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On Sat, 2005-06-25 at 12:16 +1000, Mike MacCana wrote:
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 10:21 -0400, Jeff Spaleta wrote:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> On 6/24/05, Mike MacCana <<A HREF="mailto:mikem@cyber.com.au">mikem@cyber.com.au</A>> wrote:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > Er, why? Why does targeting (or 'pandering to') an audience mean you</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > will likely mislead them more or less than if you scatter your message</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > to the universe?</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Because I don't think fedora or any other distribution is the obvious</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> choice for any particular group of people or individual person. </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Firefox, openoffice, codeweavers... these items exist in a near vacuum</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> of choice and by their very nature they have a clear directive to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> market towards existing windows users. I'm not sure fedora has such a</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> clear directive nor is fedora positioned to be the "one true</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> alternative" in the space where its operating.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">I don't think it's the 'one true alternative either'. I think it's one</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">of about three.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">End user focused Linux distros are far and few between.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> How exactly do you market</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> one breed of dog compared to another breed of dog successfully to the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> casual dog buyer?</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">You find out that user's wants and desires, and find a breed of dog that</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">matches.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Selling everyone German shepherds is a dumb idea. Selling them to people</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">looking for police dogs makes a great deal more sense.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> I'd rather see</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> us help guide the linux courious into asking the right questions and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> making the right choices for themselves. If that means mepis or</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> ubuntu or mandrake or knoppix or even fedora... great!</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Same here. But I want Fedora to be one of the things they try.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Currently fedora.redhat.com doesn't market Fedora in any way, shape of</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">form. In fact, it probably does the opposite, by focusing more on what</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">it isn't than what it is.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > Do you think that technically minded user, who's nevertheless used to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > Windows, would be happier with a distro that can probe his monitor, or</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > one that'll ask him for 'modelines', when he doesn't know what they are?</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> This is what I am very wary of. I do not believe its in the linux</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> community's best interest to draw direct comparisons between this</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> distro versus any other. "You're cocker-spaniel is totally not as</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> good for a first time dog owner as my golden retriever." </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Why not? First time down owners require a dog that doesn't mess the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">house, or require too much maintenance, or whatever. Marketing a dog</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">breed that reflects those needs is simple logic.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> I want to make sure that we focus on having people ask</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> questions </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">That sounds an awful lot like you want to identify a market Jeff ;^)</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> and draw their own conclusions about what is valuable to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> them. </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Sure - let them know there's other Linux distros. I actually think it'd</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">be good to encourage our audience to try other distros that reflect</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">their needs - say, Ubuntu and NLD for Linux newcomers - themselves. And</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">let them make up their own mind.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">But provide the info that makes sure they're aware that Fedora will meet</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">their needs. That it works, has testing, an isn't a beta. That it's got</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">a simple install process, a good set of modern graphical config tools,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">modern, carefully selected OSS apps, a common look and feel, etc. People</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">who appreciate such things can then know Fedora provides them.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">And hence, the user wins.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Mike</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">--</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Fedora-marketing-list mailing list</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="mailto:Fedora-marketing-list@redhat.com">Fedora-marketing-list@redhat.com</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list">http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list</A></FONT>
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I know i will be ostracized for this, but you guys are bantering in here about crap and nothing is being done.<BR>
If you would like to participate in a mambo that I set up, then cool, hit here: <A HREF="http://fedorasolved.com/fccp">http://fedorasolved.com/fccp</A><BR>
<BR>
but the rest of this 'mailing list jerk off crap' is a waste of time.<BR>
<BR>
I want to help, and I want to hit it and do it. By the time some 'committee' ok's anything it's already down the road and lost.<BR>
then 'net is *NOW*, and you are wasting time with semantics and pissing contests.<BR>
<BR>
take care...I am unsubscribing....still love you all, heheh. see ya around, it's a small world.<BR>
<BR>
=G<BR>
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-- <BR>
W. Guy Thomas <<A HREF="mailto:mrguytx@austin.rr.com">mrguytx@austin.rr.com</A>>
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