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Linux Foundation Asks Who Says "I'm Linux" Best 459

An anonymous reader writes "Everyone has seen Apple's clever 'I'm a Mac' ads, and Microsoft's attempted responses, first with Jerry Seinfeld, and next with 'I'm a PC.' The Linux Foundation tries to fire back with its community-generated 'We're Linux' video contest: all of the eligible videos have now been submitted and are ready to be voted on. Thankfully, the quality of Linux is much higher than the quality of some of these entries: entries range from the hilarious but inappropriate, to the well-made but creepy, to the 'I'm sure it sounded good in your head.' Thankfully, there are one or two that could actually be real commercials."
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Linux Foundation Asks Who Says "I'm Linux" Best

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  • by biryokumaru ( 822262 ) * <biryokumaru@gmail.com> on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:34PM (#27245049)
    What ever happened to:
    ahttp://ubergeek.tv/article.php?pid=54
  • by jonnyj ( 1011131 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:37PM (#27245115)
    Great product, shame about the marketing. That's why Canonical / Ubuntu is so important.
    • by Ethanol-fueled ( 1125189 ) * on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @02:38PM (#27246155) Homepage Journal
      The Linux.com contest is cute, but not much is accomplished for Microsoft or Linux as long as they are aping Apple's ad campaign. Such ads would only give the impression that Microsoft and Linux are late to the "cool party".

      It'd be nice if Canonical (or any other serious player, or especially a consortium) released ads which played on Linux' strengths and dispelled the myths of modern Linux. They could show a stylish but smart person being the Linux user and his curious but skeptical friend asking the questions:
      • "Dosen't an expert need to set up Linux?" "No, it's quick and easy!" (show a YAST or GRUB GUI installation)
      • "Can I change the way it looks?" "Sure, much more than Vista or OSX!" (quickly show a wide variety of theme shots)
      • "How do I install software?" "Look, it's easy. Everything is at your fingertips." (show the GUI apt-get)
      • "Does Linux work with different hardware?" "Of course." (show rapid-fire shots of CUPS recognition, multiple monitors, etc.)
      • "Can I run my Windows programs on Linux?" "Yes you can." (show WINE in action)

      But more importantly, Linux must go on the offensive. They must stress that they are capable of doing fancy stuff(show the oblig compiz-fusion screenshot), and they should mention the freedom that users will have to do whatever they want with their computer while reminding the users how annoying iTunes is for trying to install other crap under your nose. Maybe have a cheap shot at the "Vista capable" fiasco and the fact that Vista and 7 are the same thing are both prime targets for malware. Stress that users do have a choice!

      • by FishWithAHammer ( 957772 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @03:11PM (#27246731)

        You ever notice how nobody really talks about features the way you're describing? It's because that's basically nerd porn. Everyone else would just go "jesus, that's boring" and tune out.

        This is something most of the Linux community doesn't get: People don't give a fuck about computers. It's like a car: the only time they care is when it isn't doing what they want it to.

        And, right now, it's a lot easier to get a Linux machine to the isn't-doing-what-they-want-it-to point than a Windows machine. (If you have to mention WINE, you pretty much already failed. WINE is an admirable effort that requires a level of technical proficiency or at least willingness to Google to get a lot of stuff running well--neither of which are things end users will do.)

        • by Americano ( 920576 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @03:58PM (#27247501)

          People don't give a fuck about computers. It's like a car: the only time they care is when it isn't doing what they want it to.

          Well said. Put slightly differently [hbs.edu] by Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt:

          People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.

          There's a reason why most Mac ads talk about how the Mac makes "real stuff" (photos, video, music, email, setting up a new printer...) easy: it's the holes they're talking about, not the drill.

          • by yoshi_mon ( 172895 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @05:28PM (#27248803)

            Another great way of putting the same idea. And while I agree I think that there is a bit more to the idea than even the previous poster says.

            Small % of people - Those in the know about a product and want all the 'nerd pron'. (Or to put it another way they know all about their needs.) To such people ads that show all the flash over substance are meh at best. However...that's kind of the whole point. The mass scale marketing can't be tailored for this very small set of people.

            Slightly larger % of people - These people are not the techs who are in the above category but rather the managers of those techs. Or the 'enthusiast' part of the market. The kind of people, for example, who do dual-phase cooling on chips that were designed for simple HSF setups. Still however this is not the target that mass scale marketing has to aim for.

            Nearly every other bit of the % of people - The masses who want that hole not the bit. This is the target audience that when thinking about mass marketing your looking at. For example when I think about a fan belt for my car I sure as hell don't fall into either of the above two categories. I'm just looking for a part that will get the job done and not cost me an arm and a leg.

            And mind you there are those to whom fan belts are important things that they want to know all sorts of details about when they think about them. But much like when I think about my OSs don't fall into that 3rd category.

            And therein lies the rub. Most of us who have been involved in FOSS fall directly into the 1st or 2nd category in my list. And as such we make very poor advocates for it at times. Because the majority of people don't really care about FEATURE X that to us is really really cool and important.

            This is getting way too long winded so I'll just close in saying whenever any of the great FOSS conversion stores are shared, most of the best ones include users who just want something that works. Not the other 99% of the nerd pron that we like to go on about.

          • by waveclaw ( 43274 ) on Thursday March 19, 2009 @09:05AM (#27255133) Homepage Journal

            Handyman's rule: all tools are hammers except chisels which are screwdrivers. What you buy something for may not be what it gets used to do.

            Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt:

            People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.

            Then explain the number of pristine, never to be used and decidedly overpowered tools sitting in many 'crasftsman' garages? I always felt Levitt was missing the mark. A lot of purchase decisions are about having the rights quarter-inch drill, regardless of its utility for making holes.

            People will buy a car to drive on a road, but what car they buy and why may have nothing at all to do with driving. Operating Systems today are not a choice about practicality or functionality, but of style and ethos. The hobbyist feel and methods of Linux are not that far removed from the home mechanic tinkering with his hot rod that never leaves the driveway.

            Linux won't garner marketshare based on being the quarter-inch hole maker of Personal Computers. We have Macs and corporate-desktop Windows for that.

            Linux.com has to differentiate Linux from its competitors and show that it's the sexiest drill in the cabinet. Pasty nerds arguing over the last donut doesn't do either of these. Honestly, Ubuntu's graphics artists and Novell's XGL efforts did more to make people say "I want that on my computer" than 5 years of making Office 20XD6 work a little better on crappy hardware.

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by Americano ( 920576 )

              Then explain the number of pristine, never to be used and decidedly overpowered tools sitting in many 'crasftsman' garages?

              That's your hobbyist community. For whom Linux is probably the right choice. They may not NEED that drill, but by god they can sleep comfortably at night knowing that if they ever need to drill a million holes, that high-end Makita drill hanging on the wall is right there. How is that any different than the Open Source advocate claiming: "I may not ever personally modify the code.

        • by JWSmythe ( 446288 ) <jwsmythe@@@jwsmythe...com> on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @04:25PM (#27247911) Homepage Journal

          I was going to reply to him, but you seem to actually understand.

              He has no clue about advertising. It has absolutely NOTHING (none, nada, nil, zip, zero, nuthin') to do with the product. It has everything to do with getting the viewer's attention, and keeping it for the 15 to 30 seconds that the ad runs, *AND* mixed in somewhere show the product.

              Like, this would make a killer ad..

              Show a jet fighter buzzing the surface of the ocean. It fires a missile. WOOSH! People like jet fighters. They like big explosions. The flash and the noise will get (or keep) them looking.

              The camera follows the missile. You see the girls on the beach. It flys down a road with flashy cars. it buzzes some other flashy thing. Then you see it going straight into a building with a big Linux sign on it.

              Big explosion. Dust settles (quickly, we're at like 20 seconds already), and the sign is still standing.

              No words. No dialogue. Just music (optionally, but suggested), jet engine noise, rocket noise, and explosion noise.

              People who want to sell their product always want to include all kinds of crap about their product. Consumers don't care. 99% of the people driving cars (like in your example) don't know anything about them. They can't tell you what engine it has. Half of them can't even tell you the model without going outside to look. Everyone can say if it's pretty or ugly. There are some people who are really into their cars (like me) who can run down every part in it accurately. Ads for my car had nothing to do with the features of the car.

              Here was the short version (30 sec) [youtube.com]. It doesn't even say the name until the end. Lots of noise and effects.

              This was the long promo video [youtube.com]. Only the first 45 seconds showed up on TV, as I recall. Again, lots of noise and effects. Even I, a TransAm owner, didn't care to watch it past 1 minute, when they started babbling about the features.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by cbreaker ( 561297 )
          The depressing thing is that all the pieces are there. Linux has all the things you'd expect from a modern operating system; speed, decent user interface, good hardware support. But it falls flat on the little things that SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM ANYMORE.

          I mean, why is it still a hassle to access a Windows share? Sure, I can (usually) browse a Windows share from KDE, but almost no apps can actually DO anything with the files. You end up having to copy them locally first, which sometimes works. (Why i
          • by lennier ( 44736 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @06:09PM (#27249255) Homepage

            Yes, exactly!

            I use Ubuntu, I went cold turkey from Windows eleven years ago with Red Hat 5... and I'm *still* just deeply frustrated at how many silly little things aren't on anyone's priority list to get fixed.

            Not only that, most of the big projects (KDE, GNOME, OpenOffice) seem to have a definite philosophy of 'that's NOT broken and we WON'T fix it!' for things which quite patently ARE broken.

            Let's pass over with all decent haste the absolutely insane affair of 'spatial windows' in Nautilus (wtf? Windows 95 Explorer had a 'spatial' mode, it was just smart enough to *also* offer a tree browsing view for people who wanted to do serious file management) and give thanks that the Ubuntu people at least had the insight to override the GNOME people and turn *that* craziness off.

            Let's ignore for now the equally insane rush to *remove* copy-pastable file path text fields from dialog boxes and replace them with un-automatable candy-bar strips of buttons. Because, um, nobody uses keyboards anymore? I guess that's a step 'forward'. (Oh, yes, there's a magic hidden alt-key to bring up the real text field... but you'll never know what it is, because we don't talk about that.)

            Let's also be thankful that *finally* some 'fully packaged' applications *now* start putting in menu entries.

            No, let's talk about the more serious issues: how there are about five separate, incompatible 'official' object systems (GObject, CORBA/Bonobo, D-BUS, KParts, Firefox's XPCom, OpenOffice's UNO) before we even think about .NET/Mono or Java integration.

            How there's still no sensible shared configuration system - after a zillion false starts, we still have gconf (two versions of) for GNOME, and the horde of weird formats in /etc for everyone else. Different /etc layout for each distribution, of course, despite what FHS tried to do.

            How although we have X, which is fully networkable, if your X Server crashes - by definition a component which could be *on another machine entirely* - then ALL YOUR RUNNING X APPLICATIONS have to be restarted! The best feature of X, completely subverted just by bad 'standard' configuration.

            And yes, how every 'desktop environment' insists on reinventing the API wheel and building 'virtual filesystems' ON TOP OF its own API rather than making them available to the Posix level with something like FUSE.

            And then there's the pain of device management, like webcams. If it autodetects at startup, it'll probably work. If not.... good luck.

            I love Linux, but... we seem to be settling for far less than we had in the 80s, even. At least then we had dreams of what a desktop *could* be.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by prelelat ( 201821 )

        Yes we can?

        I agree we need to get out there and show the masses that 'hey your looking at switching to a mac look here first' Tell them that Mac is Linux' prissy cousin and show how it can do everything they do and so much more. If people see an "I'm Linux" commercial they are just going to say yeah you like Linux but it has no applications, it's harder to use. The marketing should be getting rid of the reputation that Linux acquired in the 90's and should be about showing people how exciting and advance

      • by droopycom ( 470921 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @04:13PM (#27247727)
        • "Can I run iTunes and use my iPhone with Linux?" "Err... well, almost, with wine, iTunes version 7.3 works... kind of, but its okay... you can just use one of the numerous other free media player... But you better backup your iphone on a mac or windows machine before you start playing with it on linux, because it might just eat all your songs and apps... But anyway you just just get a Google android phone that is open source and run Linux on the phone itself! ... hey, no dont run away... come back! You'll see, linux its so much fun..."
  • by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:37PM (#27245117) Homepage
    Already Slashdotted, 2009-03-18, 11:36 AM PDT
  • by Anonymous Coward

    The original "Penguin" from the old Batman TV series would be a great Linux spokesperson.

  • Anyone happen to get the links to the videos on YouTube? I was only able to watch one before the site stopped responding.

    • by Geoffreyerffoeg ( 729040 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:41PM (#27245191)

      Here's one (the one the submitter called one of the better ones):

      Challenges at the Office [youtube.com]

      Some of the other ones are under the related videos.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        here is the 2nd "better one" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svaHnha-PXs

        • the 2nd one seems like it would be a good one... but would definitely need to be redone in english and with a better looking tux costume.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This [youtube.com] is the "hilarious but inappropriate" one. The other two are NOT on Youtube, acually, but as far as I can tell, they're here [linux-foundation.org] and here [linux-foundation.org], respectively, in wget-able FLV glory.

  • I am Linux (Score:5, Funny)

    by sunking2 ( 521698 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:39PM (#27245145)
    And apparently I don't serve out web pages any better than IIS.
  • Oops (Score:5, Funny)

    by castorvx ( 1424163 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:39PM (#27245157)
    We're Linux, and our site is down.

    Linux marketing = epic win.
  • Very fitting (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:39PM (#27245163)
    I find this situation to be a very fitting analogy to the computing world as a whole. Apple does something that gets attention. Microsoft makes their cheap knockoff of it. Then the OSS/Linux guys come along and say "Hey, we can do that, too!"
    • Re:Very fitting (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Duradin ( 1261418 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @02:21PM (#27245853)

      Actually it be more along the lines of someone suggesting to the Linux guys that they should do something and the Linux guys telling the person "go make the commercial yourself".

    • No, its even worse (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Burz ( 138833 )

      Then the FOSS people come along and say you should get a car based solely on the brand of transmission (kernel) inside.

      Not brilliant. Its been like watching a whole subculture go through a decade-long neurosis, trying to push something to users that they mostly cannot see or touch.

      Imagine if Apple constantly went on and on about OpenDarwin / XNU in their mass-market advertising. Or if Mozilla waged a "Get Gecko" campaign to end-users... They would be in the 1-2% penetration bracket nowadays with a nonsensic

    • I'm sure a lot of people find that offensive, but I personally think it describes the situation perfectly.

      Linux has a long, long, long way to go in the eyes of the public.

  • by Skylinux ( 942824 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:41PM (#27245197) Homepage

    Unfortunately the server already melted so here are a few videos Novell produced to market Linux.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3AXo5i_XYI [youtube.com]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjJePMwEMWg [youtube.com]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8WNPvjtjQg [youtube.com]

  • I got corrected elsewhere for this. Wouldn't that be, "I'm GNU/Linux", or "I'm a GNU/Linux Distro"?
  • by Em Emalb ( 452530 ) <ememalbNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:41PM (#27245211) Homepage Journal

    Reprising his role as Jules from Pulp Fiction:

    Jules: [Jules shoots the man on the couch, who turns out to be Steve Jobs, turns to talk to Bill Gates] I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? I didn't mean to do that. Please, continue, you were saying something about best intentions. What's the matter? Oh, you were finished! Well, allow me to retort. What does Linus Torvalds look like?

    Bill: What?
    Jules: What OS do you run?
    Bill: What? What? Wh - ?
    Jules: "What" ain't no OS I've ever heard of. They have a usable command line in What?
    Bill: What?
    Jules: Usable command line, mother fucker, do you have one?
    Bill: Yes! Yes!
    Jules: Then you know what I'm sayin'!
    Bill: Yes!
    Jules: Describe what Linus Torvalds looks like!
    Bill: What?
    Jules: Say 'what' again. Say 'what' again, I dare you, I double dare you motherfucker, say what one more Goddamn time!

    [end scene, fade out with Linux, Operating System of Bad Mother Fuckers everywhere]

  • What a second... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Antony-Kyre ( 807195 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:41PM (#27245213)

    Aren't linux machines still Personal Computers?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by pembo13 ( 770295 )

      At some point, PC became synonymous with Microsoft Windows. I am not sure when that happened. All I know is that I didn't get a memo.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        At some point, PC became synonymous with Microsoft Windows.

        PC became largely synonymous with "something running one of Microsoft's current set of operating system offerings" at about the time IBM licensed MS-DOS as PC-DOS and distribtued it as the standard OS for the IBM PC, and it was cemented when the Mac became the main hardware competitor to the PC and its clones, and so comparisons tended to be PC vs. Mac whether or not they were hardware comparisons, OS comparisons, or, comparisons of the combination

    • by 0racle ( 667029 )
      You get to use one of these [wikipedia.org] as a PC?

      BTW, I'm Spart ... err... Linux.
    • by roggg ( 1184871 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @02:02PM (#27245571)

      Mac: "I'm a Mac."

      Linux: "I'm a PC. Because you see Linux actually runs on PC hardware, so it's a fallacy to refer to only Windoze machines a PCs.

      Mac: "ummm..."

      Linux (standing up, and brushing cheeto dust from beard): "In fact, to be pedantic, Mac's are PCs too in the more general sense of the term since PC stands for personal computer, and Mac's are certainly computers designed for personal use. Really we are all PCs. I really hate how M$ has appropriated that term for it's own platforms when the term is equally applicable to linux machines as well..."

      Mac: "please...kill me now."

      • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @02:35PM (#27246105)

        Linux: "And that's another thing. 'kill' is a UNIX command, and as we all know, Macs are UNIX machines underneath (technically BSD UNIX), so, yeah, you could invoke 'kill' once you know your PID. Really, you're not a Mac, you're a UNIX machine, derived via a NextStep machine and tweaked to look like a Mac. You're a prettied-up UNIX-like machine just like me! We're practically brothers!" [Big, kind of scary-looking, cheetoes-laden smile at the end as he tries to hug Mac]

        Mac: [Slowly starts stepping sideways out of the picture]

      • by mad_clown ( 207335 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @03:28PM (#27247033)

        God, I can just see RMS doing that commercial. Only the commercial would be about 15 minutes long, and would contain multiple instances when he exclaimed "GNU stands for GNU's not UNIX! It's a HACK!!!"

      • by RichardJenkins ( 1362463 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @05:24PM (#27248745)

        Mac: "I'm a PC"

        PC: "And I'm a P - whaa? Goddamnit Mac, have you been talking to Linux again?."

        * PC bitchslaps Mac upside the head

        Mac (hurt): "Aww, Pee Cee."

        * Linux jumps up and down laughing maniacally

    • by Eudial ( 590661 )

      Aren't linux machines still Personal Computers?

      That largely depends on what machine you install Linux on. It'd be a stretch to call a Playstation 2 a PC.

      • IIRC there is some weird tax in Japan where Sony decided to allow Linux on PS2 so it could be sold as a computer, which allows it to avoid something.
  • facepalm (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blhack ( 921171 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:45PM (#27245273)

    Isn't part of the point of linux that there isn't a face to it?

    Linux is my mailserver
    Linux runs my mythtv
    Linux runs on my access point
    Linux runs on my sister's laptop.
    Linux runs on our company's DVR.

    Linux is not an operating system for the desktop or for the server, or for the embedded device. Linux is an operating system for EVERYTHING.

    Its like a ball of clay, endless potential and totally at the hands of the artist.

    • People really underestimate how those embedded applications can quickly add up. Linux in your smartphone, Linux in your car navigation system, Linux in your wireless router, Linux in your playstation, before long it is "Linux everywhere."

      Yes, some of these applications might not be as visible as Windows on the desktop, but they do add up. Sooner or later, someone is going to come out with a statistic like Linux outsells Windows 2:1 !!! Everyone will be wondering how that is. It will be all the embedded

    • And that's the point of at least one of the videos.
  • by je ne sais quoi ( 987177 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @01:55PM (#27245427)
    I can't watch the commercials because the site is slashdotted, but here's what I think: Instead of doing the I'm a mac, I'm a PC exchange commercials, they should get Stallman and Torvalds to do the commercial, each one playing "linux". I think it would emphasize the tension the linux community has regarding the priority of freedom:

    Torvalds: "Hello, I'm linux."
    Stallman: "You should really refer to him as GNU/linux, and me too."
    Torvalds: "We reliably operate huge numbers of servers, embedded devices and personal computers and have support for a a huge array of hardware devices."
    Stallman: "But most importantly, we allow you to have the freedom share your ideas with others and be able to use other's ideas enriching all of us simultaneously."
    Torvalds: "...and making big bank."
    Stallman: "uhh, what?"
  • The parent post says: "... hilarious but inappropriate, to the well-made but creepy, to the 'I'm sure it sounded good in your head.'"

    If I was in MS's marketing department I'd be all over the bad videos. I'd show them to everyone I could and explain, 'See? This is the type of person who identifies w/ Linux. This is how they brand them selves. These type of people will be working on your servers, looking through the source code, etc.'

    My job would be done, people thinking about switching over would be cre

  • It won't be good marketing at all if the audience can't figure out if it's a guy or a girl speaking. Or gets confused when the voice doesn't match the person saying it.

  • by Yuioup ( 452151 )

    I checked them out yesterday and they're all shit. If any of them got aired on the mainstream media then I'm wiping my Ubuntu partition and installing Vista

  • Does this question really need to be asked. The answer is clearly Gary Gnu. [elarceny.com]
  • by Bastard of Subhumani ( 827601 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @02:12PM (#27245729) Journal

    Hi, I'm linux and the load on my server is getting very h

    404 file not found

  • ... says the crowd of benevolent servants.
  • Script (Score:5, Funny)

    by Brandybuck ( 704397 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @02:36PM (#27246131) Homepage Journal

    [Cut to suburban home basement. Room contains boxspring mattress, cinderblock and plank bookshelf, and cable spool table. On the floor is indoor/outdoor kitchen-print carpet. On the walls are a selection of tattered scifi movie posters, including Natalie Portman in torn jumpsuit poster from Episode II. Glow in the dark stars dot the ceiling, from which dangle several hand painted styrofoam "planets". There is a stack of obsolete game consoles in the corner. Computer in aluminum and plexiglass supertower case with purple lighting is next to table, on which are two unmatched LCD monitors. Pale overweight adolescent enters from stage left. He is wearing black jeans, and black tee-shirt with penguin and wildebeest motif. The hair is short spiked dyed pink, but black roots are prominent.]

    Adolescent: "I am Linux! Ph3&r me!"

    [Cue jingle. Wipe to series logo.]

  • by Cruciform ( 42896 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @02:40PM (#27246209) Homepage

    I don't know if it's been done (links are dead to me), but why not make Tux the face of Linux in an ad?
    Get a bunch of Tuxes made in various sizes (or digitally modelled) and show people doing things in their daily routine, with the penguins replacing phones, laptops, servers, embedded devices, etc.
    And at the end of the ad, the simple text:
    Linux, you're already using it.

  • Penguins can fly (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EEPROMS ( 889169 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @02:57PM (#27246513)
    one of the best Linux adds I have seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSEGj3PK4Is [youtube.com]
  • by HalfOfOne ( 738150 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @03:01PM (#27246577)

    Awhile back when they were making Shrek, there was a rather lengthy printed article/advertisement on why they chose Linux for most of their production. It had a lot of shameless plugs for HP, but also quite a few mentions of the virtues of a free and freely configurable OS.

    I'd always thought it'd be a cute commercial to see Shrek walking along having a conversation with the Donkey about Linux. The donkey would ask all of the typical FUD questions, and Shrek would explain them all and throw in a few jokes here and there.

    It's a face everyone knows and isn't intimidated by, and a product (the movies) that people enjoyed.

  • by frank_adrian314159 ( 469671 ) on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @04:00PM (#27247525) Homepage

    ... was stupid and annoying for Microsoft and is the same for Linux. If no one in the open source community can come up with a marketing idea better than copying third-hand from Apple, the community is in trouble.

  • How vague (Score:3, Informative)

    by 4D6963 ( 933028 ) on Thursday March 19, 2009 @02:19AM (#27252383)

    OK cool that French video got me sold on Linux because it seems to say that if I put that Linux thing on computers then cute French nurses will fall for me and laugh at my jokes. But what's that Linux thing you're talking about, where do I get it? *googles some* okay, looks like there's lots of them, so what do I want, RedHat, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, Slackware?

    My point is, while you can tell people "got milk?" cause they know how to obtain milk, you can't tell people "get Linux", it's too confusing. Choose a precise product and market it.

Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book.

Working...