Stories circulate around the net discussing Microsoft’s announcement that it will sell a Windows 7 Starter Edition. The main catch: you can only run 3 programmes at once. Clearly, they are aiming to sell this piece of … something … on note-/netbooks. I was wondering – who will buy it? And after some (lengthy) thinking, I came to the conclusion that some people definitely will. Not because it’s so stupidly restricted, not because it’s the newest, most secure version (7 – who came up with that numbering all of a sudden, hahhaha!), and not because it contains some astonishing new functionality. They will buy it simply because they are afraid of the unknown. It’s difficult to have worked in a Windows environment for years and years and suddenly change to something else, like Linux, or BSD, or Android (which seems to be Google-speak for Linux on mobile devices). We’re all human and afraid of the blind spots on our maps, at least a bit. That’s why MS has us.
22nd April 2009 at 19:21
People are less afraid of change if it’s marketed correctly.
Apple has marketing geniuses in its employ. “Think Different,” while grammatically incorrect, was sheer brilliance. It set up difference as not something to be scared of but something to be proud of. When you’re on a Mac, you’re not a lost soul. You’re a nonconformist! That’s what that ad was saying.
Unfortunately, Linux has no such ads. The ads the Linux netbooks get are Dell recommends Windows Vista for everyday computing or Upgrade to XP for $50 (yes, of course, Windows XP is an “upgrade” from Ubuntu). So then people think “Oh, this different-from-Windows… Li-nux thing is a downgrade… it’s just some cheap imitation, like Wal-profen or Trader Joe’s O’s.”
23rd April 2009 at 0:51
Yes, I think we can agree that spreading the word (whether we call it marketing or not) is vital here. But it has to be done in a very powerful, memorable manner. That’s why I rather enthusiastically commented earlier (http://q0nd0rw3ary.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/we-are-linux/) on the Linux Foundation’s serious attempt at producing high-quality video ads for Linux. I find the community effort here not only touching but also essential: Linux is all about community.