Re: OpenCD & GNOME

[Claus Schwarm <c schwarm gmx net>]

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 09:34:39 +0200
Dave Neary <dneary free fr> wrote:

> 
> Hi,
> 
> Claus Schwarm a écrit :
> > I'm afraid you gotta be a litte bit more precise: Who should care
> > about these claims? Windows users?
> 
> I'll try to explain...
> 
> 
> We are involved in marketing GNOME.
> 
> 90%+ of the world is running Windows. Of that 90%+, quite a few are 
> hobbyists who haven't even heard of us.
> 

Gosh! Really?

I must have missed a memo, then. ;-)


> We should be working with the OpenCD to get the CD shipped to as many 
> people as possible, and making sure that GNOME has a brand presence in
> there. We should be contacting magazines asking them to include the
> CD,  and offerring to write short articles on what's on the CD. We
> want  people to get the message that installing GNOME software on
> Windows is  putting them on the path to a happier computer usage.
> 

That's what the information I was missing. Thanks!

Your first mail reads as if you and the guys of the OpenCD agreed on a
cross-promotion: We feature them (say: space on the front page for a
certain period), and they feature us (space somewhere to place something
in).

It was not clear - at least to me - that you were talking about
promoting both in your first mail. Thus, your paragraph "The sell is
not the development environment, it's the applications... " was so
confusing.


> We want people installing GNOME applications on Windows to know that 
> there is A Better Way (TM) - that these same applications work well on
> the GNOME desktop, and that there are a bunch of other applications 
> available too.


Yes. Please read carefully: GNOME is a complex product that needs
explanation. A logo based gimmek won't do. Any text about
"build with the GNOME development enviroment" will trigger the thought:
"Development? I don't care about this."

However.

I guess the OpenCD has some kind of portal, a sort of build-in webpage
that starts after inserting the CD. Is this correct?

If so, we can simply take our web page tour (when ready) and ask the
OpenCD guys if it's possible to integrate that. Then, a message near the
application descriptions (text or banner) can be placed that links to
this tour on the CD.

This is another easy step between looking at Windows applications and
trying to get a LiveCD working. It also explains GNOME better then any
text-only message or a banner could do. This is also good for people
with bad internet connections.

The disadvanatage is that magazines will be less likely to distribute it
but I'm not sure if they would do this without additional funding,
anyway.

The difference of this approach with "GNOME desktop software for 
free on Windows" is that we'd provide an answer to the "WTF is
Humpfty?" question.

This will make GNOME fans also (more) interested to spread the CD.
Otherwise, it's just a bunch of open source apps that everybody with a
good internet connection can do for his friend.

After that's done we can ask Andreas to make a banner for gnome.org
("The OpenCD is here!", or something tbd), and we can do an announcement
on footnotes. That'll spread the OpenCD.

You just need to find somebody who organizes this.

Cheers,
Claus

P.S.: Just a minor comment: I believe this whole discussion could have
been shorter if you'd have provided suffcient infos in the beginning:
Your base idea, the target group(s), the possible techniques and space a
designer could use, maybe even a screenshot to get an idea how it looks
like without many people be forced to download a complete CD.

In hindsight, I should have said this clearly and earlier. I admit that
was my fault. Therefore, I apologize.