pushing-robot]

IBM Won.

Wish someone would do this

[ancientt]

A man walks to a corner and is solicited by two ladies of the evening.

(Windows) [dressed in fishnet and miniskirt] - "Wanna have a good time baby? I'm very popular, I do _all_ the fun things. [pause] I'm cheap."

(Mac) [catholic schoolgirl look with heavy makeup] - "Take me sweetie! I'm fun too and I'm cuter! [giggle, then dead serious] Not cheap."

[Mac and Windows get into a hair pulling fight while Marketing, old leering suited man, pulls up a jello filled wading pool.]

(Linux) [A girl next door type walks up] "Hi again, wanna grab dinner, [pause] I'm buying."

(Man) "Sure. Wait, you're buying? Do you expect to get paid?"

(Linux) "No, it might be nice if you buy some time, but that's up to you.

(Man) Dutch?

Re:Script

[steveha]

I admit that unlike with these guys I don't easily work with the hardware you already have...

Oh come on, that's needlessly harsh, and not funny. It's not even correct. Does OS X work with the hardware I already own? Does Windows Vista?

Take an Ubuntu 8.04 install CD, and try booting it on "the hardware you already have". In my experience, it will Just Work on just about any computer from the past few years. (An Ubuntu 8.10 install CD will probably work also, but I have seen that fail to work on a laptop... some drivers issue. 8.04 is the "Long Term Support" version, and extra care was taken to make it stable, so that's slightly better for Just Working.)

Ubuntu will do a better job of Just Working on "the hardware you already have" than Windows Vista! 1 GB of RAM is plenty for Ubuntu, and while it might be enough for Vista, I have heard that it's not "plenty". (Supposedly you really want to have at least 2 GB.) Semi-lame graphics cards are fine for Ubuntu, including the desktop bling, where Vista will run in some kind of fallback mode unless your card supports programmable shaders.

If a user can be happy with just a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, email program, web browser (with Flash support), instant messenger, photo viewer, photo editor, music player, and a few light games such as a minesweeper game, then that user can be happy with Ubuntu, nearly out of the box. (For the music player, you will probably want to install the extra codecs such as MP3 that are not installed by default.)

An average user might not be able to install Ubuntu, but will be able to use it if an expert sets it up correctly. An average user might not be able to install Windows, either.

steveha

Don't advertise "Linux", advertise a BRAND

[Anonymous Coward]

"Linux" per se is not an OS, it is a set of common libraries and standards that is shared by many OSs. Heck, binaries compiled for one Linux distro won't even work on half the others (reason I mentioned this is because binary incompatibility is a good way to distinguish between customizations of a single OS, as opposed to different OSs, which, while belonging to the same family, are just that - DIFFERENT OSs.

Advertising Linux is like advertising x86 architecture or the Unix Standard. It may be useful for engineers, programmers, or adiministrators, but not to end users. The fact that all Linux distros share the same kernel is about as useful to end users as telling them that their particular Chevy model uses the same engine block as a dozen other cars from GM. The service technician will need to know this, not the end user. The end users need to know WHAT a distro does, not HOW it does it. And every distro does things differently, and for a good reason - it is optimized for a particular audience and a particular way of doing things. By definition, that means that a single distro can't please eveyone - and shouldn't try to.

Advertise Ubuntu. Advertise Red Hat. Advertise Gentoo. Pick a market and promote the Linux brand that suits that market best. And if someone else isn't happy about your choice, they can go and advertise their own distro to their own target audience.

Linux distros need to start adopting a good old capitalist trick known as USING A BRAND.

Re:Not OSs

[centuren]

The answer, then, should be a Mac / PC ad spinoff where the "Mac" and "PC" start their banter, then "Linux" comes out as a Borg, injects itself into both, and we end up with all three as part of the Linux "community".

Re:Script

[Americano]

99% of computer users in the world don't care whether they can use program X. They just care that they can use SOME program to do Y.

Actually, no. The vast majority of computer users that do not read /. on a regular basis equate "doing Y" with "program X." If you suddenly drop them in front of a completely unfamiliar interface and say, "But you can still do Y, you just have to adapt to a new interface & way of doing some/many/all things you used to do," you will meet with resistance, irritation, and frustration.

Reasonably sophisticated, computer-savvy users can adapt to new programs pretty quickly, and will even go out in search of a program that does things the way they want. The vast majority of users do not fall in this category. They have their status quo that they've learned to use, and they don't want it to change.

It's this fundamental misunderstanding of the willingness of an "average" computer user to change that fuels so much of Linux's struggle on the desktop.

I can see it

[lord_sarpedon]

Picture an I'm a Mac/I'm a PC commercial as they typically start!

Richard Stallman shouts from offstage, "I'm linux, and I'm freee free FREEEE"

He the proceeds to prance naked around stage throwing rose petals to the ground as the other two are stricken with a deep terror.

Freeeee! Free freeeeee!

Re:Stupid idea

[Hooya]

I've always pictured it as:

Starts off as a regular Mac ad. The camera then zooms back to reveal the two dudes standing in front of a white sheet.. zooms further out to reveal the sound guy (you know, the guy working the mic boom - i think it's called 'grip' or something), the director, the stage hands... all wearing "I'm linux" shirts.