Do you mean premium or value? I think we have to pick something focused and show exceptional value. That's one reason why I suggested netbooks. I may be wrong here but the reasons people buy netbooks is to stay connected on the go with a small set of applications. I don't think they're looking for a total desktop solution (yet). If you look at most disruptive brands, brands that dislodged a formidable competitor, they tend to start with low end products and work there way up by consistently delivering more value at the low end. I agree that Average Joe doesn't care about Free+Freedom when it comes to the desktop and the reason is that he has very little choice when he buys his computer. It's like payroll withholding tax in the US. I'd much rather pay my taxes once a year but I can't. The government makes me do it every paycheck so that I forget how much I'm paying in total. Same for a computer. If everyone had a choice when they went into a store between laptop + MSFT = $599 or laptop + Linux = $499, you'd see alot more Linux :). Brent -------------- Brent McConnell OSS Community Manager: Kablink, iFolder Email: bmcconnell@novell.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/emcconne Blog: http://mindby.com
Bryen M Yunashko
8/27/2009 10:00 AM >>> On Thu, 2009-08-27 at 07:43 -0600, Brent McConnell wrote: Sorry about the ramble but my point is that we need 3 things and none are easy 1) A better product ( in some ways we have this and in others we need improvement)
2) Routes to market (how can Average Joe get us?)
3) A focused marketing campaign that builds passionate users in a targeted market (not unlike iPod)
Brent
So how do we work on #3, building passionate users? In my opinion "Free + Freedom" hasn't worked too well. Sure it works well for those of us who understand the underlying differences between platforms, but not for the average joe. While the average joe loves and espouses freedom in nearly every other aspect of society, he just doesn't equate it with technology. In technology, they look for premium and top dollar. So for us, I don't think its about just passion, but making Linux truly look like a premium choice. -- Bryen Yunashko openSUSE Board Member GNOME-A11y Team Member www.bryen.com (Personal Blog) www.planet-a11y.net (Feed aggregator of the Accessibility Community) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-marketing+help@opensuse.org