Forkable Linux Radio Ad Now On the Air In Texas 366
christian.einfeldt writes "Everyone is familiar with the Linux video ads created by IBM, Red Hat, and Novell, but until recently, there have not been any professionally backed forkable radio ads. Now, Austin-based Linux advocate Ken Starks has obtained the services of a professional radio talent in creating a high quality voice track, which can easily be adapted by local providers of Linux computer services. The raw material (mp3, ogg) addresses end-user frustration with Microsoft Windows malware, and promotes Linux as a more stable alternative. Starks hopes the raw material will seed pro-Linux ads across the US, and he offers his own final product as an example of how the raw material can be remixed with music. He has released all of the raw material and final work under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, and has waived the Attribution requirement in his blog. Starks's provocative ad is currently on the air in the Austin market during the popular talk show of Kim Komando, who just happens to be a Microsoft Windows enthusiast."
Great Idea (Score:3, Interesting)
*Yeah, I know there are other things it needs. But they are stuck in a chicken-and-egg battle until Linux gets a higher market share anyway, so we'll just ignore them for now.
"forkable ad"? (Score:5, Interesting)
Pray tell, what exactly is a "forkable ad"? Strangely enough, I get no authoritative hits on "forkable ad" in any of the major search engines. Is this a made-up phrase, or something actually used in the advertising realm?
Everyone is familiar with the Linux video ads.... (Score:3, Interesting)
"Everyone is familiar with the Linux video ads created by IBM, Red Hat, and Novell...."
Don't the people who write this kind of brazen untruth ever feel embarrassed? I use Debian GNU/Linux, I like it, it runs on all my computers, x86, amd64 and armel, but if I wrote that sentence (unlikely) I'd certainly know it was not true. It's a really crappy way to start and article, except for the fact that it sends a clear message. The message is "The author is blinkered/bug-eyed/deluded/evangelical/worrying. Choose any of the aforementioned and don't bother reading any further."
Re:Linux is not like winows. (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't suggest Linux to kids anyway.
Why not?
Not only is my six year old daughter quite happy with Linux, but one of her friends is bugging me to install Linux on his ageing Mac (what he says is "can you make it like hers")
Re:Linux is not like winows. (Score:5, Interesting)
Agreed. My girlfriend's 10 year old son is using a computer I built about 7 years ago with Ubuntu on it. It has much of the complexity he would see in Windows hidden. No control panel, no command line, no start menu with 10 levels of trees. It's so simple any idiot could use it.
The only thing he does online is webmail, flash games, youtube and listen to music. Linux fills that role perfectly.
Maybe some day I will tell him it's also hosting my SSH, ftps, telnet, web and email serving also :)
Forkability may not be too great an idea (Score:3, Interesting)
It's under the CC-BY-SA license.
That means Apple could take up the ad and alter it to be pro-Apple.
Microsoft could use the very content of the ad to develop their own ad deriding Linux as low-grade
I'm hoping it won't happen, but Forkability of marketing materials can be a double-edged sword...
Re:Transcript (Score:4, Interesting)
I want Linux to really be ready for the home desktop of the average user, but it isn't. I don't think we should be kidding ourselves and making ads with false promises like these.
Sorry, that's a crock of shit. Linux is ready for the desktop of the average user. The issue is that they should not be required to install it or do anything beyond okaying the installation of a variety of security updates to the software they use.
I've set quite a few people up with Ubuntu in the past year or so, compared with previously saying "don't do Linux". Your average user now has a real set of expectations from a computer. Linux can meet these needs and expectations, and there is a huge reduction in support headaches when you've convinced people only to install stuff made for their distribution and in a searchable repository.
Dealing with getting real people to use Linux is having someone with a clue set up support for Flash, DVDs, and stuff like that. The one I found hilarious was a friend who's used Windows for years - he asked what bittorrent client you could get for Linux. When I told him Ubuntu installed one by default, well, his jaw hit the floor.
Re:Transcript (Score:3, Interesting)
>> And I'm not sure what decade they're from talking about blue screens of death...
I got one three days ago when I moved a VM from one machine to another. Which, I guess is equivalent to installing some new hardware.
Some of us do things that are more complicated, and still see them regularly... though I do agree that it's way more better than in "the old days."
Re:No FLAC? (Score:2, Interesting)
What's the resolution of FM radio vs. the compressed audio clip?
Standard or HD broadcast quality? In any case, that's a post-production decision to make.
Re:Linux is not like winows. (Score:3, Interesting)
Then we got an 8086 IBM something or other, and so I learned how to use the DOS boot disk, learned something about DOS, got better with Basic, and learned how to fix (very minor) problems. All this at the age of seven or eight -- and not because I meant to, but because I was a kid. Kids will pick up on this stuff without even trying, but because it is how they're wired. That, and because to them, everything is new and thus worth exploring, except maybe multiplcation tables.
I realise today's computer demands go beyond that, and computers are expected to be game machines, web-browsing, myspace-checking, email-sending, video-viewing all-in-one machines. But Linux will do all that without problem, with the possible exception of some games (but I'm not sure I'd want a young kid playing Crysis in the first place). Why not let them use Linux?
I would play it safe though. Expose them to both Linux and Windows. I have my doubts that Windows will remain anywhere near as significant as it is today in the business world, and I believe that Windows' single-minded, "our way or no way" appraoch to everything will eventually be recognised by businesses as a hinderance to productivity, but who knows. Having a basic understanding of how to use it absolutely cannot hurt and will probably help. With today's virtual machines this should be easy -- and they might learn a little something about virtualisation too, which will be important in the future.
Re:Transcript (Score:2, Interesting)
> I haven't spent a dime on security software for Windows in the last ten years.
Mom and Dad users now believe annual subscriptions to Norton and McAfee are part of owning a computer.
> The enterprise Linux distribution comes with a service contract or a professional on-call - on-site - IT staff. Nothing of the sort is being offered in the consumer market.
Have you ever got a useful response out of the support infrastructure that comes with Windows? Me neither. For Mom and Dad, there's likely no difference in support between Win and Lin - in both cases they are likely to have to rely on friends or a computer store.
> Linux runs on old hardware - but who the hell cares?
99.9% (no, I'm not a fraudster!) of computer users. You are an enthusiast, who chooses to spend your disposable income on a fancy computer. But most people want a machine that will let them email/browse. If it kept working for ten years, they'd be happy to continue using it. I think if you were honest about the amount you'd spent on your PC over the years (notwithstanding getting your AV software for free!), you'd understand why most Mom and Dad users (and corporate users for that matter) would be a lot better off with Linux.
I migrated my parents to Linux three years ago for my own sanity. I figured "How do I make it do this?" calls were preferable to the "I think I've got another computer virus" calls. They got used to Linux very quickly, and I now spend probably 5% of the time I used to supporting them. I'd recommend this to anyone who gets bugged to resolve computer problems.
Re:Linux is not like winows. (Score:4, Interesting)
Works for Apple. Remember, you have to step back from the "geek" view. Fact is nongeek users know Windows. They want "Windows without the annoyances of Windows" - this is exactly what Apple sells to the consumer . "We" don't need to sell Linux to geeks, they bought it a long time ago. We "need" to sell Linux to consumers who exactly want "Windows without the annoyances of Windows".
I believe that your approach is what "we" are already doing, and it hassn't worked very well.
Look, first we sell them "Windows without the annoyances of Windows", then we educate them on how Linux is different than Windows, how Linux is not just free Windows.
Re:Fixed (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't believe that he meant everyone like everyone in the world, just everyone from /.
Maybe so, but I don't recall seeing any video ads from any of these companies.
I agree with the GP; "Everyone is [fill in the blank]" is just bad writing. There has never been anything in the history of humankind that "everyone" has agreed upon. Statements like these tune the reader out immediately, because they sound suspiciously like the beginning of a fallacious argument or a ploy: "Everyone agrees that bright red pants are the only pants worth wearing, but is the fact that bright red pants are so incredibly popular actually putting colorblind people at a disadvantage? We spoke to Ron Smith, CEO of Ron's Pants Inc., the company responsible for shipping 90 percent of pants sold in this phenomenally desirable color..."