Re: GNOME 3.0 Marketing Brainstorming #1 - Audiences

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Paul:

> End users can be segmented by experience levels:
>
>    1. The beginner and infrequent user,
>    2. the advanced and frequent user, and
>    3. the experienced user.

This is true, and I think that it is a good idea to think about how we
market GNOME to these different audiences.

> According to a post in the Ubuntu forums 
> <http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=220929&postcount=18>, Ubuntu 
> as a platform is currently suitable for beginner and experienced users 
> only, not for advanced users. This may also be said about Linux and GNOME.
>
> I'd like to revisit the idea of the "advanced" user - with the move to 
> web applications over the last few years, would you agree with the 
> statement that GNOME is not suitable for advanced users?

No.  In fact, I do not think the author of that post is really saying
what you are suggesting.  The most convincing argument he gives why
some users do not like UNIX is because it can be hard to set up and
it is not so easy to buy a machine pre-installed with UNIX.  While true,
I do not think this really relates to this user's experience level.
Also, the situation has improved since 2004, when the post was written.
UNIX tends to work better on more hardware these days, and there are
more opportunities to buy pre-installed UNIX machines than in 2004.

The author of that post is correct that UNIX is not a great operating
system for people who like to play games.  UNIX is okay if you like
playing generic games like sudoku, mahjongg or blackjack, but gaming
companies do not currently target UNIX at all.

That said, I do not think gaming on the PC is a big market anymore.
Most people who are serious gamers are moving towards using the
Playstation, Xbox, or Wii platforms.  There are still some PC games that
are popular - especially on-line games like Warcraft.  But I do not
think the gaming market is as big of a deal as it was in 2004 when the
post you reference was written.

Brian