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On Wed, 2010-02-03 at 10:19 +0000, Rob Beard wrote: > Quoting Neil Winchurst <barnaby@xxxxxxxxxx>: > > > Recently I started a thread about spreading the Linux gospel, which > > provoked a lot of interest. I have been thinking about all that and my > > suggested reasons for the slow uptake and lack of interest there seems > > to be about Linux etc. Plus, of course, all the comments. > > > > I have now realised that there is probably one major reason for the > > problems we have in getting more people to try it. It is simply this, so > > many people have never heard of it. > > > > I am still taking any opportunity to talk about Linux and too many times > > the other person just doesn't know that such a thing exists. When I try > > to explain they are often very interested and say things like 'I wish I > > had known about that before'. Too many think that computers equals > > Windows, full stop. > > > > Thoughts anyone? > > > > Neil > > I'm not sure what this has got to do with 'What is Open Source?'. > > I think part of the problem is marketing. Microsoft are a big > organisation who have been around for years, over the years they have > gained more and more market share either through buying up other > software (such as DOS), allegedly copying other products (Windows), > modifying Windows to not work with competitiors products (DR DOS with > Windows [2], WordPerfect [3]) or generally through a large amount of > business customers choosing IBM Compatible PCs and then that filtering > through to home users who were upgrading from previous machines or > maybe buying their first computer. > > I dare say many people (anyone not in the IT, construction, research, > medical or scientific industries at least) have heard of Sun, SGI, > Cray etc. > > Luckily more and more people are starting to learn about Free and Open > Source software, for instance applications such as Firefox and > OpenOffice. It probably isn't much interest to them unless they are > technically minded that many of the worlds web servers run Apache and > MySQL, they're probably more interested in what is running on them > (just recently, Facebook became an Apache Software Foundation sponsor > for $40,000 [5], technically peanuts compared to what Facebook > probably earn from advertising). > > Things are getting better, Linux desktops are getting easier to use > and it gets more coverage in the mainstream computer magazines, so as > people try it they start to tell other people about it (hopefully good > things), but for some people, they don't care what their computer > runs, as long as they can do what they want (browse the web, check > their e-mail etc). > > Rob > > [1] http://www.willyhoops.com/microsoft_vs_apple_history.htm > [2] http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/11/05/how_ms_played_the_incompatibility/ > [3] http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1274 > [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft > [5] > http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/01/facebook-becomes-apache-software-foundation-sponsor.ars > > > > things are getting better, you may no find shrink wrapped linux in PC world, though I think I saw Suse a while ago, but they stock books of the ubuntu for dummies type. Also linux, or ubuntu anyhow, seems to get more coverage in the PC hobbiest press. The guy who does a lot of building work for us tells me the PC mag he gets regularly mentions ubuntu, says it's good and the up and coming thing. Of course this guy will readily accept ubuntu (and kubuntu which I've demo'd) are good, but he's not about to change as what he's got serves him well, he's not interested in learning new software packages, has no comitment to FOSS and would see moving all his music/photos/videos/docs etc to a new format as a large pain in the posterior. It would take something external, like windows failing or PC's with no OS being much cheaper to make him switch. And can we quit using religious language when discussing this. If someone described linux as a gospel to me I would never give it another thought... -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html