[In the news] Fedora and GNOME branding drama: Missing the big picture

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 11:57 PM, Frankie Mangoa
<frankiemangoa at gmail.com> wrote:
> I dont know but I think  in my opinion that some people are seeing
> this very differently from some of us.

Yes. ;-)

> It is important for us to have something to show it is a fedora
> desktop and I am a very strong believer of that.

Why? Because the end user wouldn't know otherwise?

> Linux is good and even though we have "small market share" I think it
> is important for us to note the fact hat we must still show it is our
> own brand. this is what makes us proud that one is using fedora and
> the other ubuntu and so on.

If you're proud to run Fedora, you can change your wallpaper to
whatever you like - the default wallpaper or desktop branding matters
not even a tiny bit.

For the rest of the users, they just want something that works, etc.
To be honest, I rarely even see the wallpaper on my desktop so it
could be a Marlborough logo for all I'd notice - and in 15 years of
using Linux the desktop branding and artwork has had precisely zero
impact on my appreciation of or continuing use of (or not) a
distribution.

When there are too few hands to do the available work, it seems to me
a massive waste to argue over the amount of pixels given to $distro
vs. $desktop branding when millions of people still haven't even heard
of Linux -- so effort *could* go towards making marketing materials
and such to promote Fedora *externally* rather than reinforcing pride
on behalf of people who are already converted.

> I believe that it is healthy to have competition between brand because
> it raises the expectation bench mark every time.
> If on did not do this we would probably be in the archaic days.

Yes and no - I never said that it's not a good thing to compete for
bragging rights in terms of being the best distro, but an internal
drama over "wah! RHAT is being mean and saying we have to use GNOME
default wallpaper" when the company is putting a ridiculous amount of
resources into promoting Fedora seems to me a waste.

It may well be unfair, but a sense of perspective on the situation and
you realize "hey, this company is supporting the good guys - even if
they don't always get it exactly right. Is it *really* worth my time
and energy to fight over something this trivial, or could I maybe get
over it and pursue something to mutual benefit?"

> This is just my opinion and I may be wrong but something tells me this
> is heathy.

Sure, internal drama that distracts team members from working together
and making forward progress is *always* healthy. </sarcasm>

Zonker
-- 
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier <jzb at zonker.net>
About: http://www.dissociatedpress.net/about/