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Ubuntu Community Considers a Crowd-Sourced Promo Video (ubuntu.com)

Slashdot reader Beacon11 writes that "Alan Pope, a community advocate for Ubuntu, has requested comments and ideas regarding the creation of a crowd-sourced promo video that, in 30 seconds, conveys that Ubuntu is for everyone." Alan Pope writes: So for example you might see a woman on a train typing an article, a guy in an office creating a presentation, a kid on the sofa playing a game with a controller on their TV, someone watching a film, someone developing code, kids playing with robots, a farmer planning animal feeding. You get the idea...

So I'd really like to do this as a shared community project, with video clips submitted by Ubuntu users from around the world, perhaps even taking in a landmark or two here and there. I'd expect the video to represent the diversity of users, and variety of activities people are able to do with Ubuntu.

Though they're currently just discussing its feasibility, Alan writes that "I think if we work together we could make something amazing."

40 comments

  1. It'd be a hit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    A crowd sourced porno video with a Linux/Ubuntu theme would be wonderful!

    1. Re:It'd be a hit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That will be Bald Beaver then.

  2. everyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ubuntu is for everyone:

    Cut to scene of white supremacist editing a clan photo
    Cut to scene of 4chan troll posting pepe memes

    Oh wait, you don't mean "everyone"?

  3. I have an idea by slashmydots · · Score: 3, Funny

    Light your hair on fire, jump off a roof, and somehow involve cute cats in the video. BOOM, 10 million views easy.

  4. Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone is trying to find a bug in hard to read windows 2008r2 logs files...then he switch to Ubuntu 14 ... then he upgrade to Ubuntu 16.... then he move back to windows 2016

  5. So you might see for example.... by Bearhouse · · Score: 1, Funny

    People looking for a printer driver, finding out their audio doesn't work, trying to figure out why system d has shat the bed again....

    1. Re: So you might see for example.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Never had those problems

    2. Re:So you might see for example.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ubuntu ... It kinda works

    3. Re:So you might see for example.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget the kid playing games on it. Poor little lad.

  6. Windows XP done it first. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See here.

    Ubuntu is better off by removing Amazon spyware and systemD malware.

  7. Re:UK troll problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you expect some kind of reply or acknowledgement?

  8. Might be a good ideal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If people think they need anymore then a OS and a browser or two and a office suite they probably need Windows. But for many a basic Ubuntu install is all they need. Some sort of promo video would be great. Get the word out there that there is choices beyond Windows.

  9. Things people can already do by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So for example you might see a woman on a train typing an article, a guy in an office creating a presentation, a kid on the sofa playing a game with a controller on their TV, someone watching a film, someone developing code, kids playing with robots, a farmer planning animal feeding.

    Well, those are things Windows users can already do. Adopting a new system takes a lot of effort, so you better give people a good reason: how is your system better than Windows?

    1. Re:Things people can already do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. And these are everyday scenes, too; what makes this OS different?

    2. Re:Things people can already do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What would he use to create the presentation? LibreOffice? I would like to see that video...

  10. And please for f***'s sake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No kid asking What's a computer? unless his hair was on fire, and he jumps off a roof, to the applause of lolcats or penguins.

  11. Good point. Vendor lock-in not a good commercial by raymorris · · Score: 1

    That's a good point. My first thought is that using Linux you can do all those things without paying for crashes and getting hacked. That doesn't make a great promo video, though.

    Open source definitely needs better marketing. Right now at work we're dealing with an issue where we need to switch vendors for certain software, but we can't get our data out of the old system and in to the new system. So we're a bit stuck; stuck with software that doesn't fit our needs and costs too much. With open source software, we COULD easily get our data out, licensing costs would have never been an issue in the first place, and we could adjust the software to fit our needs. So everything about the situation shows three reasons open source would be better, but none of that fits well in a 30-second video.

  12. No target audience by dremon · · Score: 1

    A woman on a train typing an article, a guy in an office creating a presentation, a kid on the sofa playing a game with a controller on their TV, someone watching a film, someone developing code, kids playing with robots, a farmer planning animal feeding. HA!

    They can't be using Ubuntu seriously because of systemd, pulseaudio, "break of Unix philosophy", Firefox Quantum and other things that don't belong to 90's anymore.

  13. Is that really helpful? by Kjella · · Score: 1

    I know 30 seconds ads have their place if you want to get people to eat a burger or drink a soda or to pick a particular brand of car or whatever. But it seems like an awfully short time to selling in a Linux distribution since what users really care about is applications and you'll just get one or two oddball use cases with no time to explain why. So I'd probably go with less is more here.

    Here's roughly what I think you'd have time for in a 30s ad:
    "Linux is used by billions of devices from cellphones to supercomputers (swirly circle of cell phones, servers, supercomputers, set top boxes and embedded systems rushing by) and now laptops and desktops are next. (PC and Mac guy going like "huh?") Ubuntu is your free and class-leading Linux distribution full of applications, games and productivity tools for everyone (logo + infographic).

    Then have people start walking into camera like "Hi I'm Bart and I use Ubuntu for $something." "Hi I'm Lisa and I use Ubuntu for $something_else". And just have them pop in faster and faster like a bigger and bigger group photo and make it briefer and briefer like "Paul, photo editing" and eventually just one-worders and then just crowd the screen and turn it into a buzz like there's thousands of stories you could tell but don't have time for. And you really need to save a few seconds at the end to say something like "Visit ubuntu.com. What's your thing?" (same in text on screen)

    I think intro/setup would eat like 10 seconds of your ad. You need 2 seconds for the finish. If you let the first two finish in full that's roughly 2*3 seconds. That leaves 30-10-2-6 = 12 seconds to build the crescendo. I'd say 5-6 seconds more of increasingly rushed and short stories, then 3-4 starting to be like one-worders shouting over each other then the last 2-3 seconds going to more like a buzz and the camera zooming out.

    Did anyone get to say why they're using Linux? Nah. But in 30 seconds I think it's more important to get across that Linux is for a wide range of people that could include you. Because you're going to want to know a bit more than that before you try it...

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    1. Re:Is that really helpful? by Voice+of+satan · · Score: 1

      I dunno...

      I i wanted to sell a Linux distro to a non geek audience i would show people do fun stuff with it. Not useful things. Probably playing video games. And that is actually the weak point of Linux.

      That being said, even if i think Linux is very handy and easy to use, i do not believe it is for every person using a computer. And i do not believe computers are for everyone.

    2. Re:Is that really helpful? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I i wanted to sell a Linux distro to a non geek audience i would show people do fun stuff with it. Not useful things. Probably playing video games.

      But playing video games is something people do more on phones, tablets and consoles. PC gaming is relatively niche and, as you point out, Linux isn't exactly the best choice if you want to do that.

  14. Idea: by rainer_d · · Score: 2

    Use the money to get the documentation in order.

    It's currently non-existent, as far as I can see.

    --
    Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
    1. Re:Idea: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      have you seen the windows documentation?

    2. Re:Idea: by rainer_d · · Score: 1

      No.
      But I've seen the RHEL documentation (and the FreeBSD documentation). Both are stellar.

      Ubuntu's doesn't exist, beyond a few basics. And even those contain errors that show they have nobody maintaining it.

      That's why whenever I need to know how something is done in Linux-Land, I google keyword + rhel or keyword + centos.

      This distro can't disappear soon enough.

      --
      Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
  15. Re:err no... by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 2

    Well yeah the problem would be that Ubuntu has an identity crisis.
    Whatever innovation they did with Unity Mir and phone/tablet has been tossed. Now just a poor man's Fedora for dpkg.
    Ubuntu is ancient African word for can't install Debian.

  16. Portable, no activation, just works! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How about the following:

    WOMAN: My dog pushed my laptop off the balcony, it smashed into a hundred pieces, and I need to submit my report by tomorrow.

    FRIEND (who knows Ubuntu): Lucky for you, you were using Ubuntu Linux. We can just pull the solid state disk out and boot it here in my desktop PC instead. Like this.

    WOMAN: Wow, it just starts up like always. Everything is there like nothing happened. Don't I need a new installation, some online activation, or at least a backup restore?

    FRIEND: Nope, as long as the SSD didn't break, it will boot in any PC without issues. Tomorrow, you buy whatever PC or laptop you like, and your Ubuntu Linux drive will continue to work with your new hardware right away.

    WOMAN: Amazing. What about installing updates, won't I have to wait and reboot for those?

    FRIEND: Updates will only install when you explicitly request them, and most of the time, they won't even require a reboot. Here, just to be safe, let's make a copy of your SSD, so you can have second boot drive ready to use at any time. There you go. Either one will work immediately, no online activation, wait times, or serial number needed.

    1. Re:Portable, no activation, just works! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WOMAN (quietly to herself): This guy is so clever, he must be an Apple Genius.

    2. Re:Portable, no activation, just works! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But don't try and install a driver other than what is available in the Ubuntu repository, if you do that then you next kernel update will change the ABI, your driver's kernel module will fail to load and your hardware won't work...very annoying if it's something like the video driver.

      These are the sorts of things that turn people off Linux. Yes Windows has problems too but you're not going to disrupt the incumbent by just providing a system with different problems.

  17. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Friends don't let friends use Ubuntu.

  18. How about... by XSportSeeker · · Score: 0

    ...someone using Ubunto on their smartphone. Oh no wait, you guys cancelled that one.
    How about a young guy going into the settings to check if telemetry is off.
    https://news.slashdot.org/stor...
    If you want more ideas, I'll be here all day.

  19. Cats... by antdude · · Score: 1

    Cats using Ubuntu! Like Cats with Cisco's products.

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  20. Have to go negative on the competition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you really want to win everyday desktop users with an ad, you have to reach them on things THEY care about. What kind of things are going to appeal to an average person who MIGHT consider something as cumbersome as switching and learning a new OS?

    1. People who hate Windows 10

    2. People who don't want to pay $200 for Microsoft Office

    3. People who don't like Apple's walled garden

    4. People who are scared of the rising tide of security breaches

    Spend half the ad attacking Windows and OSX. Then show how Ubuntu meets their needs (secure, freedom of choice, saves money, etc.)

    1. Re:Have to go negative on the competition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. People who hate Windows 10

      Windows 8 maybe but Windows 10 is hardly a big deal. In any case what's your slogan going to be for Windows 10 vs Ubuntu? Ubuntu: A different kind of shit?

      2. People who don't want to pay $200 for Microsoft Office

      So they can use LibreOffice instead, which runs Windows and macOS anyway. Not really an Ubuntu selling point.

      3. People who don't like Apple's walled garden

      The "walled garden" applies to iOS devices, you can run whatever you want on macOS and last I checked Canonical cancelled their phone/tablet offerings.

      4. People who are scared of the rising tide of security breaches

      Probably shouldn't be using Ubuntu either.

      Spend half the ad attacking Windows and OSX. Then show how Ubuntu meets their needs (secure, freedom of choice, saves money, etc.)

      Saying it is "secure" is just misleading and untrue, freedom of choice is an odd thing to say given that pretty much any program that runs on Ubuntu also runs on macOS and Windows but the reverse is not true and in terms of saving money macOS or Windows come preinstalled on almost all computers sold, its not like you're going to save money switching to Ubuntu.

      The problem isn't that Ubuntu is bad, it's that it isn't significantly better at anything. It has no disruptive "wow factor" feature, use case or workflow compared to the existing offerings. This whole campaign is an example of that, "hey guys can anybody think of a way to show Ubuntu doing something cool so we can market to people?"

  21. Terrible ad; sell on BENEFITS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know you meant well and I'm not trying to be offensive, but this is just not good marketing. You're selling on features, which is a mistake. You have to sell on BENEFITS to the user. What does the user care about? How is going to make THEIR lives better? Also keep in mind these are users who probably don't know much about Linux and have to be convinced. If you picked a few random people of the street, how would you sell to them? Find what they care about; sell the BENEFITS.

  22. Except for a small thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ubuntu is NOT a community project, is a company project based on various community works.
    Try to sell that is a community project is the most dangerous thing people can metabolize.
    If you read it in terms of society/politics means that being in a dictatorship it's ok and it's
    designed by the people, only they are substantially slaves that work for free.

  23. Re:Good point. Vendor lock-in not a good commercia by exomondo · · Score: 1

    Even then you can use LibreOffice on Windows - which is what comes installed on the vast majority of desktop and laptop computers - or Mac. There's not much you can do with Ubuntu that you can't with macOS or Windows.