Forkable Linux Radio Ad Now On the Air In Texas

christian.einfeldt writes "Everyone is familiar with the Linux video ads created by IBM, Red Hat, and Novell, but until recently, there have not been any professionally backed forkable radio ads. Now, Austin-based Linux advocate Ken Starks has obtained the services of a professional radio talent in creating a high quality voice track, which can easily be adapted by local providers of Linux computer services. The raw material (mp3, ogg) addresses end-user frustration with Microsoft Windows malware, and promotes Linux as a more stable alternative. Starks hopes the raw material will seed pro-Linux ads across the US, and he offers his own final product as an example of how the raw material can be remixed with music. He has released all of the raw material and final work under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, and has waived the Attribution requirement in his blog. Starks's provocative ad is currently on the air in the Austin market during the popular talk show of Kim Komando, who just happens to be a Microsoft Windows enthusiast."

Comments

Komando's show is popular?

[BadAnalogyGuy]

As in "Windows popular" or "Linux popular"?

I listened once. It was an hour of "Kim, I'm having trouble installing my Canon digicam." "Well, you need to attach the cable and then turn the camera on." "Thanks Kim! That really did the trick!"

Trying to explain anything more complex than "Have you tried rebooting it?" to the audience of AM talk radio is like declaring any year Year of Linux on the Desktop.

Re:Komando's show is popular?

[Eil]

To her credit, Kim Komando has been doing a home computer radio show since well before computers and the Internet were mainstream. However, if you actually listen to one of her shows, you notice that her knowledge hasn't kept pace with current technology and most of her advice boils down to either reinstalling windows or buying products from her sponsors to (possibly) fix your problem.

I applaud Ken Starks for putting this ad on the air. Most of her listeners would do well to give Linux a try. Although her audience would shrink a bit when their computers started working properly all of the sudden. ;)

Linux is not like winows.

[Anonymous Coward]

As long as we are trying to sell Linux as Windows without the annoyances of Windows, we will fail, if for no other reason than the fact that Linux has its own, less broadly understood, annoyances. We need to sell Linux as Linux.

Re:Linux is not like winows.

[digitalunity]

Agreed. My girlfriend's 10 year old son is using a computer I built about 7 years ago with Ubuntu on it. It has much of the complexity he would see in Windows hidden. No control panel, no command line, no start menu with 10 levels of trees. It's so simple any idiot could use it.

The only thing he does online is webmail, flash games, youtube and listen to music. Linux fills that role perfectly.

Maybe some day I will tell him it's also hosting my SSH, ftps, telnet, web and email serving also :)

Transcript

[Animaether]

Your computer has problems? Wanna hear the "industry's" solution? That's right, your software isn't working - so what do they suggest? Use more software to solve the problem(!) Listen to what you're being told: they want you to purchase software so the software you already purchased will work! .. What!?
The problem is.. we've come to think of this as being perfectly acceptable. So stop accepting! There's been a solution all along, but you've rarely heard of it. That's right! You spent maybe hundreds maybe thousands of dollars over the years that you didn't have to.
It's time for the secret to be told. Thousands of businesses, universities and even Wall Street have been using: Linux! For years. What do they know that you don't? Linux is free. It doesn't need any virus protection and 99.9% of the software you'll ever need comes free as well. It's as easy as clicking a mouse! That's it. No more crashes, no more viruses, no more blue screens of death.
And get this: with Linux, you don't have to reboot after installing new software. Linux runs on old hardware. No need to buy a new computer every time the industry decides to boost profits and release another buggy system.
So why are you still paying for the privilege of using your computer? There's a better way: Linux.

Somehow the flow between the 2nd and 3rd sentence is... odd, but there ya go.

Re:Transcript

[Korin43]

Well it makes perfect sense. If you want normal people to trust something, you have to make it sound like a scam.

Re:Transcript

[techno-vampire]

Besides the fact that there are plenty of free(!) and perfectly working solutions for Windows to avoid malware and protect yourself against viruses.

True. However, you have to download them, install them and keep them updated or they don't do you any good. And, they take up hard disk space, (Granted, that's not a big concern now, but it's still true.) they have to be loaded every time you boot and they're always running in the background, slowing down your computer and making it less responsive. I use Linux. Right now, I'm running Fedora 10, with 27 days up uptime. My sister uses Ubuntu, and hasn't rebooted in well over a month, because Ubuntu isn't as bleeding-edge as Fedora is. Both of our boxes are crisp, responsive and unhindered either by malware or the band-aids needed to keep malware off of our systems. And, I might add, I've been using Linux in one form or another for at least a decade, now, and I've yet to see my first kernel panic. If what you want from your computer is the ability to surf the web, read and send email and maybe compose the occasional document to be printed out, Linux can do that for you at least as well as Windows can, if not better, and for most adults, that's all they want from a home computer.

Re:Transcript

[Ronald Dumsfeld]

I want Linux to really be ready for the home desktop of the average user, but it isn't. I don't think we should be kidding ourselves and making ads with false promises like these.

Sorry, that's a crock of shit. Linux is ready for the desktop of the average user. The issue is that they should not be required to install it or do anything beyond okaying the installation of a variety of security updates to the software they use.

I've set quite a few people up with Ubuntu in the past year or so, compared with previously saying "don't do Linux". Your average user now has a real set of expectations from a computer. Linux can meet these needs and expectations, and there is a huge reduction in support headaches when you've convinced people only to install stuff made for their distribution and in a searchable repository.

Dealing with getting real people to use Linux is having someone with a clue set up support for Flash, DVDs, and stuff like that. The one I found hilarious was a friend who's used Windows for years - he asked what bittorrent client you could get for Linux. When I told him Ubuntu installed one by default, well, his jaw hit the floor.

Heard this on the air last night

[XanC]

It was more about control, about Microsoft being in charge of how you get to your data, than about anything else. It's a great message.

Although I can't listen to more than 5 minutes of Kim Komando without wishing my fingernails were being pulled out instead.

"forkable ad"?

[pongo000]

Pray tell, what exactly is a "forkable ad"? Strangely enough, I get no authoritative hits on "forkable ad" in any of the major search engines. Is this a made-up phrase, or something actually used in the advertising realm?

Re:Great Idea

[Darkness404]

But radio? I mean, the target demographic for Linux (young, reasonably computer savvy) doesn't listen to the radio really anymore. And Kim Komando is a total joke. Her "advice" is reboot things. Yeah, it works, but to be perfectly honest, if you haven't already tried that chances are you shouldn't be installing Linux (yeah, you can make it work, but -far- too often those people will be upset with how some niche Windows program doesn't run on Linux). Show some fancy 3-D compiz effects on prime time and you have a success, but radio? And Kim Komando? Those people don't need Linux, they need something common to pay geek squad whenever something goes wrong.

Re:No more crashes?

[bcmm]

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=nvidia+crash+windows&aq=&aqi=&aq=f&aqi=g1&oq=&fp=ee36edbd3c16a1c5 has more hits.