New Contest Will Seek the Best "I'm Linux" Video 460
LinuxScribe writes "From Apple's ubiquitous 'I'm a Mac,' to Jerry Seinfeld, to Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' retort, operating system commercials have been flooding the airways. Except that Linux is the one OS that has been notably absent. Now the Linux Foundation is launching a video contest on their new video site to fill this void. The winner gets a trip to Tokyo next year to participate in the Linux Foundation Japan Linux Symposium, and some serious geek cred."
The contest doesn't officially open until late January; the blog post has an email address to contact if you want to get a head start.
Novell already did this (Score:5, Insightful)
And honestly, why are they still beating this whole "I'm a $PLATFORM" bit death rather than creating a new pitch, as Apple will undoubtably do once everyone has parodied their commercial to death.
Re:Script (Score:5, Insightful)
Stupid idea (Score:5, Insightful)
If it had been done right about the time the Microsoft Ads came out, it would have been okay. Doing it now sends the message that Linux is behind the times and unoriginal. Much like using Jerry Seinfeld years after his TV show was a hit.
Re:I vote for Rodney McKay (Score:3, Insightful)
Why can't we just pick a hot nekkid chick?
Re:Script (Score:5, Insightful)
I admit that unlike with these guys I don't easily work with the hardware you already have...
Oh come on, that's needlessly harsh, and not funny. It's not even correct. Does OS X work with the hardware I already own? Does Windows Vista?
Take an Ubuntu 8.04 install CD, and try booting it on "the hardware you already have". In my experience, it will Just Work on just about any computer from the past few years. (An Ubuntu 8.10 install CD will probably work also, but I have seen that fail to work on a laptop... some drivers issue. 8.04 is the "Long Term Support" version, and extra care was taken to make it stable, so that's slightly better for Just Working.)
Ubuntu will do a better job of Just Working on "the hardware you already have" than Windows Vista! 1 GB of RAM is plenty for Ubuntu, and while it might be enough for Vista, I have heard that it's not "plenty". (Supposedly you really want to have at least 2 GB.) Semi-lame graphics cards are fine for Ubuntu, including the desktop bling, where Vista will run in some kind of fallback mode unless your card supports programmable shaders.
If a user can be happy with just a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, email program, web browser (with Flash support), instant messenger, photo viewer, photo editor, music player, and a few light games such as a minesweeper game, then that user can be happy with Ubuntu, nearly out of the box. (For the music player, you will probably want to install the extra codecs such as MP3 that are not installed by default.)
An average user might not be able to install Ubuntu, but will be able to use it if an expert sets it up correctly. An average user might not be able to install Windows, either.
steveha
Re:Marketing is not a product feature (Score:2, Insightful)
Walk up to somebody in your local [insert supermarket here]. Ask them if they use Linux. Ask them if they've HEARD of Linux.
The chances of those two answers being "yes" is going to be low, lower than if you ask about Windows or Mac. Why? Because Microsoft and Apple put their names out there! What does the Linux community do? We make blogs. And give out free CDs. Guess who else gives out free CDs? AOL. Guess what they turn in to? Coasters.
Not everybody cares about their computer as much as you do. Furthermore, non-technical people don't have the time or desire to search the internet and learn all about Linux. Why? Because their Windows/Mac computers work for them and they don't see a need to change. So we need to actively show them why Linux is so great, and do it through the same channels as Microsoft and Apple.
The least effective way to get somebody to do something is to make them go out of their way to do it.
Re:Script (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd like to be the first to say - get a sense of humour? For all the fun poked at everything else around here (especially Vista), it makes it really sad to see somebody taking a joke against Linux way too seriously.
Lighten up.
Re:I vote for Rodney McKay (Score:3, Insightful)
The best... (Score:4, Insightful)
The best contribution won't be a single person, but this huge contribution of several people. Linux isn't one OS for one person. It is embedded. It is desktop. It is server. It runs the cloud. It runs your phone. It runs your coffee maker. Ir runs the web. It runs super-computers. It is the unspoken hero. It is a rock-star.
The only video representation of one character that fits Linux is a representation of all these characters.
Re:Script (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, no. The vast majority of computer users that do not read /. on a regular basis equate "doing Y" with "program X." If you suddenly drop them in front of a completely unfamiliar interface and say, "But you can still do Y, you just have to adapt to a new interface & way of doing some/many/all things you used to do," you will meet with resistance, irritation, and frustration.
Reasonably sophisticated, computer-savvy users can adapt to new programs pretty quickly, and will even go out in search of a program that does things the way they want. The vast majority of users do not fall in this category. They have their status quo that they've learned to use, and they don't want it to change.
It's this fundamental misunderstanding of the willingness of an "average" computer user to change that fuels so much of Linux's struggle on the desktop.
unlikely script (Score:5, Insightful)
Stallman would never say "I'm Linux". ;-)
Script suggestion: Have someone saying "I'm Linux", yelling starts off-camera, camera pans over sort of haphazardly, and Stallman launches into a rant about how it's GNU/Linux.
Re:Don't advertise "Linux", advertise a BRAND (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Don't advertise "Linux", advertise a BRAND (Score:1, Insightful)
If the target audience is regular folks with any background they will go to the computer store and ask about Linux (expecting it to be installed when they purchase the computer). If the computer salesman has computers with any Linux distro in stock he will give the customer a demo of one...
After playing around for a while, quite liking what he sees, the customer will walk a few feet away and pick up one of the boxes and go to the check-out to pay for his new Mac.
"Hey honey, I bought that Mac you wanted. Also saw that new Linux-thingie. Ubuntu something. It's pretty cool."
"It's nice that there are options for every wallet these days when people get laid off."
"Yeah, whatever. Ohh it's shiny. Aluminium."
Re:Script (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Script (Score:1, Insightful)
Yeah, because Windows customer service is just so amazing! Only yesterday my PC was crashing for no obvious reason, and I phoned up Microsoft and they sent someone over to my house to fix it, all for free.
Not.
Actually I don't even know if you can get support from Microsoft. I certainly don't know anyone who's ever done so. Generally they phone up the company who sold them the PC, who tell them to buy a new one. Or they get in some local IT technician who just reformats the whole thing because he doesn't know how to fix it, and leaves them with a computer that's lost all their programs and all their personal settings. If they're lucky they still have some of their data. But they're happy, and even give him money, because they think that's just how things have to be ...
If you want help fixing Windows, you basically have to ask volunteers on the Internet. At which point, you're in exactly the same position as you would be with Linux. So, why do people think Windows has a support advantage? Beats me.
Re:Novell already did this (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow! This is TOTALLY different from Microsoft's "I'm a PC". Campaign!
This is a great idea if you want to further reinforce the idea that Linux is just a low cost community funded Microsoft. (OpenOffice vs. Office XP, Windows vs Linux, Firefox vs IE, Android vs Windows Mobile etc etc). When Open Source and linux goes hunting for ideas they usually shamelessly clone Microsoft products... for better or worse. SO yeah.. let's reinforce that stereotype by cloning Microsoft's ad campaign for Vista.
Re:Novell already did this (Score:3, Insightful)
Can the router stats. People don't give a shit what runs routers, and in the majority of cases it'd be IOS anyway. Stick with what people actually care about.
Re:Novell already did this (Score:4, Insightful)
So basically copying the MS ad?