How to compete against Ubuntu

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Sun, 2007-08-05 at 12:59 -0400, Jeremy Hogan wrote:
> Compared to Ubuntu? When I hear Ubunutu advocates, I hear how friendly
> the UI is, how great the community is. When I hear about Fedora, I
> hear about Red Hat, I hear about features. 

I think the continued point I'm trying to make is that different users
and contributors to different projects have their own fanboys, their own
interests, their own views, and most of what I hear is rather
unobjective from one to the other and vice-versa.

And some people just have something against Red Hat or anyone associated
with them.  I don't really care about those folk because they miss a lot
of what Red Hat and Fedora contributors really do.

In fact, I regularly get the question from clients, "I heard Red Hat
just takes stuff from the community and then sells it."

And I always respond, "Ever look up the #1 company when it comes to
GNU/Linux community contributions?  It's not IBM."  ;)

Listen, all projects stand on the shoulders of giants.  Most people
don't care.  They care about marketing.  I think Fedora should continue
to and keep doing what it does best, feed the leading edge developments.
This is what I liked about Red Hat Linux prior as well.  The model is
very sound and very trusted to us "old dogs."

> Compared to them? No. Look up the psychological meaning of the colors
> in their palette. Now, look up the meaning of blue. They fall into a
> spectrum called "warm", whereas blue falls into "cool". As in cold,
> not like the Fonz. What's the definition of the word Ubuntu, versus
> the definition of a Fedora? That's what I mean. The name, the color
> scheme, the logo is about warmth, community, sharing. Ours is about
> being near, but not Red Hat. 

I actually like the "cool blue" taste of the Fedora logo.  In fact, the
ballon theme in Fedora 7 was a really nice change from the norm.

Besides, Red Hat is already red.  Some associate that with "pinkos."
You can't please everyone, and for every positive I can point out a nay
say.  No sense in second guessing.

> You've missed my point, I think, so I'll try and be more clear. I
> don't like their marketing any better than Fedora's marketing. I was
> pointing out that where they are strong, it is because they made it a
> primary focus to be strong. Whereas, Fedora is strong where it set out
> to be.

And that's fine by me.  It's the proven model since Red Hat Linux 4.0.

> So my point was that "competing" with Ubuntu, means being something I
> don't think any of us joined this project to be. Sub text to that
> point was that we shouldn't target other distros. 

And I disagreed with that?  Now I'm confused.  @-p

> Like WalMart versus Target. WalMart always has the best price, Target
> has better products.

Subjective and unobjective analysis (and I don't like Wal-mart in the
least bit).  People will differ.

Heck, I caught several American UAW members driving Toyotas.  Almost
made me laugh.  They are probably the same people who lambast Wal-mart,
yet still shop there as well.

People often say one thing, then actually do another.  I still hear the
complaints about GCC 2.96 from Red Hat Linux 7 -- yet the API/ABI
compatibility of Fedora 7 all the way back to Red Hat Linux 7 is better
than any other distro over that time period.  Why?  Because Red Hat
forced everyone to ANSI C++ compliance.

Same thing on GLibC 2 before that.  Same thing on NPTL, GCC 4, SELinux,
etc... after that.  People will complain about Red Hat and Fedora, yet
will directly -- sometimes quite knowingly -- like their approach.

> Other than that, you can get all of the same stuff. Fedora's success
> isn't predicated on Ubuntu's failure. Their mindshare gains, are not
> necessarily at our expense. 

And I disagree with this?  I think you're confusing my posts with
someone else.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith         Professional, Technical Annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org   http://thebs413.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------------------
        Fission Power:  An Inconvenient Solution