On Friday 06 Aug 2010 12:02:16 Jos Poortvliet wrote:

On Thursday 05 August 2010 13:36:30 C wrote:

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On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 13:23, Martin Schlander wrote:

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I'm in Denmark :-)

And here Ubuntu (+derivatives like Mint) have at least 60% of the home user linux market, maybe even more. And steadily growing.

And therein lies a question... why? Why is Ubuntu gaining so much at the expense of others like openSUSE? Maybe because it's dead easy to install. I am amazed at how well 10.04 works, and how easy it was to install... openSUSE on the other hand... not so easy. It's not hard, but t's certainly a lot more involved and cryptic than Ubuntu is to install and use... ease of use.. ease of install go a LONG way towards acceptance and uptake.

<snip>

Imho the problem is more marketing than quality - but marketing also depends heavily on a clear and consise message. KDE marketing for example got a huge boost from the KDE 4 series: a strong focus on innovation and new things. Now the actual product wasn't that great, initially, but ppl saw the vision and we had literally hundreds and hundreds of new developers join the KDE community, while the GNOME numbers kept the same or even shrunk a bit at that time.

I'm with Jos on this one, it's about marketing, nothing more, nothing less. People who want to try Linux on the Desktop think in terms of Brand! Ubuntu has high brand recognition. Unsophisticated Desktop users don't think "I want Linux", they think more along the lines of "I want an alternative to windows" The default to them is either Apple or Ubuntu because to them Linux IS Ubuntu. That's a function of brand recognition. Ubuntu have done their marketing well lifting their brand recognition

openSUSE lacks a clear direction, Ubuntu does not. So Ubuntu has a very clear image - anyone can see what it is about. And it helps them.

It's less about clear image than about a distinctive, recognisable image. Firefox and Ubuntu have both done well in the visibility stakes. High recognition, warm colours and Ubuntu added a good back story. That's good marketing and at the sharp end of that is the idea that "Ubuntu is the only economical alternative to windows". Are we then competing with Ubuntu, on one level yes we are, it is one of the distinctive attributes of the bazaar model we are competing against but with each other. But as far as the Simple enduser is concerned our two stalls are for all intents and purposes selling the same thing, just different coloured wrapping paper. One of the basic tenets of marketing: "Find your point of difference" One of the reasons I like the idea of the "No 1 KDE Distro" is it gives us a point of difference that the enduser can see and thus easily sets us apart from Ubuntu. Given no point of difference and no price differential then our Enduser is going to go with the recognised brand. I'm keen on the Retail Boxes because that also allows us a price differential, and I believe in our favour. A price gives a consumer security, there has been an exchange of values. The consumer has made a decision that the value he is receiving in the boxed set is equivalent to the amount of exchange he has made in the purchase. He has by that action placed a value on it. Another simple marketing tool is "Competitor Analysis." What are their Pros and Cons Pro side High Brand recognition Simple install Fits on a CD and this is a biggy - Local community support It's what makes windows so dominant, jo blo next door, or brother or kids can help out and give support. Ubuntu does this better than we do. on the Con Side Installation gives the user very little choice media is limited to a CD to someone who doesn't have broadband this is an issue during install, (however the CD does allow for a fully functional system.) Limited to Desktop only unless you get separate media So therefore, you attack the weak points and you strengthen against their strong points. We need to increase our brand recognition..... no argument there, although there maybe debate as to how we achieve that, I have some ideas but that's for another thread. Set our install up so it's possible to get a functioning install with minimal interaction from the user. That means a default desktop: KDE to emphasise the point of difference. /However, given the size of modern harddrives I see no reason why KDE, Gnome, XFCE, icewm and Window Maker can't all be installed if the install script detects an HD over say 160 GB. Then on the Login screen make the ability to choose more obvious, an icon for each desktop. Lets live by the: "Have a lot of fun". I did, just once, set my wife's desktop default to Window Maker with one of the Goth style naked lady backgrounds! :D So we have a default but with choice!/ Additionally common proprietary codecs and drivers should be on the DVD or at first launch a script should launch asking the user if they want Video and Audio codecs installed so they can play their windows media files. Graphics drivers would be good, but the Nvidia ones have been a bit too variable, so for reliabilities sake..... For OEM, that would obviously be a different issue That's not a big marketing thing but it is a selling point and good selling points that work, turn into good marketing later as word of mouth kicks in. <snip>

So again. Nobody knows this stuff (I know I didn't until a few hours ago, darn) and that's why Ubuntu seems so popular. Reality, while nobody has hard numbers, is most likely different. And I hope now that I'm here the openSUSE marketing team can work more with the Novell marketing team, and get the word out on how populuar our dear Geeko (both openSUSE and SLED) really is!

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Anyway... this is beyond the scope of the original discussion.

Yep, and I made it worse, sorry about that... But I wanted to make clear that it ain't that bad and we can reverse it. Having a clear strategy, whatever it turns out to be, will help with that. And as I've kind-of said before, I support a focus on powerusers and developers or the cloud/mobile one. Both bring the opportunity of a clear direction throughout the stack and much potential for improvement and growth. And both are easy to market ;-)

A word of caution: "Easy" to market often ends up in lousy uptake. Find the area of achievable growth. Define the demographic, then create to pitch at that target market. Strategies that fail are those that try to be all things to all people and thus lose focus. Define your goals, test results against those goals and modify to suit. simple really Cheers G Apologies for the length of this :/ -- Graham Lauder, OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html OpenOffice.org Migration and training Consultant. Ambassador for OpenSUSE Linux on your Desktop INGOTs Assessor Trainer (International Grades in Office Technologies) www.theingots.org.nz -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org