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.
I vote for Rodney McKay (Score:4, Interesting)
I vote for Rodney McKay
Re:I vote for Rodney McKay (Score:2, Interesting)
Question... (Score:2, Interesting)
Are they looking for accuracy, or persuasiveness?
Troll?? WTH? (Score:1, Interesting)
That was not a troll. At worst it was a funny. Has /. moderation been taken over by Redmond?
Linux share of the Top500 [top500.org] is 87.8%. Linux share keeps growing [practical-tech.com].
Somebody is trying to use the /. moderation system to hide the truth. Please mod them down.
Positioning Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
The key to the Mac and PC commercials has been their positioning.
Apple's Macs are all-in-one machines, that come with both hardware and software. So it's easy for them to position their avatar and straw man appropriately to showcase the advantages of their platform versus Microsoft's. "I'm a has-it-all-together Mac, you're a slightly confused yet assertive PC. Gee, why am I simpler to set up and use?"
Microsoft sells just the software, so they aimed to take the focus off of the 'whole package' aspect and instead focus on the users. Hence their "I'm a PC" campaign. (Incidentally, someone needs to tell Microsoft that PC stands for 'Personal Computer,' and not 'Person using a Computer'..)
The proper Linux positioning should be about Open Source, and how everyone contributes. So instead of an "I'm Linux" response, I'd suggest "We're Linux." Unlike how Microsoft's approach bends the meaning of words 'til they break, "We're Linux" would actually ring true on a lot of levels, from all of the different people whose pieces are put together to make one distribution, to the number of distributions available, to the sheer number of platforms that Linux has been ported to.
Re:Novell already did this (Score:5, Interesting)
(wannabe hipster walks up): I'm a Mac.
(up steps the old middle management guy): I'm a PC.
(scene FILLS with people, 200-300, all dressed in various profession/regional/ethnic attire): *in unison* We, are Ubuntu.
Novel may have info, but people don't pay attention to info. Get their attention with the bagel, then hit them with the book, it's the only way to keep them from eating the pages.
Re:Stupid idea (Score:5, Interesting)
I've always pictured it as:
Starts off as a regular Mac ad. The camera then zooms back to reveal the two dudes standing in front of a white sheet.. zooms further out to reveal the sound guy (you know, the guy working the mic boom - i think it's called 'grip' or something), the director, the stage hands... all wearing "I'm linux" shirts.
Re:Script (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Stupid idea (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know.. "Life without walls"?
If there are no walls, who needs Windows?
Great catchphrase...
Re:Question... (Score:2, Interesting)
"Hi! I'm a Mac, and I'm also a religion."
"Hi! I'm a PC, and I'm not a religion. I'm a King."
Re:Novell already did this (Score:5, Interesting)
With a minor change. Rather than statically standing there announcing who they are, the crowd should be active: riding a unicycle, one guy in chains doing a Houdini act, another person building a hot rod, a person painting an abstract portrait, etc. Rather than speaking in unison, they should all say something different but crescendo with the final word Linux in unison.
My commercial idea (Score:3, Interesting)
Mac and PC are arguing in the foreground, while the whole time they debate there is a guy in the background in coveralls and a hard hat digging a ditch with a large spool of cable nearby.
They argue for a while then eventually notice the third guy.
"Who's that?"
"Oh, that's Linux. Wow...he really looks busy, doesn't he?"
With puzzled looks on their faces they watch him busily dig for a while longer, then cut to the logo.
"Linux. Working hard to bring you the net since 1991."
Iyum Linux (Score:2, Interesting)
How about...
PC and Mac, between them, a bucket. "I'm a PC", "I'm a Mac". Voice says "what's in the bucket". PC says nothing. Mac says quietly "...it's Linux". Voice says "is that it? Is that all Linux does?" Camera shakes, gopher runs on and throws something into the bucket. "Iyum GNU" says the bucket, over a ghostly voice saying "Linux". "We can't make an ad out of this people!" - gopher runs on again, empties pockets, bits of string, bogeys, blu-tack, nails, gaffer tape into bucket. Bucket says "Ahhhh... I am open source and we are legion" in a scary voice. PC and Mac look scared. Pat Volkerding appears (as if by magic) and taps the bucket with a wand. Swirl! A tron light cycle with the Slackware logo on the side appears out of the bucket, Pat jumps on and Pyoon - disappears on a band of light. A guy in a Space suit comes in and taps the bucket with his wand and Swirl, and a beautiful (maybe with a deep tan?) blonde with an Ubuntu sash and a promising look in her eye should appear, and they skip off arm in arm. PC stares, agape, and Mac looks on disapprovingly. Gopher guy rushes on again and shouts into the bucket "Hey Linux, gimme an Ubuntu!". Nothing happens. PC taps him on the shoulder and says "you don't want her, try me, only 500 bucks". Gopher guy backs away in disgust. Mac says "you could always 'go large', amigo, only a kilo". Gopher guy cringes. Bucket swirls with light. Some red headwear appears, with a handsome, if slightly effeminate guy underneath. "I could sssave you sssome sscentsss'. Gopher guys shows some lower teeth. Bucket swirls some more and lots of attractive people, wearing sashes and t-shirts with distro names on, appear out of the bucket, chorusing "we're all free - where are we going?". Gopher guy does the Wizard of Oz dance off set, arm-in-arm with the distros, laughing his head off, to some Mardi Gras-style music.
It's a first cut, let me know, ok?
Re:Novell already did this (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm thinking something a little different. I would abandon the whole concept of trying to parody (or parrot) the Mac concept, and instead try to show what Linux is and what it's really good at.
Here's what I was thinking:
Open with a spectacular image from space, which pulls back to reveal an obervatory. Go through the telescope to the computers recording the readings:
System Name
Location
Base Distro, version (e.g. Debian 3.1)
Kernel version
Path continues through series of routers and hops, each flashes the above system stats. Continues through university network to research lab. Students in lab coats studying data, manipulating images from the observatory. Same stats:
System Name; Location; Base Distro, version (e.g. Debian 3.1); Kernel version
Path continues through routers/hops same as before, through a television news studio (stats as appropriate) and out to an LCD set in your average living room -- could be pretty well anywhere in the western world. It's showing the news we flew through before, which has the same backing image of space that keeps recurring. The anchor talks of 'astronomical discovery'. Show stats of TV:
System Name: Sony XXX LCD TV
Location: All over
Base system: custom kernel
Kernel version: 2.4.1, e.g.
Camera swings around living room to reveal a girl at a table (4th-6th grade). She's got various books and papers around her -- she's working on a project about space. She's also got an eee (or similar), which is open to the same image of the cosmos.
System Name: Asus eee PC 701
Location: The world
Base system: Ubuntu eee
Kernel version 2.6.24-generic
She's chatting with someone about the image -- 'wow, that's amazing' or some such. Camera goes back through the tubes, appropriately showing router stats, to a modern classroom in an unexpected place -- e.g. Africa or Central Asia, where a child is also looking at the image and chatting.
Continue through the tubes to other places around the world where the image pops up on a Linux system. Same system stats as appropriate.
Finish in Peru. It's night and there's a child looking at the same image on an OLPC, chat window open. He's sitting on a stunning cliffside with the ocean below.
System Name: OLPC XO-1
Location: SomeVillage, Peru
Base system: Red-Hat, Sugar
Kernel version: 2.6.?
He looks slowly from the screen up into the night sky. The camera zooms out and follows his gaze back out into space.
Fade to black.
Linux. There are no limits.
How about this... (Score:3, Interesting)
Have a T shirt with "I'm Linux" on it. Have PC and Mac lookalikes say "I'm a PC" and "I'm a Mac". They put on the I'm Linux T and they say "We still work". Have some old guy come in and say "I'm an old computer". He puts it on and says "I still work". etc.
It's more of an anti-Vista ad, but I think it gets a point across. Maybe throw "I'm free" on the back of the T.
Re:Novell already did this (Score:3, Interesting)
(scene FILLS with people, 200-300, all dressed in various profession/regional/ethnic attire): *in unison* We, are Ubuntu.
Sorry, professional marketing flack here. You scare people away with a mob.
Much more useful to meme building would be a single person to focus in on.
So let's make it a trio, and move the drama away from the first two.
"Hi, I'm a Mac" + "Hi, I'm a PC" doing the basic Mac vs. PC posturing. Third guy at a desk, says nothing, just rapidly working through paperwork. Simple name plate on desk "Linux", stuffed Tux in the corner for brand identification. After a bit of meaningless byplay on the part of Mac & PC, they show their annoyance at Linux. "Hey!" says the nearest, tapping the desk of Linux. "You're not playing the game!" Linux smiles at them, then goes back to work without a word. Cap it with a tag line "Linux. Some people just want it to work."
Re:The best... (Score:3, Interesting)
This contest will be another excellent example of how infinity unpaid volunteers can't match a single well paid expert.
I'm sure I'll have a good lol at the results though.
Re:This is why *nix guys are not marketers (Score:3, Interesting)
And that lovely lemony fragrance! :)
(lightbulb)
I know! Could this be a case for (roll of drums) Forced Car Analogy ?
-------
(blank white studio interior).
(white stretch limo draws up, filling screen).
(driver, Vince Vaughn, wearing lots of gold jewelery sticks head and arm out of the window, and starts shouting to camera).
"HI! I drive a MAC, cos MAC's show you've got CASH to FLASH! The Macintosh is the most EXPENSIVE computer. It don't fit in no standard parking bays, and it don't get many miles to a tank, but when its runs outta gas, YOU JUST BUYS YOU A NEW ONE!! "
(beams)
(camera pulls back, now another car pulls up in parallel, filling the screen. In the background, we can just about see some activity relating to the limo driving away.)
(the new car is a more standard US car, black, but with fake bodywork panels of a different colour (some white) badly attached with stickytape and screws to try and make it look larger and more limo-like. It has an incongruous rear spoiler, fluffy dice and large "General Autos" logos everywhere. )
"I got a Microsoft. It's ... well, actually it's not really all that great, but it was a little bit cheaper than the Apple." (pulls a glum smile)
"And when bits fall off, you can get people to fix it. There's support places everywhere."
(car judders, makes conga-conga-conga-CONK noise, followed by clatter of exhaust falling off)
(camera pulls back again, car dissolves)
(small car, VW Golf or similar, speeds into frame, stops, driver glances over their shoulder at camera and states a single word).
"Linux"
(car speeds off again)
=Linux end-credits splash screen=
(silence. different car, larger, different colour, speeds into frame and screeches to a halt. It has the same driver This time the driver doesn't turn to look at the camera, but stays looking directly ahead, and they rev the engine and calmly put on a pair of sunglasses).
"And it's free."
(driver slams puts their foot down and car leaves the screen at high speed).
(screen is now blank) (distant noise of high-speed car activity coming and going)
Voiceover:
"SOMEONE's using Linux"