I think we need an installer - for Linux and for Windows. And I think there's interest from several distributions to have an application install solution so if we were willing to create one (or a plan for one), I think we might be able to find resources to put behind it.
Stormy On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 12:11 PM, Claus Schwarm <[email protected]>wrote: > On Sun, 2009-06-14 at 08:02 -0700, Sriram Ramkrishna wrote: > > > > > > So maybe a modification is to create our own product page for each > > promoted app with a link to the original page? I still think the > > foundation of the ideas is sound which is to drive interest in > > products that compete with others on more popular systems. > > > > sri > > > > Yes, the basic idea is sound. That's why I suggested to have a better > apps directory back in February 2004. [1] Thus I also argued to have a > separate projects.gnome.org to manage project homepages more easily.[2] > > Good apps drive adoption of the underlying platform. > > If there's a decentralized "installer" for an app -- which could simply > be LSB-complient DEB that installs into /opt --, marketing is no > problem. Just put a large button "Download Now" on the homepage, improve > its content, and people would use it. > > Whenever a new version is released, there's lots of media to spread the > word and drive traffic to the project homepage: > > * Twitter and other microblogging tools > * Blogs and planets > * Forums such linuxquestion.org, etc. > * Linux sites such as LinuxToday, LWN, etc. > * Download directories such as gnomefiles, etc. > * Social sites such as Reddit, Digg, etc. > > With a little bit of SEO, one could maybe even make it into the top ten > of search results for generic keywords such as "audio player". No need > to pay Adsense. But even Adsense would make sense. > > Additionally, the new version could be distributed directly: > > * CoverCDs of Linux journals > * Self-burned CD to be distributed on schoolyards, etc. > > When Firefox 1.5 was released, two major German PC magazine had it on > their CoverCD. That meant 1 million people in Germany alone got it for > free, including an article describing how awesome it is. The Firefox > crew didn't really need to promote it back then, journalists did it for > them. > > In other words: It's easy when there's an "installer". > > Without an installer, however, most of the word-of-mouth advertising > fails. Most users will have to wait a few months for the new version, > anyway, before it's packaged and distributed by their distribution. > > Then, why waste time being informed today? Why talk about a new version > to your friend, if he or she is not able to download and install it? Why > read a blog about it? Or blog about it? Why visit gnomefiles each week? > Makes no sense. Because doing so is boring. > > As a result, there's no hype when a new version is released. And good > applications are being ignored. > > But I have no clue how to change the lack of "installers". It would be > the job of developers, wouldn't it? > > > Best regards, > Claus > > > [1] > http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-web-list/2004-February/msg00025.html > [2] > http://mail.gnome.org/archives/marketing-list/2006-July/msg00169.html > > > > > -- > marketing-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list >
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