Fwd: Ubuntu Ice House: Repeat Event Today!

[Marcel Gagne]

Hello all,

Wow, I'm amazed that this discussion is still going strong. Obviously a topic 
that is near and dear to some.

On February 5, 2007 07:29:35 pm Evan Leibovitch wrote:
>
> I personally find it FAR more effective to ease IT-phobic people into
> open source by introducing them to OpenOffice, Firefox and Thunderbird
> (and maybe Gimp) for Windows. Those projects, unlike Linux, offer
> compelling reasons for a typical Windows user to install (ie, no-cost
> office suite and a browser with popup blockers) Once they've had some
> time with these apps, one can then gently teach how the same benefits
> that open source brings to office suites and net clients can be had at
> the OS level -- but it's still a hard sell, and most will be satisfied
> with FOSS applications on Windows. 

I call those "transitional applications" and I've written/talked a fair bit on 
this subject -- in fact, my latest book, "Moving to Free Software" covers 
free software alternatives under *GASP* Windows. Evan has a very good point 
here, I believe. It's a particularly important point for those who don't want 
to equate Free Software and Linux as one and the same.  The Windows using 
crowd gets the benefit of free software and, when the time comes and they are 
ready to look at a Linux desktop, they won't find it totally alien.

And marketing, by the way, isn't evil. Nor is marketing == selling. Marketing 
is, at its core, the process of finding out what the people want and giving 
it to them. Or, to put it in FOSS terms, finding out what their itch is, and 
providing them with the tools to scratch it.

Take care out there.

-- 
Marcel (Writer and Free Thinker at Large) Gagné
Note: This massagee wos nat speel or gramer-checkered.
Mandatory home page reference - http://www.marcelgagne.com/
Author of the "Moving to Linux" series of books
   and the all new, "Moving to Free Software"
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