Does Ubuntu need a industry cheerleader?

[samalex]

Reading this article (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-29/steve-jobs-s-touch-is-what-ubuntu-s-missing-rich-jaroslovsky.html) got me thinking... For cheerleaders, Apple has Steve Jobs (love him or hate him), Microsoft had Gates and how has Ballmer (Developers, Developers, Developers!), heck even Linux in general has Torvalds who has become an industry name and celebrity. Looking at these and other big companies and the faces and names that go along with them, Canonical and Ubuntu really don't have such a cheerleader that's become recognizable and 'out there' with-in the industry.

Though no longer the CEO of Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth is still the biggest name... but I've rarely seen him at events, trade shows, or speaking for Ubuntu outside of the message forums. I can't help but think Canonical needs to hold something similar to Apple's WWDC or Google's I/O Event every 6 months or year... something big that'll bring in the media and wow consumers. Does Canonical even have a presence at CES or other trade shows to push Ubuntu to the masses?

I think if Shuttleworth or some other industry figure were to become the face of Ubuntu, that would help people personify it more. Heck the current CEO is Jane Silber (had to look it up on Wikipedia), and I don't think I've seen or heard anything from her anyplace since she took the big chair in March 2010.

If Ubuntu were to put together a large marketing campaign to get space on TV, Radio, and magazines, it would help. Show people what Ubuntu is and how it compares to Apple and Microsoft, then how to get it on either their current system or on new systems. Also setup certifications for shops or individuals that can help home users or small businesses move to Ubuntu on existing hardware. This would help build official networks of technical people in the community to help put Ubuntu out there.

There's a lot of room here to help Ubuntu get into the limelight, but I think until there's some face or name to put out there, to most consumers it'll just be another company or brand in the mix.

Sam

[samjh]

Mark Shuttleworth is already an "industry cheerleader" for Ubuntu.

Frankly, Ubuntu simply cannot be compared against Apple or Microsoft. It is a relatively small player (albeit quite influential in the Linux community) in the wide world of information technology.

A cheerleader is only effective if he or she has something to cheer about. As it currently stands, Ubuntu does not offer the IT industry anything special in the way Apple and Microsoft regularly do. Ubuntu needs to make a bigger impact in the practical and technological sense first. Apple is innovative, Microsoft has its sheer size and market influence. Ubuntu has little to show in comparison.

I may come across as quite harsh, but it's simply the state of affairs. Ubuntu did make a big bang when it first came out as a user-friendly Linux distro, but other distros have now become just as user-friendly. It's lost its big bang and is currently riding on the rolling snowball effect of its early success. If or when Ubuntu makes another big bang, then public relations need to go into overdrive and plenty of cheerleading will be required for that.

[McRat]

Is somebody going to video-tape the tryouts?
:popcorn:

[v1ad]

Balmer, and jobs? you have to be kidding. there is only a hate relationship with those two.

[madjr]

so what will happen when jobs dies ?

guess appple will die with him

[samalex]

Balmer, and jobs? you have to be kidding. there is only a hate relationship with those two.

I agree... but they are the most outspoken guys you see for each company at events. Love'em or hate'em they're the faces of the kingdoms they've built, and they're fighting tooth and nail to get their products out there. Canonical on the other hand isn't as lucky. For people who read the tech news or follow the forums Shuttleworth is out there, but I don't think he or anyone else has pushed Ubuntu or Canonical within the public eye.

Maybe I'm overestimating Ubuntu and it is just a nitch OS fighting for a slice of that 2% market share Linux has, but I'd like to think the company has grown to a respectful scale and one that could grab more public attention if it tried.


so what will happen when jobs dies ?

guess appple will die with him

Apple's stock did dip a year or so ago when Jobs was out sick and rumors were floating around about him being on his death bed... so maybe he's tied too closely to the company :) If a similar personal fate were to happen to Ballmer, I can't help but think Microsoft wouldn't skip a beat.

Sam

[McRat]

Thinking back about all the software leaders of the past, breaking into the lead has historically required one or more of the following:

Killer App - Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, Navigator, Netware, etc. These were so much better than other offerings, that they rapidly dominated.

Marrying Royality - Microsoft and IBM, etc. You don't have to be the fastest if you can latch onto a freight train.

Saturation Bombing - Google, Internet Explorer, YouTube, Facebook, Office, etc.
Lots of exposure to lots and lots of people makes you a household name.

Schooling - Apple, AutoCAD, etc. Were pushed in the classrooms, so you used them when you went to work.

Holding onto the lead is a bunch harder. Only MS has dominated for more than a decade. Quantity has a quality of it's own.

[sydbat]

Thinking back about all the software leaders of the past, breaking into the lead has historically required one or more of the following:

Killer App - Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, Navigator, Netware, etc. These were so much better than other offerings, that they rapidly dominated.

Marrying Royality - Microsoft and IBM, etc. You don't have to be the fastest if you can latch onto a freight train.

Saturation Bombing - Google, Internet Explorer, YouTube, Facebook, Office, etc.
Lots of exposure to lots and lots of people makes you a household name.

Schooling - Apple, AutoCAD, etc. Were pushed in the classrooms, so you used them when you went to work.

Holding onto the lead is a bunch harder. Only MS has dominated for more than a decade. Quantity has a quality of it's own.I agree. Post of the year. +1 and all that.

[fatality_uk]

Being a big fish in a small pond doesn't make you big fish out of it as well

[Tristam Green]

i thought that ubuntu had loads of cheerleaders.

[ibuclaw]

i thought that ubuntu had loads of cheerleaders.

I'd call them hecklers.

http://images.zaazu.com/img/cl05-cheerleader-cheerleading-smiley-emoticon-000479-small.gif

[samalex]

Thinking back about all the software leaders of the past, breaking into the lead has historically required one or more of the following:
...snip...
Holding onto the lead is a bunch harder. Only MS has dominated for more than a decade. Quantity has a quality of it's own.

I agree completely, but every company has to crawl before it runs, and I can't help but think Canonical has done well enough with Ubuntu that it's past the crawling stage. I'm not going to kid myself and say Ubuntu or Linux in general is or ever will have the market share of Microsoft, but with Apple being at 5.26% market share and Linux at 1.13% [source] (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8&qptimeframe=M), and given Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distro on the desktop, I really think Linux in general and more specifically Canonical has a fighting chance to make it as a big fish. Most commercial Linux vendors like SuSE and Red Hat have focused on the server but Ubuntu has broadened it's scope to desktop, server, and netbook... and it has a VERY solid operating system.

So do you guys think Ubuntu will never be beyond what it is? Is it a moot point to assume with some marketing and some ties to hardware vendors Ubuntu would never move beyond a hobbyist OS? Again, not to say it'll bypass Microsoft (anytime soon anyway), but getting beyond say the 5% market share which Apple sits at now I think is feasible, but not without lots of marketing.

Sam

[mcphargus]

Why does market share have to be the metric for product-awesome?

Google doesn't really have a cheerleader. Whenever I'm trying to think of their names I always have to look up larry page and sergey brin (had to just now), but Google is serving up piping-hot-completely-awesome open source applications on the regular. I've never heard either of those guys speak at conferences either.

In any case, Ubuntu aint Google, and thank God Ubuntu ain't Microsoft or Apple.

Ubuntu is a different organization with a different focus, though some similar goals. Ubuntu seems to me to be what Guido van Rossum wanted for Python. Everyone that owns a computer should be able to use it to its fullest capacity. No other platform has given me the power that Ubuntu does. To compare it with other distros doesn't necessarily work either. Fedora isn't Ubuntu because their community has a different focus.

We, the heckling-hackers should be the cheerleaders behind Ubuntu; I think that's what the heads of the community would prefer.

[Tristam Green]

I'd call them hecklers.

http://images.zaazu.com/img/cl05-cheerleader-cheerleading-smiley-emoticon-000479-small.gif

blah, you have plenty of those too.

[KiwiNZ]

The Linux "Industry" is too fragmented to have an Cheerleader. Just to introduce him or herself, he or she would have to mention every distribution or someone will be mortally wounded. Each speech would would take several hours.

It would take around six to eight years to decide who it would be then off course there would be at least five break away groups that disagreed.

RMS would start a commune and Linus would patent the idea.

[Jay Car]

It seems to me that Linux, and Ubuntu in particular, already has millions
and millions of cheerleaders, each of them has access to millions and
millions more, of potential new cheerleaders (family, friends, co-workers,
neighbors, etc.).

It's actually the kind of grassroots cheerleading that other "Industry"
types just WISH they had...but most can only manage to pay for the
imitation astro-turf-ish stuff.

I like Community Cheerleaders better. Industry Cheerleaders might be more
susceptible to being swayed by money from the competition.

Of course, that's just my opinion. :)


...

[Tristam Green]

The Linux "Industry" is too fragmented to have an Cheerleader. Just to introduce him or herself, he or she would have to mention every distribution or someone will be mortally wounded. Each speech would would take several hours.

It would take around six to eight years to decide who it would be then off course there would be at least five break away groups that disagreed.

RMS would start a commune and Linus would patent the idea.

I nominate myself to be the cheerleader for Pardus, and former member Techsnap to be the cheerleader for Gosalia. We shell kung-fu fight nightly in true Mortal Kombat style, for the glory of our respective distros.

[McRat]

Needs a Celebrity spokesman ...

Morgan Freeman? Perhaps 5,000,000 new users.

Britney Spears? Subtract the same.

Leonard Nimoy? No change, but the existing user base would be heard around the globe squealing like little girls ...

[magmon]

If we're picking cheerleaders, I'd be thrilled to have Jessica Biel =P.

[doas777]

i thought that ubuntu had loads of cheerleaders.
common misconception on the UF Megafail thread

[KiwiNZ]

common misconception on the UF Megafail thread

We don't have a thread of that nature here , so we won't discuss it here .

[samalex]

'Cheerleader' I guess wasn't a good term, maybe spokesman or someone who's image is somewhat tied to Ubuntu in the public eye. That was my point of the post. Granted every user of Ubuntu and Linux in general is a cheerleader per say.

Sam

[wilee-nilee]

Rah, Rah , Rah, operating systems.

[llua+]

Rah, Rah , Rah, operating systems.

o/\o

[wilee-nilee]

I'm just a OS *shill*

[Mr.Goose]

Linux isn't Windows.

Discussing market share on products that are given away alongside others that are bought and sold, does seem somewhat paradoxical. Moreover, Linux distros can be copied and distributed legally many times, whereas Apple and Microsoft operating systems cannot (or should not) be copied and redistributed at all.

Therefore, it is quite impossible to determine the market share of a Linux distro in any meaningful way. We are left with studying webserver logs to see which operating systems certain sites' users are running. This is a notoriously unreliable metric.

Standing back from this a little, does it really matter anyway? If one's distro-of-choice is adequately supported and if it does what one needs it to do, then whether it has 1%, 10% or 100% "market" share is irrelevant, surely?

So, no, Ubuntu does not need a cheerleader. It just needs to be a well supported, frequently updated, stable, reliable operating system.

Just my 2p. Best wishes, G.

[Paqman]

So, no, Ubuntu does not need a cheerleader. It just needs to be a well supported, frequently updated, stable, reliable operating system.


I think the OP's point was that to become well supported, it does need that cheerleader.

[Legendary_Bibo]

Needs a Celebrity spokesman ...

Morgan Freeman? Perhaps 5,000,000 new users.



If Morgan Freeman was the spokesperson of Ubuntu, Canonical's servers would go bust from 10000% increase of users downloading the OS.

[Johnsie]

Ubuntu needs to get into the mainstream media more. Having a cheerleader and some professionally choreographed launch speeches would certainly make Ubuntu seem more interesting to outsiders.

Apples marketing techniques are very, very good. Having a logo on the computer makes a big difference because it gets the computers noticed. The Ubuntu stickers of old look pretty rubbish compared to the apple logo. If Some designer could come up with something better then maybe people would be more willing to put them on their computers.

There needs to be some more investment hiring full-time staff who's only job is to get out there and spread Ubuntu.

[McRat]

... It just needs to be a well supported, frequently updated, stable, reliable operating system.

...

And here is the paradox:

Linux and Linux Distros use huge amounts of volunteer labor to update and debug the software.

As usage goes up, so does the pool of potential volunteers.

Ditto for commercial apps. You want World Class Apps that are only available for Win? You need seats out there.

[Mr.Goose]

And here is the paradox:

Linux and Linux Distros use huge amounts of volunteer labor to update and debug the software.

As usage goes up, so does the pool of potential volunteers.

Ditto for commercial apps. You want World Class Apps that are only available for Win? You need seats out there.

I take your point regarding volunteer labour. However, do we really want or need our primarily open source and malware-free environment to become overrun by closed source, commercial apps? I think not.

Best wishes, G.

[mcphargus]

Having a logo on the computer makes a big difference because it gets the computers noticed.

Right on. I love crews like System 76 because their willing to ship Ubuntu installed on machines. But how great would it be if they could lazer-etch the ubuntu logo into the sides or tops of machines that they sell? Answer: very.

[samalex]

Right on. I love crews like System 76 because their willing to ship Ubuntu installed on machines. But how great would it be if they could lazer-etch the ubuntu logo into the sides or tops of machines that they sell? Answer: very.

That would've been a cool option... My System76 laptop came with an Ubuntu sticker over what looks like the 'Windows' key (not sure what's under sticker), but outside of that there's really no sign that it's running Linux. Years ago when my primary laptop was a Dell Inspiron the cover was covered with GNU/Linux stickers I got from SXSW in Austin when Stallman spoke there in 2003. I thought about finding something similar for my System76 laptop, but it looks too nice and shiny as-is. That Inspiron needed some jazz :)

But I do have several geek stickers on my car, but try explaining what 127.0.0.1 (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/stickers/5fa6/) or GNU (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/stickers/28f0/) stands for to inquisitive, non-tech people in the work or grocery parking lot:
- "What's GNU stand for"?
- "GNU's Not Unix."
- "Huh? What's GNU stand for and what's Unix?"
- [under breath] "Frak..."
- [DITHL] "Huh?"

Sam

[doas777]

But I do have several geek stickers on my car, but try explaining what 127.0.0.1 (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/stickers/5fa6/) or GNU (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/stickers/28f0/) stands for to inquisitive, non-tech people in the work or grocery parking lot :)

Sam

my favorite tshirt says


$DO || !$DO; try
try: command not found


surprisingly, most people get it.

[ibuclaw]

But I do have several geek stickers on my car, but try explaining what 127.0.0.1 (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/stickers/5fa6/) or GNU (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/stickers/28f0/) stands for to inquisitive, non-tech people in the work or grocery parking lot:
- "What's GNU stand for"?
- "GNU's Not Unix."
- "Huh? What's GNU stand for and what's Unix?"
- [under breath] "Frak..."
- [DITHL] "Huh?"

Sam

It was harder back in the day... http://www.justpasha.org/folk/whowhat.html