Spreading the word.. aka marketing.
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So, marketing has been something I have been thinking a lot about in the FOSS and Freedom worlds, and how it is often sub-par compared to Proprietary and Corporate land.
"Guerilla" marketing has been something that has peeked my interest, but in general the name of the game period, is getting noticed. I do believe in being ethical, even if the opposition doesn't. Two wrongs do not make a right.
Ruben has done a great job with Trisquel and I wish to "spread the wealth" and share it with others. However, he does have his hands full preparing each new release while simultaneously maintaining the past ones, this website, etc. Being a FOSS community, I know some of us can/will help him out with this as we've done with other things already. As I come up with ideas to promote Trisquel, I will post them here for your viewing pleasure and feedback. Please feel free to throw out your own.
So far, this is a few things.
1.
I came across Ubuntu branded pastebin today. I would be willing to use a Trisquel branded version if there were one, how about you?
http://paste.ubuntu.com/696591/
2.
I often find myself at a loss of words when asked why one would may like Trisquel. I use it because A. It's about the only logical choice being that I don't speak Spanish (most FSF endorsed distros seem to be) and is the only as well maintained 100% libre distro I am aware of, B. It's much "prettier" and better designed (layout wise) than the other options, C. I've actually had less trouble with Trisquel than I ever had with Ubuntu, etc.
A few of these may be OK for experienced GNU/Linux users, but if they are committed to Freedom then they likely are already aware of Trisquel. If they are an alternative OS user, then none hold much water.
For the 4.5 press release, features were laid out somewhat, which is great. I think that may have helped get the press release itself featured on Slashdot.org. Some bullet points on what makes Trisquel great, besides libre, would help give potential users and idea of why they should take an initial test drive. Perhaps thought could be given to carefully word in order to target both new and experienced GNU/Linux users in the same text. I plan to ponder on this more, but I wanted to toss it out there for your consideration as well.
I am a translator!
When I explain to Windows users why GNU/Linux is better, I always try to focus on the following points:
1. You get no viruses with GNU/Linux, it has a better concept of security and less viruses written for it
2. You can install software for any purpose easily from the software-center. No need to activate software with keys or pay hundreds of euros just to get a legal copy for PERSONAL use.
3. The system is much more stable than Windows, it never slows down over time.
The moral issues may be more important for the people who are aware of them, but if you never thought about software choice as having something to do with morals, it's very hard to understand the concept. So I try to talk about all of the technical advantages first and later tell them what GNU/Linux is really all about.
Honestly, I think Trisquel is the best looking Gnome 2 based distro and curious to see how it eventually looks in Gnome 3 and Unity.
As for marketing, do you think that Richard Stallman will ever mention Trisquel in his speeches? I know he is a big fan of gNewSense but cannot hurt to get some love from the horse's mouth.
Speaking of Stallman, does he even have a job or does he just make a living from his speeches? It just seems he gets paid to talk bad about everyone and money is funneled though his non profit organization, the NSF in Boston.
I am a member!
Dr. Stallman himself seems to prefer gNewSense but the FSF organization and GNU project lean towards Trisquel, possibly because it is prettier and easier to use. The screenshot of GNU featured on gnu.org is of Trisquel (http://www.gnu.org/distros/screenshot.html) and FSF member cards feature Trisquel.
And rms regularly mention Trisquel among other 100% Free distributions.
He only makes a living from his talks who are more about talking about software freedoms, copyrights or patents, than "talking bad about everyone and money". In particular he has strictly nothing against making money ethically (although he believes that companies should not be allowed to be become so huge that they gain much political power and are not allowed to fail during a crisis). As far as I know he directly receives the money for his talks. The money he collects at the end of his talks is for the Free Software Foundation. He is the benevolent president of this organization since 1984 and has never received any money from it.
Yes, RMS was on Computer America (and I forgot and missed my chance to call in), and when I listened to the episode if i recall correctly he mentioned Trisquel. But I know he has in fact mentioned it for certain because I heard him, if it wasn't there. It may be due to the laptop that he uses and that he's got everything setup already as to why he uses gNewSense... who knows.
I think Stallman's laptop has a processor architecture that is supported by gNewSense, but not by Trisquel.
> I think Stallman's laptop has a processor architecture that is
> supported by gNewSense, but not by Trisquel.
http://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html and
http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/ contain more details.
Practically all machines supported by Trisquel come with nonfree
software (e.g. their BIOS) and their makers promote running nonfree
operating systems on them, so the OLPC argument mostly applies to them.
Good news? This is soon going to change...
Finally, AMD is now committed to support coreboot for all future products on the roadmap starting next with support for the upcoming “Llano” APU. AMD has come to realize that coreboot is useful in a myriad of applications and markets, even beyond what was originally considered. Consequently, AMD plans to continue building its support of coreboot in both features and roadmap for the foreseeable future.
http://blogs.coreboot.org/blog/2011/05/06/amd-commits-to-coreboot/
How open is the ARM architecture? It seems to be gaining popularity especially with more tablets in the wild. I was reading that the Ubuntu 11.10 codebase has greater support for it on the desktop and server side in addition to Windows 8 being the first Windows OS to support it.
I do not really mean by "open" but, AFAIK, most ARM chips are running a Linux kernel (for embedded devices, Android handsets/tablets, etc.). That is why I guess most of the development to support this architecture ends up in Linux licensed under the GPLv2 license.
What do you all think of the ideas I put forth? There was already a thread about approaching people. I had intended this one to be more about marketing directly, i.e. "product placement' type stuff where people get exposed to it as they come across it.
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