linux commercials

[jmadero]

Hi All,

I realize that having tv commercials is expensive but, why hasn't someone started an online community to develop youtube commercials to promote linux?

I always see that stupid mac commercial with the kid vs. the old man for windows and it just is....unsatisfactory (for lack of a better word).

Wouldn't it be funny to have a mock of that where someone is choosing something...not sure what....and it's between a bad and a worse product....and it's a similar kid that is advertising the "slightly less bad" product.

Then some person comes in and shows a third choice and it's flawless (well maybe not flawless but much better).

I am not creative by a long shot but I think for people interested in video editing and such it'd be interesting to have a contest of some sort to see who can make the best youtube commercial to promote Linux (or even a specific distro)

Well there's my rant

[Dapper Dan]

Hi jmadero,

We as a community should have more than enough talent to do what you are talking about. But why stop at Youtube? Certainly there must be enough Linux users who are interested in spreading the word over television and radio. It sounds like a project looking for volunteers! Having been in radio for over 25 years, I'd be happy to lend my voice, free of charge to such a project. Also having done television commercials, I can do that too if enough users want to go for it. But as with anything else, it takes money. I really liked the IBM commercials for Linux a few years back. To refresh memories:

Link 1
Link 2

And this one would already be a winner if funding were found to get it on television:

Link 3

I especially like this one:

Link 4

So it is "in the hopper." but like you, I wish there was a unified effort to go the next step in spreading the gospel...

[jmadero]

Good to hear I'm not the only one! Okay I'm willing to volunteer what I can...I'm not interested in creating commercials or doing programming BUT I am a pretty good "behind the scenes" person. I currently am co-founding a non profit (CLEAN Home Page) and am in charge of almost all of the background stuff. If we can get enough energy and enthusiasm in this post I'll start looking into how we can get some funds together and possibly start with a youtube contest with a small cash prize and see where it takes us.

Anyone else interested? Dapper you think we should "double post" (I know that this is a bad thing most of the time) but it doesn't seem like enough people look in this particular section of the forums.

Feel free to private message me and I can give you my screenames for a bit quicker chat

[elija]

There are a lot of Linux ads on You Tube, but of course you have to be looking for them to see them.

My favourite - it makes me laugh
Truth Happens

Dapper Dan, I like your first link too; it has Captain Cisco* in an IBM ad for Linux. Fantastic!


* I know it starts with an S really but I don't care

[Roxoff]

Why on earth does Linux need to be advertised? I'm assuming that if you need to advertise it, you want to make money out of it. If it doesn't get advertised, then kernel development and application development will continue at the blistering pace it has for so long, and I'll keep using it.

If you think about how Linux works its way into markets, the last thing we need is huge numbers of new adopters from the world of the commercial operating system. It's already hard enough to give volunteer support as we do, lots of new commercial os evacuees would just look to people like us for help. We'd be swamped.

[jmadero]

I wasn't thinking of a financial reason at all, I was thinking for development reasons.

Right now there is a good percentage (last I heard it was around 6%) of computers on linux but it's still too low to force companies to take them seriously. I think that if that number went to 10-15% that a lot more companies would open their source code (or at minimum start developing for linux regularly instead of the sporadic nature of the industry now). This was my main reason for bringing it up.

I also think that a lot of people just don't know about the option and it's time that they find it out. I have heard a ton of stories (including my own) where people are putting their parents and friends on it and they love it but say "I didn't even know about this before", there's no reason linux should be a computer elitist OS any more, it's ready for the general public -- Fedora Core, OpenSuse and *buntu system are are easy enough for even non techs to get used to...I don't understand why some people are like "NO, WE DON'T WANT THE PUBLIC USING IT", we aren't supposed to be elitist in the linux community, we should be showing the alternative and letting people themselves decide (right now you see the stupid Mojave Project commercials and Mac commercials which obviously get most people to pick one or the other) but Linux is still seen as the "no it's too hard" OS by a lot of people, my personal belief is that this is wrong and that there should be united effort to change it.

[schwim]

Novell did a few rip-off commercials. Sincerest form of flattery and all that.

thanks,
json

[arinlares]

i am curioius, though, when were the two IBM linux commercials made? nevermind, i found out.

[Roxoff]

I wasn't thinking of a financial reason at all, I was thinking for development reasons.

But there are already lots of developers working on Linux. Are you suggesting that there could be more?

Right now there is a good percentage (last I heard it was around 6%) of computers on linux but it's still too low to force companies to take them seriously. I think that if that number went to 10-15% that a lot more companies would open their source code (or at minimum start developing for linux regularly instead of the sporadic nature of the industry now). This was my main reason for bringing it up.

Don't be so quick to quote figures about usage; because nobody actually pays for the OS itself, it is unknown how many Linux installations there are for certain. The user base is of an unknown size (which makes marketing people kinda edgy).

Also, going open-source will not suit the business model of most companies. There should be no drive from the Linux community to force software developers to open up their source code if they don't want to.

I also think that a lot of people just don't know about the option and it's time that they find it out. I have heard a ton of stories (including my own) where people are putting their parents and friends on it and they love it but say "I didn't even know about this before", there's no reason linux should be a computer elitist OS any more, it's ready for the general public -- Fedora Core, OpenSuse and *buntu system are are easy enough for even non techs to get used to...I don't understand why some people are like "NO, WE DON'T WANT THE PUBLIC USING IT", we aren't supposed to be elitist in the linux community, we should be showing the alternative and letting people themselves decide (right now you see the stupid Mojave Project commercials and Mac commercials which obviously get most people to pick one or the other) but Linux is still seen as the "no it's too hard" OS by a lot of people, my personal belief is that this is wrong and that there should be united effort to change it.

There's lots of anecdotal evidence about Linux take up by people that really don't care about their operating system. The whole point is that while we'd like more people to use Linux, it doesn't affect us personally if they dont. And if everyone was to suddenly install it and start asking questions all at once, we wouldn't be able to handle the volume.

The bottom line is that we dont have to worry about Linux take-up; we just help those who need help when they need it, in a spirit of friendly co-operation.

[carlosponti]

i just wish they had commercials for the purpose of reminding people that windows is not synonymous with a PC. That a PC can have anything they want on it, that they do have a choice in what they select.