On 17 August 2010 21:45, Alan Pope <[email protected]> wrote: > We get people in #ubuntu-uk asking for help. They mostly say things like:- > > "The latest one" > "8.04" > "How do I find out?" >
OK, then it works. That's great! > I actually am typing this > on a Mac and I have to make some effort to find out what version of > OSX it is because I don't know. *boots VM* Well what do you know. About This Mac, Version 10.6.4. > Isn't that because they _rely_ on the animal branding. The OSX box has > a dirty great snow leopard on the outside. Yup. Marketing. It's like having a tiger in your tank, but a leopard in your laptop. I have a meerkat in my machine. Not quite sure what it's up to. On 17 August 2010 21:47, Alan Pope <[email protected]> wrote: > Again Android doesn't use the codename as the branding for consumers - > the same way we don't. I have no idea what dessert goes with which > release of Android, I just know 1.5 -> 1.6 -> 2.1 -> 2.2. I have a > vauge idea about eclairs and froyos because I've seen giant desserts, > but your average joe doesn't see that. I suppose it comes down to your market. Thinking about it, mobile phones are consumer items. It's a Nokia or a Samsung, not a Symbian or Brew or Android or Windows Mobile. Or is it? They are definitely promoting Android phones (I probably don't need to talk about iPhone here), but then the version numbers are nice and low. Android 2. iPhone (iOS) 4. Perhaps the key point is these companies (Google and Apple) already have mindshare and each version has definite, obvious improvements over the last. Linux generally has incremental improvements, so there's not an obvious "wow" moment (just look at the development of Aqua and Aero and compare to GNOME). Anyone I've shown Ubuntu to likes Compiz, not the OS, but this is not what is marketed and certainly not why most of *us* use Linux. The interface also stays the same for the vast majority of users after an upgrade - no new theme, no new effects, just the same as before. Maybe we need a hint after an upgrade: "New themes are available! Would you like to view them?", taking them to Appearance. I think this goes back to a discussion from a while back to do with marketing to a specific target audience (business, school, home). Each want different things - but until we start to think of it in that way, and identify the market for Ubuntu, it won't see a great deal more adoption outside of the Linux community; while taking Red Hat and SuSE market share can be profitable for Canonical, it's not exactly why I spend my time hacking away (in my own small way). What was my point? No idea. I've gone way, way off topic. Jonathon -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
