Welcome to Linux Forums! With a comprehensive Linux Forum, information on various types of Linux software and many Linux Reviews articles, we have all the knowledge you need a click away, or accessible via our knowledgeable members.

Write an article for LinuxForums Today! Win Great Prizes!

Site Navigation

Who Is Marketing Linux?

User Score

Editor Score

Contributed by: Spiro Harvey

Category: Misc

Distribution: All

License: Linux Forums Article License

Posted: 16 November, 2006

Tools »

Bookmark

Comment

Seriously. While a great many people still maintain that Linux isn't quite readyfor the desktop (myself occasionally being one of them), it has struck me thatsomething is far more important than developers' ability to code, or the GUI'sability to imitate a seamless user experience. It's great marketing. Wads ofcash certainly helps this, and ultimately, if 90% of your overinflated budget ispumped into marketing, your software is bound to succeed.

Just look at Microsoft. I know it hurts your eyes, but just look for a second.

They pump and pump and pump and pump and pump (you get the idea) money intomarketing their inferior products -- whether they be operating systems, orbloated office productivity suites, or game consoles, or anything else they wantto succeed. They convince OEM manufacturers to put little stickers on all thePCs they build that include little logos to prove that they are Windowscompatible or "built for Windows." They convince those same OEMs plus OEMs ofother peripheral devices to include words like "We recommend Windows XP" in alltheir ads. With Vista coming out -- not even out yet -- they are alreadyconvincing OEMs to include stickers that say "Vista Ready."

Do you see any "Linux 2.6.x Ready" stickers coming out anytime soon? Or "Ubuntu7 Ready"? No, and do you see any Linux distributors forcing OEMs to bundle Linuxregardless of whether the customers want it?

There's no such thing as a Linux Tax, but there is aWindowsTax. This is so called because every PC or laptop you buy in a regular storecomes prebundled with Windows, and you can't typically buy PCs withoutWindows. Sure some hardware vendors are now bundling Linux, but those samevendors will be shunned by Microsoft. Nobody is allowed to sell Windows PCsprebundled and Linux PCs prebundled in the same store. Microsoft would havetheir guts for garters. Their monopolistic practices ensure that regular userswill never even hear of alternatives.

Here's an example of the way a regular user thinks. My missus is just about tostart a new job, and part of the requirements before she starts is her doing anonline test. No biggie, she fires up her laptop and Firefox, and is promptlytold that only Internet Explorer is supported. She goes back to their office andtells them that out of five computers (that are currently operational) in ourhouse, none have Internet Explorer (three are Macs and two are Linux). The ladytells her "but every computer comes with Internet Explorer."

Uh, no. Old Macs even used to come with it, but they would be antiquated andmost likely incompatible as well. And Linux, well, was there any point in evenmentioning that OS? Unlikely.

To the masses of users out there, Microsoft is it. There are no alternatives.Because they have no clue. Nobody has told them on TV. Nobody tells them intheir weekly magazines. Nobody has thought to put up any billboards oppositetheir favourite coffee shop. For them, the world is a Windows world. When itcomes to productivity suites, to them it's an Office world. I am absolutelyconvinced that the only software related monopoly that Microsoft does not have(and not from lack of trying) is Search. They own everything else in peoples'minds.

How can we change that?

There is no one big Linux organisation that will push it. The problem here liesin the fact that Linux is made up of different distributions, some commercial,but most are not. However, everyone has their own agenda. Especially thecommercial distros such as Red Hat and Suse. But even they aren't pushing thathard. They do their own little fair share of marketing, and while always aimedat pushing their own product (obviously), they haven't taken to seriousmarketing. Hardball. At Microsoft's level. Most of their advertising efforts arepreaching to the converted like trying to tell geeks and sysadmins why theirparticular version of Linux is better than the others. This has been sufficientto get the Linux community to where it is now, but the time has come to step itup a notch.

Someone who has a lot more time and business sense than I do needs to step up tothe plate and spearhead the next evolution of the Linux revolution. At itssimplest the community needs to generate fliers -- simple fliers, but effective:perhaps something along the lines of "STOP PAYING THE MICROSOFT TAX! CHOICE ISOUT THERE!" -- and start posting them everywhere. Noticeboards abound atschools, community halls, workplaces, libraries, Internet cafes, normal cafes,supermarkets, and anywhere people congregate or pass by. All around the world.Don't accost people on the streets and ram fliers down their throats. Just postthem everywhere. If they're simple enough to be read in two seconds while notslowing down, even better. Seed doubt in people's minds about Microsoft.

I'd like to suggest handing out CDs with Windows versions of open sourcealternative software like Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, and more, butwithout doing extensive testing, I'm not sure this will convert people to Linux.I'm concerned that this sort of move will just make people more comfortableusing Windows. Sure their OS will be crap, but IE and Outlook are the major waysthat viruses and spyware are introduced onto PCs. Eliminate those, and yousuddenly have a happier user base. If people ask if those alternative programsare available under Windows, you should tell them that they are, but they werewritten for Linux and are safer and more secure on a non-Microsoft platform.

Come on, give me a break. Surely Microsoft lie too.

Hardball. Beat them at their own game.

However, handing out Linux Live CDs with these applications on may serve abetter result. Then people can see Linux in action, how to interact with it, andhow to use those applications. Ultimately, people fear change. They don't wantto try something new because they're afraid of breaking it. If you assure themthat a Live CD won't break anything (except maybe their flowers and Ming vasesif they use it like a shuriken), you can put them at ease. A method I find workswith my father is to try and ingrain the idea of concepts into his head. Insteadof him getting flustered when he can't find the "Send/Receive" icon inThunderbird, I taught him to conceptualise what he's trying to do. Once heunderstood that he was trying to collect his mail from the server, he found hecould adapt to a button that said "Get Mail" instead. Simple for you and me, buta world of pain for Joe Schmoe.

It's the same with operating systems. All GUI systems have menus, tool bars,icons, and other junk that let you interact with your applications. Windows andLinux are the same. Remind them that they're going to have to get to grips witha new system once Microsoft release their new icons and theme patch (uh, sorry:Vista), so why not take advantage of that and change to a free operating system?I mean if they want to pay you hundreds of dollars to install it for them, fine,but that money would be better utilised on booze and women. The rest they canwaste.

But all that is what can be done by people locally, and this sort of thing isprobably going on to some degree by Linux User Groups around the world. We canall get behind it and do it, but it's still not going to be enough. Theorganisation that I mentioned that should be set up needs to get funding tostart pushing TV and radio ads, website ads, magazine ads, and billboards. Evenfliers handed out at local electronic stores or small PC businesses. I know,you've got a mate whose parents do that in their store, but I'm talkingglobally. Global subsidiaries need to be funded. The Internet has made the worlda much smaller place, and when you're not looking your girlfriend is chatting tosome hot sounding Italian guy on MSN or MySpace. If they both encounter ads intheir daily lives that make them think about their OS choice, they might starttalking about it instead of discussing their next rendezvous. So it's a win-winsituation.

People will start talking about it at their workplace. I mean regular people,not Those Damn IT Geeks^TM. Won't it be wonderfulto see people thinking for themselves for a change?

But the ultimate challenge will be tackling OEM vendors. This is where thefighting is going to get dirty. OEM vendors would welcome Linux with open armsif it wasn't for Microsoft. Microsoft has them all by the short and curlies. Ifthey don't bundle Windows and only Windows, they could lose their ability tobundle it at all. Microsoft'smonopolistic business practicesprevent OEMs from providing competitive operating systems. But if someonetackled this legally, not only would Microsoft take a big fall, but OEMs couldsell cheaper PCs, thus increasing their turnover, and in turn profits. Thiswould work because their profit margins would be exactly the same, except theywould just exclude the Microsoft Tax.

Once OEMs and stores start selling PCs with non-Microsoft operating systems,they will start doing a portion of the marketing themselves. Why wouldn't they?They can now offer cheaper PCs than Joe Retailer down the road because theyinclude this flash new system called Linux. They'll convince their users it'sjust like Windows, but with different icons. And the users will eventually startfalling for it. Uh, I mean, they'll see for themselves. They fell for Windowsdidn't they? Some of them even think it's the greatest thing in the world sincebeer was invented. I'm not kidding. They'll fall for Linux too.

We just have to educate them. It's going to take some effort and a fewboat-loads of cash, but we'll all chip in five bucks via PayPal. Plus supportfrom Red Hat, Novell, Oracle, and IBM will increase the kitty. It's a worthygoal, and it's achievable. Someone just has to jump in and do it. I can't because, you know, the missus wants me to mow the lawns and stuff. But you coulddo it.

Don't all put your hands up at once.

Comments about this article

Wasn't there a marketing drive for Linux

writen by: EmyrB on 2006-11-17 07:25:02

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't some one have drive to market Linux earlier this year? I can't remember if it was a TV ad or a newspaper ad!

RE: Wasn't there a marketing drive for Linux written by EmyrB:

You need a new keyboard

writen by: Ben on 2006-11-17 16:01:08

Spacebar appears to be broken. :)

RE: You need a new keyboard written by Ben:

OSS for windows

writen by: johncoom on 2006-11-18 06:14:06

RE: I'd like to suggest handing out CDs with Windows versions of open sourcealternative software like Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, and more, This has already been tried with things like The OpenCD - and others - does not seem to help a lot

RE: OSS for windows written by johncoom:

No cohesion to marketing efforts?

writen by: Roxoff on 2006-11-18 06:48:52

Yep, Microsoft own the software world. But they're paying a big marketing budget to keep it. Lets face it, Linux is growing and so is the user base. People are fed up with Microsoft and bloated, infected or insecure systems. Linux has no user marketing budget, yet it's still growing. I wonder what would happen if the big guys of Linux (RedHat, SuSE/Novell, IBM, etc.) put together a small advertising budget together to promote Linux as a desktop system? And dont try to tell me that Linux isn't ready for the desktop. I've just installed Fedora Core 6 - with all the lovely GLX desktop enhancements. This, to be quite frank, p**ses all over Windows. It's extremely usable. And its coming to Linux distributions everywhere. And most likely before we see Vista hit the shops. What'd be really really cool is a 'no microsoft tax here' logo, that could easily be published on websites, on tools, on OSS software everywhere just to remind folk that Microsoft were not involved with the creation of this.

RE: No cohesion to marketing efforts? written by Roxoff:

package management

writen by: brokndodge on 2007-01-09 12:53:26

RE: package management written by brokndodge:

We Could Sell Stickers!!

writen by: Paul on 2007-01-11 20:55:11

We Could Sell Stickers!!

RE: We Could Sell Stickers!! written by Paul:

Its all about the brand

writen by: dalani on 2007-01-16 20:10:00

Hand out free CDs??? You gotta be kidding! Check any book on marketing and advetising and the first thing you will see is the value of brand recongnition. How about the whole Linux community pitch in to pay for a LinuX Billboard at the next soccer finals?? aisn g the cash would be easy through word of mouth. Such a fund raiser in itself is advertising. And all those slashdot freshmeat press releases??? Start sending them to newspapers for a change.

RE: Its all about the brand written by dalani:

Internet Marketer

writen by: Rene Briceno on 2007-03-13 10:21:44

I believe the usability and the amount of tools for us internet marketers in the Linux environment are still incipient, compared to many tools you can find for the M.W. system. I am trying to make an evaluation of these things on my website, at [url=http://CV.ReneBriceno.com][/url] Please post your comments if you think it is worth it. Best regards, Rene Briceno

RE: Internet Marketer written by Rene Briceno:

Internet Marketer Evaluating Linux

writen by: Rene Briceno on 2007-03-13 10:24:15

I believe the usability and the amount of tools for us internet marketers in the Linux environment are still incipient, compared to many tools you can find for the M.W. system. I am trying to make an evaluation of these things on my website, at [url=http://CV.ReneBriceno.com]CV.ReneBriceno.com[/url] Please post your comments if you think it is worth it. Best regards, Rene Briceno

RE: Internet Marketer Evaluating Linux written by Rene Briceno:

Internet Marketer

writen by: Rene Briceno on 2007-03-13 10:25:55

I believe the usability and the amount of tools for us internet marketers in the Linux environment are still incipient, compared to many tools you can find for the M.W. system. I am trying to make an evaluation of these things on my website, at http://CV.ReneBriceno.com Please post your comments if you think it is worth it. Best regards, Rene Briceno

RE: Internet Marketer written by Rene Briceno:

Little drops of water makes mighty ocean

writen by: Anthony Agbeyome on 2007-03-16 12:01:18

I think the whole idea of marketing Linux mainstream is all well and good, however another effective means of creating awareness and consumer confidence is through is "evangelism". There are over a million Linux users worldwide, if every one will seize the least opportunity to inform people about Linux and will assure the next door neighbour who is constantly battling with viruses and is fed up with upgrades about how wonderful life would be if he would switch to Linux, then we would all in our own small way be doing the time-tested effective grassroot marketing for Linux. We would be reaching demographic depths that no ad campaign can ever attain.

RE: Little drops of water makes mighty ocean written by Anthony Agbeyome:

I'll be one more in this great moving to

writen by: Jaime on 2008-04-23 16:54:10