Fwd: Ubuntu Ice House: Repeat Event Today!

JoeHill joehill-rieW9WUcm8FFJ04o6PK0Fg at public.gmane.org
Tue Feb 6 16:16:12 UTC 2007


On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 10:10:22 -0500
Stephen Allen got an infinite number of monkeys to type out:

> JoeHill wrote:
> > On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 01:06:34 -0500
> > Stephen Allen got an infinite number of monkeys to type out:
> >   
> >> I hope you never are in a position that you have to sell anything Joe,  
> > 
> > Me too. Especially my soul :-)  
> 
> LOL
> 
> > The assumption that 'one has to think like a businessman' is just that, an
> > assumption. A very very old and unsuccessful assumption.  
> 
> OK Think like an entrepreneur who thinks like a businessman.
> 
> > Not to mention sickeningly racist and sexist, but that's for another
> > forum.  
> 
> Well, if that's what you bring to the table, good luck convincing most
> people that Linux is a viable option. They're sure to respect your opinion.
> 
> You might consider that extremes of opinion tends to frighten people.
> Not something you wish to do when you're attempting to make a point
> vis-a-vis marketing anything, whether it be a trinket or a computer
> operating system.

Again, you're assuming I want to 'market' anything at all; I don't. I'm not out
to convince anyone, other than to show them, perhaps if only by my own example,
what I'm committed to. If they like it, great. If they don't, well, like they
say, you can't change the world, only yourself.

I believe this has been the problem with this discussion from the beginning,
and what has led to the repetitiveness of the points made on both sides: we're
talking about two different things here.

Marketing, really, is about brainwashing. One is presenting a certain point of
view or process or, god forbid, 'product' (bleh) and using a spin to convince
people of the value of...whatever you got. As soon as you begin to believe that
your choice is better than any other, you've lost. You're just 'doing your
job', and nothing else. It ceases to really matter at some point whether you
even believe what you're saying, because you're committed. That's fine for
selling 'widgets', it's a complete disaster for promoting change. Ask all the
greats, <won't mention any names here for fear of engendering some sort of
silly religio-political debate>.

As far as Linux goes, like I say, as soon as it becomes primarily a 'product',
we're dead. It'll be pigeonholed, packaged, and crippled, just like all the
others. It certainly will cease to be any part of real social change.

Of course, an operating system is not, hell *should not*, be the vanguard of
social change, which is what I was getting at with the racism bit. Most of the
world does not give a rat's ass about anything to do with computing, they're
more concerned with their next bloody meal. To assume anything different is
arrogance of the highest order. However, I can tell you for sure that a
monopolistic behemoth that dictates the way in which computing is used will
forever hobble any effort in regards to social change, and free software,
whether Linux continues to be a part of that 'movement' or not, is a good start
at making it impossible for cretins like Gates to profit from people's misery
forever, as they certainly intend to do, whether consciously or not.

Back to the point at hand: the Ice House event, to my mind, symbolizes what is
the important part about free software and social change: the people who made
the effort to take part were not there to beat anything into anyone's skull,
and from what I know, had no interest in changing anyone's mind. Their goal was
simply to show others what they were passionate about, and to make their own
choices a public thing. Again, if anyone saw that and went 'cool, gotta *check
that out*',  and that leads to someone at some point making a change in how they
relate to computing, faaaantastic, and from the description I've read, that's
certainly what happened. To hell with the statistics, one or two is enough,
even geeks have friends ;-)

Leave the marketing to IBM and Novell. As far as *really* changing people's
minds, that will only really happen when they actually see that they have a
choice, and seeing other people like them having a choice is the most important
step in that direction. Some slick advert has about the same staying power as
an impotent shrew.

Anyway, back to my snide one-liners, that was f'n tiring and probably made no
damn sense.

-- 
JoeHill
++++++++++++++++++++
Hermes to Bender: "What did you get her, you mushy gizmo?" 
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