Over the seasonal holiday, I have been talking to many folk and looking at past successes of other big companies; my primary goal was to determine exactly what led to their success. In this email are my findings;
1. Technical Merits wont win hearts: It's rare indeed that an item wins on purely technical merits to the public. As a matter of fact it seems to be the rule that the better an item is technically speaking, the less popular it is to John Q. Public. 2. We need to aim for the technical market, not the public (yet): There are many folks out there who know what an OS is, who feel comfortable going to a store and buying Windows in box form, but whom are either unaware of Linux, or do not understand it properly. For example I have met a very geeky fellow; he has his own server (at age 17, no less) and operates a website business. He had not heard of Ubuntu at all; when I introduced him to it he took to it like a fish to water and now uses it to power his business. He isn't the first I met of his kind, nor the last. That said, many of the issues we have recognized are not so big to this type of audience; these kind of people can deal with the different mindset Ubuntu offers. In this audience, we would not be targeting the average Slashdot member, but rather those instead who are well versed with installing Windows manually, downloading torrents, watching tech blogs for the next big thing, etc. 3. Drip-down approach. Imagine a scale; at the top are extremely technical people; engineers, kernel hackers, etc. At the bottom are those people who mistake the Internet for Facebook; their computer manufactor for Microsoft Windows...you know the kind I mean. Technologies have a habit of dripping down from more tech-savy folk onto those who aren't. Pushing Ubuntu onto tech blogs and tech magazines means that technically inclined folk (whom are often called by their non-tech friends to deal with problems) would suggest Ubuntu for it's technical merits and ease of support. Whilst that is being done, Ubuntu can continue it's work on being user-friendly, meaning even for the non-techs it'll look more appealing. As a side effect, more companies will offer support for Ubuntu/Linux, as of this moment major governments are accepting Linux, major projects use it...the time is ripe for us to get even more folks onto the band-wagon. 4. Anti-Linux users: If we foul up, then we'll simply increase our workload; many people I've spoken to don't like Ubuntu because it couldn't do X or Y, not understanding that those problems have been fixed now. Other's will actively try and subvert us; if you've ever met a Windows Superuser in IRC you'll find they speak against us on technical grounds which no longer affect us, or because they simply did not understand Linux is not Windows. Conclusion: Aim for the more technical users, and bombard them with news of Ubuntu on sites, magazines, podcasts, etc. And practically every problem we're likely to encounter will solve itself; these techie users can assist their non-techie friends. We Will Win. -- -Danté Ashton Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici Sent from Ubuntu
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