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He's a Mac, He's a PC, But We're Linux!
davidmwilliams writes "Earlier this year the Linux Foundation launched a competition for budding writers, film makers and just general Linux enthusiasts to make their own grassroots advertisement to compete with Apple's highly-successful 'I'm a Mac' series of adverts. The winner has now been announced."
Nothing quite as exciting as a spoof like two years after the original ads started and about a year after they stopped being cool.
I heard Weird Al was coming up with a parody of the Bee Gees next week...
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I watched a few of these videos and I'm going to admit that it's very tough to push an operating system in less than a minute. So that leaves you in the very department you don't want to be in--marketing.
I will congratulate Linux and the winning contestant on achieving what Apple did and Microsoft tried to. And that is simplify Linux down to an idea easy to grasp with no actual numbers or ideas surrounding it. Like the Mac ads, it's just "cool" to be a Mac. I like that they imply that to be Linux is to enjoy freedom but it's no more convincing to me than the Mac ads. I'm a Linux fanatic but I'm realistic.
I don't think Linux needs this kind of advertising. I would prefer the software to speak for itself--warts and all. I hope all the participants had fun and I also hope that this doesn't make an easy target for anti-Linux folks. The winning ad sidesteps some of Linux's difficult aspects (usability, third party support, etc.) and promotes its trump card. Linux is freedom.
My work here is dung.
I've been kinda surprised that with all the tech and science they throw around on that show, that they don't ever mention Linux.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
While that is a nicely produced ad, if its purpose is to promote linux use to the general public, it completely fails.
Nothing about it will grab their attention.
I especially love that you need flash to watch it off of youtube.
Okay, nobody get mad at me, I run my hosting business on CentOS and all my computers dual boot to Ubuntu. My six-year old son likes Ubuntu so much that he writes his name in that roundy Ubuntu lettering.
But when I mentally set the stage for this commercial, I imagine a little dwarf coming out and saying, "I'm Linux, do you guys know how to get my wireless card working? I'm having trouble printing. Why can't I play this damn DVD?"
Man, I hope I've got some karma to spare...
--I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
-- See?
am glad it wasnt the "i, you, we are linux" ad... that one had me terrified that linux would inevitably pick up a phased plasma rifle in the 50 watt range and...well....try and find Sarah Connor.
Good people go to bed earlier.
It looks more like those microsoft ads, where they show white drawings on top of real life video.
what exactly is the winning video parodying? did you even bother to watch it before you came here to complain?
frog blast the vent core
And thus you have accomplished more than the average Slashdotter manages in a whole week.
He's a Mac, He's a PC, [and] We're Linux!
Can three operating systems from three different cultures get along in the same wacky network? Tune in this fall to NBC for _Broken Pipes_, the hilarious new sitcom from those nutty writers behind BSD and VMS!
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
http://www.getgnash.org/
They must be hosting this on a [Insert Your Least Favorite Underpowered Device Here].
Seems to be on the Youtubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWEIQIv8zvY&feature=player_embedded
I donno, not a horrible video, but I have trouble seeing how that's going to convince anyone to switch to the Linuxes. I think it's a bit to idealogical and lacking in the pragmatic. It could use some, "the advantages of Linux over PC's or Mac's are thus:"
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
At least they didn't mention anything about a 'Whispering Eye' and start giggling... I guess that's a positive.
Here's the old Linux ad by IBM. It's pretty cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwL0G9wK8j4
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
Someone said that this was marketing fail and I completely agree. To some random consumer who has never heard of Linux, this commercial wouldn't give them ANY idea as to what it actually is or why they would need it.
It looks more like a commercial for a mouse pointer. _NOTHING_ in the commercial indicates that Linux is an operating system.
Linux is freedom.
GNU/Linux is Stallman's idea of freedom.
Linux: Netcraft confirms that FreeBSD is dead.
Economy.
pause
Red ink flows like a river of blood.
Some classical music, crescendo
Linux
Less is more.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
I'm glad they went with an ad that didn't scream "Me too!" Out of necessity, Linux already copies Microsoft which copied Macintosh which copied Xerox in terms of GUIness and perhaps other programs. But it didn't need to do the same with commercials: copying Microsoft copying Apple.
The only thing bad is that unless you already know what linux is, the commercial doesn't exactly inform you, even visually, albeit a single cartoonishly animated mouse cursor. It might leave common people scratching their heads.
I will congratulate Linux and the winning contestant on achieving what Apple did and Microsoft tried to. And that is simplify Linux down to an idea easy to grasp with no actual numbers or ideas surrounding it. Like the Mac ads, it's just "cool" to be a Mac. I like that they imply that to be Linux is to enjoy freedom but it's no more convincing to me than the Mac ads. I'm a Linux fanatic but I'm realistic.
But, see, there's a big, big problem with the winning ad.
Unless you already know what Linux is, which many, many people do not, it is utterly meaningless.
I know it has become popular to make ads that don't really explain what they're for in recent times, but that only works if the brand they're advertising is already recognizable, at least among their target demographic. But The Great Unwashed Masses don't even know what Linux is yet. Knowing that "it's freedom" tells them nothing, and the cute little animated graphics don't give any indication that it's even something to do with a computer—yeah, the graphics themselves are sometimes clearly computer-related, but these days, what isn't?
When Linux is already as recognizable a name as Mac, iPod, Coke, or Nike, and everyone knows that "it's just another alternative to Mac or Windows," then we can make ads like this to push the "freedom" aspect of it.
But until then, this ad doesn't tell a non-geek anything...except that Linux is pretentious.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
I went down to microcenter in cambridge, ma, a half mile from mit and harvard. they don't even stock linux computers.
I do my taxes on the computer (so even if they make linux tax software, i have to import, or run wine) my kids use windows for gaming (so i have to know something about it to help them).....
I actually installed ubuntu under wubi on my last laptop: it worked fine: so what
why should i switch if there is ZERO incentive for me to use linux - i get absolutely nothing from linux that i don't get from windows; it is not easier to use, it is not faster, it is not anything that i need
until the linux community patents a new type of software that i have to have and it runs only on linux, I' wont switch, even tho the thought of giving more money to redmond makes me want to puke
The ad brings up the idea that Linux is about freedom. Does Linux follow through on that promise?
I started using Ubuntu in December (hand in my geek card, I know). I tried once before with Mandrake about 5 years ago and it was too much work (honestly) for a hobby OS.
How free are people under Linux? I understand that it's about freedom of information, but when I think about the other possibilities that I might want to have in terms of User Interface manipulation (like the ad seems to suggest) I begin to wonder. Is there an easy (non-code, maybe even scripting) way to change the look of the UI? Is the UI as easy, fun, and colorful as the ad seems to suggest? These may seem like dumb questions to some, but if Linux wants market share they need to build a brand and follow through on that brand promise.
About freedom and intuition in applications: When trying to play a DVD on my girlfriend's brand new Ubuntu build it was necessary to download 3 different media applications (settled on VLC, but even that had a fatal bug sometimes) and sift for a while through google just to install the correct libs. I understand that the DVD format isn't free, but getting everything to work correctly was a bit of a chore. THAT is not freedom. THAT is frustration to a new user. If I hadn't been there I know she would have ditched the OS and gone back to Windows. She even picked up an "Ubuntu for Dummies" book (which did not fully describe getting a DVD to play) so she's by no means lazy about learning Linux.
She doesn't use the computer for too much but shouldn't the bare basics work immediately?
"Basics" are different for everyone (Aha! Another chance to have Linux be about freedom!) so shouldn't there be an option to walk people through what tasks they might use the computer for, then show them to the new user and make it enjoyably interactive to CHOOSE those programs, with an option somewhere to try out and learn other programs?
It's about freedom AND communicating that freedom effectively, and I feel the Linux community would benefit greatly from taking the time to concentrate on that aspect. If Linux (whatever flavor) is really about freedom, then that gift of freedom from developers comes with responsibility. That is a responsibility to coherently express how and what the OS can do.
If there really are a lot of people taking Linux notebooks/netbooks/desktops back, don't you think they at least *tried* tinkering with the OS? To me that says that the initial impression Linux gives may not be a helpful one.
If Linux is trying to get new users, shouldn't the focus be on effectively presenting the OS to new users?
In short, the ad seems cool, but Linux should get that ad out there and they should find a way to follow through on what effectively seems to be Linux's biggest shortcoming.
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The problem with marketing Linux, or at least *Linux* people marketing Linux, is that they seem to think that your typical layperson will place value in the same things that a technical Linux user does.
What we have here is an overly-vague advert that places emphasis on it being "free and open" and "choices." A typical end-user does not care about these things. They want a complete, integrated product that works. Free and open means little if nothing to these people.
Where people advocating the wider adoption of Linux truly fail is in realizing what people want, and instead trying to tell them what they want and what they should place value in. What makes Linux so great for some people is what makes it less adoptable for most. The real question is, does your desire for wider Linux adoption trump your desire for an loosely coupled OS with little integration and many choices?
Similes are like metaphors
So wait, we are fighting to give the Iraqis Linux. Have we decided on a distro yet?
"Gnash is not ready for prime time and last I checked, didn't currently work with youtube. Supposedly swfdec does, if you compile the latest build..."
...and that's why "freedom" hasn't caught on with the general public.
Trying to respond to the Mac vs. PC ads is playing right into Apple's ad agency's hands. All doing that does is remind people of their ad. And if you do it badly (like MS did... of course I didn't RTFA so I haven't seen the Linux entrant) it makes you look really bad in comparison. Find another angle.
Since the Linux Foundation's site is getting hammered, here are links direct to youtube. I hope that I got the correct vids...feel free to correct me.
First place: What does it mean to be free
Second: The Origin
Third: Linux Pub
Other two finalists: The Future is Open
Challenges at the Office
Maybe not for you. I've been using Linux exclusively on the desktop for the past couple years. In a business setting.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
You can download the flv, mplayer will play it.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Since that wouldn't help me make a pretentious linux nerd joke.
The enemies of Democracy are
bzflag
bless you
Am I really the only person who's noticed that Microsoft completely failed to understand what the Apple ads were presenting? Apple had two actors who were *actually portraying* the computer/operating systems in question. All of Microsoft's ads seem to think that "I'm a PC" is just shorthand for "I'm a Windows (l)user."
Or is it the general public that's too stupid to understand the difference, and Microsoft is making hay off of that?
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Why is it that every time someone posts a "linux not ready for desktop" comment, at least one person has to pipe up that they're using linux exclusively on the desktop?
That's about as helpful as saying, "Well, the bug doesn't happen on my machine."
Ts. Maybe you are just totally uninformed? ffmpeg supports flv just fine. And it comes preinstalled with every desktop distribution. The only thing missing, is the small Firefox script, that transforms flv playback into a mplayer (or vlc) playback window. (pretty simple. I have done it for many sites myself). And so could every preinstaller.
But in reality (hellooo, yeah. reality. that world out there!), this all is completely and totally irrelevant.
Everybody just has flash preinstalled from his bought computer (noobs), or installs it himself (non-noobs). Same as with the nvidia-drivers. Same as with any program they want to have.
It's nice, that you can change the OS, and nobody can enforce anything. But those who care about openness, and those who are noobs, are two completely separate groups. So in reality, all your made-up problems about Joe and Jane Sixpack-Soccermom wanting open software are non-existant. They are completely shielded and unaware that that discussion even exists.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The desktop hasn't been ready for Linux.
That is changing.
Have you ever tried to call Microsoft or Apple with a question?
Were they able to help you? Or was it easier to post your question to google and find someone else who had the same problem and found a fix?
I have been a Mac, a Microsoft AND and OS2. NEVER has customer service EVER helped with my problems. I guess easy problems that are easily solved are all the help lines are capable of. If it is an easy problem, heck, I have an Internet connection, I know how to type, and I know how to read.
- I live the greatest adventure anyone could possibly desire. - Tosk the Hunted
[james@rhapsody ~]$ diff /usr/bin/less /bin/more /usr/bin/less and /bin/more differ
Binary files
Last I checked, gnash worked with youtube. I don't use it now because it doesn't handle all the flash crap that other people in the house want. Youtube is supported though.
...because it's an obvious fallacy and any obvious fallacy should be challenged.
If you let a lie go unchallenged then people get the idea that the lie is true.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I want an operating system that does what I tell it to and offers tools for facilitating this such that each new task does not require a new application.
That is Linux/UNIX.
Point: Operating systems don't want anything. That's anthropomorphism. People want things. Linux users don't want other Linux users. Linux users want Linux. That's why it looks like it does after Linux users built it. They built what they want. And it serves them well.
Somewhere this "Linux wants users" meme got blown out of all realistic proportion. Red Hat may want users, or Ubuntu, but again, those are people: CEOs, employees, marketers, etc., and they want users because they want revenue.
But Linux? Linux doesn't want anything. And Linux users? Linux users want Linux. That's why they're LINUX USERS.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW