Re: Marketing, GNOME 3.0 and subteams

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Alex:

> Just to be clear; I absolutely agree with that. I'm not saying it's not
> worth making that kind of statement, or that it's worth telling people
> about the accessibility - in fact, I think those are hugely important
> messages. I just don't think it's going to get close to swaying most
> people, because from my experience they really don't give a hoot about it.

I agree, the hurd mentality that people have is sad.  Thats one reason
why I think the humanitarian angle might be a good way to get people to
give more of a hoot.  I think people tend to get more engaged when you
can present a more human side of things, and not just focus on the
technology.  Though, I'm sure there are other angles.

> > Then perhaps you are on the wrong mailing list? Obviously one major
> > goal of this forum is to figure out how to overcome these issues. I
> > don't think throwing up our hands and saying "it can't be done" is
> > helpful. Or do you have any suggestions on what you think would make
> > for a more successful marketing strategy?
>
> That's a great point, and clearly it's possible to overcome these issues
> in some way: Macintosh is, to me, an excellent example of an enthused
> user base which generates sufficient revenue from its customers that the
> people developing it can go forwards leaps and bounds.
>
> In the general case, I don't think free software is in that situation.
> Firefox, as a stand-out example, is funded essentially by advertising -
> and honestly, if Google disappeared for them tomorrow, I think they
> would be in serious trouble.

Yes, though I don't think Firefox is the best example.  Since Firefox
runs on Windows and MacOS, it doesn't really challenge the user to
understand the real benefits of free software.  I'm not saying Firefox
is bad, just that they are in a different situation than GNOME, or
free software in general.

> I think my main concern is that trying to out-Windows Windows is
> basically a losing argument: they have a monopoly on the market, and
> it's locked in effectively by network effects. No matter how much better
> GNOME is virtually all aspects, it will have severe trouble competing on
> that ground.

I'm not sure that I agree.  Even if GNOME doesn't do everything Windows
can do, GNOME is reaching a point where it can meet the needs of many
users.  Most people want to use a computer to exchange email, access
the web, use Office products, access media, etc.  For people who don't
need all that Windows offers, GNOME could be an alternative and the
fact that it is less expensive could help people to make a transition
to a more affordable desktop.

I think one of the major hurdles in making GNOME-based desktops
competitive is the fact that historically it has been hard to support
non-free media, such as MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WindowMedia, etc.  It has only
been in the recent past that Fluendo's codecs have started to close
this important gap.

Now users can realistically use a free operating system and not have
to do without support for common media formats like MP3.  Many users
wouldn't consider using an operating system that only allowed them
to play ogg-vorbis and theora media files.  GNOME needs media solutions
that can be distributed to end users legally.

However, we're not fully there yet.  There still isn't a good DVD
player that can be distributed with a free operating system.  Many
users would likely not consider a desktop that can't play DVD's.
Though Fluendo promises they will release one soon.  Once that is
available, I think it will be a real milestone.

> My approach would be to gain a beachhead in a specific but widely-used
> niche that GNOME can be specifically, but not exclusively, marketed
> into. Our huge, huge advantage over Windows - again, imho :) - is that
> GNOME isn't as competitive with third parties / ISVs / others as MS is,
> and doesn't have the same conflict of interests. That means that GNOME
> will integrate where Windows won't dare, and look out for the user as
> #1. Personally, that's how I would look to market it: you have the
> various DRM examples, even iTunes etc., where software is designed to do
> things that are not in the interest of the user - which comes down to
> the entire raison d'etre of free software. Going there is a place that
> other software (apart from Kde ;) cannot follow, so that would be my
> approach.

Agreed.  Getting GNOME into small devices, and GNOME mobile should be
an important part of our marketing plan.  It's unfortunately been slow
going getting small-device manufacturers interested in using solutions
based on GNOME.  But you are right, it would be a major win if GNOME
were able to make more inroads here.

> But, I'm not like fixed on these ideas - you may well be right. I see
> things from a specific UK-small-busines bias, which is admittedly only a
> small section of life. I'm also not a GNOME developer really, but I do
> develop software that I want GNOME to integrate into and rock hard with,
> so that is also partially my bias. At the end of the day, it's vastly
> more important to a. agree on a message and b. hammer it home. I'm
> onboard with that, so insofar as the right mailing list is concerned, I
> think I'm on it :) Just chucking in my 2c!

And it is appreciated.  Putting together any reasonable marketing
strategy will take a lot of input from a lot of different perspectives.

Brian