On Wed, 2007-01-03 at 14:27 -0500, Michael Wiktowy wrote: > I have run into many little road-blocks when promoting Linux to > friends, family and coworkers. But two really stand out as > particularly difficult to overcome since they are not particularly > rational positions. > > Primarily, since they haven't heard of it, they don't trust it. No > matter how many virtues you point out about something, if someone > hasn't heard it mentioned in the newspaper, on TV, by a celebrity, by > their friends, etc. they are not going to adopt it. The majority of > people are conformists and they feel comfortable when other people > around them are doing the same thing they are. MS and Apple are > primarily marketing companies that spend a great deal of money making > sure their brands are shown on every street corner and making sure no > one using their products feels alone. Linux doesn't (yet) have that > kind of marketing push behind it to achieve the self-perpetuating > critical mass of users familiar with "the brand". You would have to > somehow convince them that they are part of the greater Linux > community ... even if it is just bringing them to a LUG or pointing > out enough popularity statistics or big groups/corporations that are > using/supporting/promoting Linux. > > Secondarily, people tend to value things they pay a lot of money for > and they take for granted things they pay nothing for. So if you are > going to someone and saying "Throw away that OS+apps you spent a lot > of money to buy and do they same thing with this free stuff" you are > going to be fighting uphill since they have a vested interest in > making use of this thing they spent a lot of money on ... no matter > how painful it may be. If you manage to catch them before they pay the > MS-tax or after their MS installation has horribly broken or won't run > on their old system anymore after updates then you have half a chance > to get Linux on their system but you still run into the first > roadblock I mentioned. > > I have found both of these very difficult to surmount since they are > psychological hurdles rather than technical ones. I have encountered these same road-blocks, as well as, the support "card". I would have to agree with the masses though, as where most other consumer OS / applications are geared toward Multi-Media, and Linux distributions / applications are still a bit behind in this area. Out of the box, most Linux distros don't support Mpeg/MP3/Dvix etc... If a vested interest is the issue, charge the user $300.00 for the distro and put the money back into projects / marketing / support to improve Linux. Redhat already does this, but it's market is directed toward SERVERS and not consumers. The best way to sway the end-user is to show them the goods. Set-up a system and show them what it can do. -- Robert F. Chapman Senior Manufacturing Test Engineer Test Systems Development - WWTS Maxim Integrated Products (Sunnyvale, Ca)
