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Linux Foundation Asks Who Says "I'm Linux" Best
An anonymous reader writes "Everyone has seen Apple's clever 'I'm a Mac' ads, and Microsoft's attempted responses, first with Jerry Seinfeld, and next with 'I'm a PC.' The Linux Foundation tries to fire back with its community-generated 'We're Linux' video contest: all of the eligible videos have now been submitted and are ready to be voted on. Thankfully, the quality of Linux is much higher than the quality of some of these entries: entries range from the hilarious but inappropriate, to the well-made but creepy, to the 'I'm sure it sounded good in your head.' Thankfully, there are one or two that could actually be real commercials."
We're Linux, and our site is down.
Linux marketing = epic win.
I find this situation to be a very fitting analogy to the computing world as a whole. Apple does something that gets attention. Microsoft makes their cheap knockoff of it. Then the OSS/Linux guys come along and say "Hey, we can do that, too!"
Here's one (the one the submitter called one of the better ones):
Challenges at the Office
Some of the other ones are under the related videos.
Reprising his role as Jules from Pulp Fiction:
Jules: [Jules shoots the man on the couch, who turns out to be Steve Jobs, turns to talk to Bill Gates] I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? I didn't mean to do that. Please, continue, you were saying something about best intentions. What's the matter? Oh, you were finished! Well, allow me to retort. What does Linus Torvalds look like?
Bill: What?
Jules: What OS do you run?
Bill: What? What? Wh - ?
Jules: "What" ain't no OS I've ever heard of. They have a usable command line in What?
Bill: What?
Jules: Usable command line, mother fucker, do you have one?
Bill: Yes! Yes!
Jules: Then you know what I'm sayin'!
Bill: Yes!
Jules: Describe what Linus Torvalds looks like!
Bill: What?
Jules: Say 'what' again. Say 'what' again, I dare you, I double dare you motherfucker, say what one more Goddamn time!
[end scene, fade out with Linux, Operating System of Bad Mother Fuckers everywhere]
Sent from your iPad.
Isn't part of the point of linux that there isn't a face to it?
Linux is my mailserver
Linux runs my mythtv
Linux runs on my access point
Linux runs on my sister's laptop.
Linux runs on our company's DVR.
Linux is not an operating system for the desktop or for the server, or for the embedded device. Linux is an operating system for EVERYTHING.
Its like a ball of clay, endless potential and totally at the hands of the artist.
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
They're all in OGG format so no one will be able to watch them anyway ;)
Mac: "I'm a Mac."
Linux: "I'm a PC. Because you see Linux actually runs on PC hardware, so it's a fallacy to refer to only Windoze machines a PCs.
Mac: "ummm..."
Linux (standing up, and brushing cheeto dust from beard): "In fact, to be pedantic, Mac's are PCs too in the more general sense of the term since PC stands for personal computer, and Mac's are certainly computers designed for personal use. Really we are all PCs. I really hate how M$ has appropriated that term for it's own platforms when the term is equally applicable to linux machines as well..."
Mac: "please...kill me now."
It's odd how both of those comments are absolutely true.
"And Lo! The Lord did sayeth 'emerge earth' and he did wait five days and five nights. Verily he did then adjust his holy USE flags, and then did emerge again!"
Spoiler alert, he eventually created the world after spending a lot of time compiling from source. Later, on the forums, he bragged he did it in seven days and that everybody who couldn't do it that was either a noob or needed a faster computer.
I traded all my mod points for these magic beans.
Linux: "And that's another thing. 'kill' is a UNIX command, and as we all know, Macs are UNIX machines underneath (technically BSD UNIX), so, yeah, you could invoke 'kill' once you know your PID. Really, you're not a Mac, you're a UNIX machine, derived via a NextStep machine and tweaked to look like a Mac. You're a prettied-up UNIX-like machine just like me! We're practically brothers!" [Big, kind of scary-looking, cheetoes-laden smile at the end as he tries to hug Mac]
Mac: [Slowly starts stepping sideways out of the picture]
It'd be nice if Canonical (or any other serious player, or especially a consortium) released ads which played on Linux' strengths and dispelled the myths of modern Linux. They could show a stylish but smart person being the Linux user and his curious but skeptical friend asking the questions:
But more importantly, Linux must go on the offensive. They must stress that they are capable of doing fancy stuff(show the oblig compiz-fusion screenshot), and they should mention the freedom that users will have to do whatever they want with their computer while reminding the users how annoying iTunes is for trying to install other crap under your nose. Maybe have a cheap shot at the "Vista capable" fiasco and the fact that Vista and 7 are the same thing are both prime targets for malware. Stress that users do have a choice!
You ever notice how nobody really talks about features the way you're describing? It's because that's basically nerd porn. Everyone else would just go "jesus, that's boring" and tune out.
This is something most of the Linux community doesn't get: People don't give a fuck about computers. It's like a car: the only time they care is when it isn't doing what they want it to.
And, right now, it's a lot easier to get a Linux machine to the isn't-doing-what-they-want-it-to point than a Windows machine. (If you have to mention WINE, you pretty much already failed. WINE is an admirable effort that requires a level of technical proficiency or at least willingness to Google to get a lot of stuff running well--neither of which are things end users will do.)
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
"And Lo! The Lord did sayeth 'emerge earth' and he did wait five days and five nights. Verily he did then adjust his holy USE flags, and then did emerge again!"
Spoiler alert, he eventually created the world after spending a lot of time compiling from source. Later, on the forums, he bragged he did it in seven days and that everybody who couldn't do it that was either a noob or needed a faster computer.
That came back to bite him when he had to do a zero write flood and clean install from a huge arkive (sounds like Ubu' to me).
I was going to reply to him, but you seem to actually understand.
He has no clue about advertising. It has absolutely NOTHING (none, nada, nil, zip, zero, nuthin') to do with the product. It has everything to do with getting the viewer's attention, and keeping it for the 15 to 30 seconds that the ad runs, *AND* mixed in somewhere show the product.
Like, this would make a killer ad..
Show a jet fighter buzzing the surface of the ocean. It fires a missile. WOOSH! People like jet fighters. They like big explosions. The flash and the noise will get (or keep) them looking.
The camera follows the missile. You see the girls on the beach. It flys down a road with flashy cars. it buzzes some other flashy thing. Then you see it going straight into a building with a big Linux sign on it.
Big explosion. Dust settles (quickly, we're at like 20 seconds already), and the sign is still standing.
No words. No dialogue. Just music (optionally, but suggested), jet engine noise, rocket noise, and explosion noise.
People who want to sell their product always want to include all kinds of crap about their product. Consumers don't care. 99% of the people driving cars (like in your example) don't know anything about them. They can't tell you what engine it has. Half of them can't even tell you the model without going outside to look. Everyone can say if it's pretty or ugly. There are some people who are really into their cars (like me) who can run down every part in it accurately. Ads for my car had nothing to do with the features of the car.
Here was the short version (30 sec). It doesn't even say the name until the end. Lots of noise and effects.
This was the long promo video. Only the first 45 seconds showed up on TV, as I recall. Again, lots of noise and effects. Even I, a TransAm owner, didn't care to watch it past 1 minute, when they started babbling about the features.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.