Ubuntu, SUSE, Fedora Linux updates prepped as Win7 release nears

[Sean DALY]

I'd have to disagree with the statement that attention comes to any product
"automatically", especially a product not widely known, no matter how good
it is.

Marketing is precisely the art and science of garnering attention. A great
product by itself will establish a tiny niche, but a great product with
sharp marketing will have every chance of becoming very widely known (there
are other factors, such as the state of the competition, the age of the
market, etc). A great product makes marketing easy; but I'm sure you'd agree
that many mediocre (and some downright awful) products are successful merely
by benefiting from great marketing (and lots of ad spend).

Fedora project contributors certainly know the status of Fedora, but isn't
it a goal to spread the word to others? For example, Windows users who don't
"favor" Windows, but found it on the PC they bought, and are fed up with
malware and crashes, are looking for alternatives? In that group are many
who are switching to Apple (cf. market share growth and Q4 results, single
biggest quarterly Mac sales in its history), but there are surely others
interested in saving money and replacing Windows XP on existing PCs.

I think all consumers are aware that an OS takes time to develop; there are
millions of Windows users who are aware MS takes years for each version. The
article implies that the mentioned FOSS project releases have been timed to
the Windows 7 release, which is certainly not the case for Fedora, but as
the angle of the story is that there are alternatives to Windows 7,
inaccurate as it is it's not such bad publicity for Fedora in my view.

Sean
Sugar Labs Marketing Coordinator


On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 7:21 AM, Gaurav Prabhu <g5_fosslover at yahoo.in>wrote:

> I see no point first of all to replying to that comment. We guys know how
> we are progressing. As you mentioned, we have certain goals for each
> release, launch schedule is fixed which sometimes do get postponed but still
> its all planned nicely. Now if it coincides with the date of launch of
> Windows 7 then its pretty obvious that it wasn't any strategic move as to
> fail the launch of Windows 7. Those folks who favor Microsoft windows will
> anyway won't give a damn to the releases from open source. Same way I think
> Open Source shouldn't care much about the launch of Windows 7 as if we
> succeed in making a great OS, then eventually it will automatically garner
> the much needed attention.
>
> Regards,
> Gaurav Prabhu
>
> Gaurav Live <http://www.gauravlive.com>
>
> Layman Linux <http://www.linux.gauravlive.com>
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
> --- On *Wed, 21/10/09, susmit shannigrahi <thinklinux.ssh at gmail.com>*wrote:
>
>
> From: susmit shannigrahi <thinklinux.ssh at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Ubuntu, SUSE, Fedora Linux updates prepped as Win7 release
> nears
> To: "For discussions about marketing and expanding the Fedora user base" <
> fedora-marketing-list at redhat.com>
> Date: Wednesday, 21 October, 2009, 5:15 PM
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 10:24 PM, Robert 'Bob' Jensen
> <bob at fedoraunity.org <http://mc/compose?to=bob@fedoraunity.org>> wrote:
> > http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=5073
>
> But isn't is obviously wrong?
>
> Should we comment on the blog that "we have nothing to do with windows 7
> release
> and we are follow our own principles and work-flow irrespective of
> what m$ or other vendors does" ?
>
>
> --
> Regards,
> Susmit.
>
> =============================================
> ssh
> 0x86DD170A
> http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/user:susmit
> =============================================
> Sent from Calcutta, WB, India
>
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