All About Google's ChromeOS, by the Pundit Savant

Quoting:Yes, but LXer is only the second link on ixquick, well it is on google too, right after their aggregated pick.

LXer is #1 on Google when you use google.com, the US/international Google. It's usually #2 on localised Google (i.e. Google.nl, Google.ca, etcetera).

> Google possesses the same magical ability to BS masses of people into believing their product is the bestest mostest originalest thing out there, purely by attaching their name to it.

That's what brand recognition does for you. Linux has no marketing, and is treated accordingly.

bigg: Problem is that one can't really market "Linux" that easily. What is it, who owns it? Is "Linux" what you run your web site on, or is it what you do your word processing with, or is it the thing that powers your set top box? Marketing Linux thus becomes the task of the individual product owners, the people that benefit financially from Linux.

Ubuntu has done an awesome job at marketing itself. It is very well known, and it's success can be measured by how much it is hated by distribution snobs. One should not hate it for doing something well that a lot of other Linux-based products fail to do. It has money behind it, sure... but Canonical also have this illusive "comminuty building" thing pretty figured out.

So yah, I probably should not hate on Microsoft and Google either... but... grrrr, I want to and I will sit here and sulk if I can't.

Quoting:Problem is that one can't really market "Linux" that easily.

Yes you can. I do it in my own small way every day, Ken does it, hundreds thousands of people do it. And yes you can market Linux.

How about this for a scenario. Shots of people, young old blue black and brindle, doing things on their computer, ordinary things, surfing, emailing instant messaging, doing their accounts, writing letters, playing games, looking up thier family tree, downloadng/processing photos etc etc. We see KDE and GNOME and Xfce and compiz in action. Voice over at "with the power of Linux, at your finger tips." a cute little tux penguin waddles up to a wall into which a dirty or cracked window is inset, and pushes the wall aside, letting in sunlight and other wonderful things. The voice over continues, "you can go anywhere."

I didn't say you can't.

It's just not easy. Linux is not a brand name in the strictest sense, so it as a concept/idea/product/something is not something that can be conveyed simply to people with no idea what it is in the first place. We're all evangelists, sure... but for every one of us doing our little part, there are 10 Windowbies doing the same thing for their platform of choice. And on top of that, they have Microsoft spending stupid amounts of money on advertising, shills/FUD and other counter-marketing tricks. And to add to it... they can clearly advertise Windows XP/Vista/7 as specific things.

I'm just presenting the challenge. Overcoming it is the fun part.

I've just described how Linux can be branded. I've just shown how Linux is a specific thing, the thing that opens doors, the thing that makes all the things a person wants to do on a computer possible. I've just shown how you can market Linux generically. Show the things that Linux does best. repeat repeat repeat. Then find another way to show Linux doing what it does best, with ordinary people doing those things with Linux. make it clear that it takes the power of Linux to make these things easy, and fun and exciting and {some things] impossible to do without Linux, then repeat repeat repeat.

Of course it requires that the Linux community, as delineated in this http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4544.html article, get off their arses, and work out where they actually want Linux to be "on the Desktop", among other things.

But all the things you mention in your video montage are things you can just as easily show being done with Windows.

EDIT: And where would this hypothetical advert be aired... who will pay for it? Is it part of a greater marketing strategy with actual marketing people behind it? Who will pay them?

doesn't matter. Seen car ads. they are all the same. Yet people buy different car brands. Brand awareness is what counts. Did you think there was something magical about linux that doesn't exist in Windows, other, that is than the nebulous quality called security, and stability and Freedom. All of which you reinforce in your story line, in any case.

jacog,

You know when you use these terms:

Quoting: ... Google possesses the same magical ability ... [get] people into believing their product is the bestest mostest originalest ...

you are impinging on my person IP. A check made out for Cash will return you into my good graces.

YBT

Quoting:Brand awareness is what counts.

"Linux" is not a brand in the same way that Chrystler, VW or Toyota are.

If you tell a group of 10 strangers through a TV ad that "Linux" is the thing they should have on their desktop, you are not doing them any favours. If all 10 rush off to go get themselves some "Linux", chances are at least some of them will be sorely disappointed. Some will run to the store and find nothing. Some will end up trying distros that either are not easy to set up, or are poorly configured for everyday use.

But some will end up with Ubuntu, because the Ubuntu marketing has worked, and it's the only distro name these people might have heard about... so there's a good thing about marketing a distro instead of the abstract concept of "Linux".

> "Linux" is not a brand in the same way that Chrystler, VW or Toyota are.

Seems fairly close to me. When you say a Toyota, you may mean a Yaris, a Corolla, a Matrix, a Camry, a Prius, a Venza, or an Avalon. And that's just in their car line, without considering different classes of each. That seems very similar to a set of desktop Linux distributions.

regardless of Chrome's status as the new 'Prince of vapor ware' (Duke Nukem Forever will always be the king), Chrome still be more stable in Beta than any Windows OS will be in final release.

I think the story of Google Chrome OS, from a pretty audacious announcement about how great it's going to be ... to actually getting there will be interesting. We'll see how long it takes (and if Google sticks with it)

jdixon; What is "Linux"? Explain it in a way that's brief and can be understood by someone who equates "PC" with "Windows".

Let's milk the car metaphor a bit. Is Linux the car, range of cars, the engine, the battery, the exterior, the interior?

My own answer is that it's any of those things or all of those things. Explaining Linux as a general concept to someone requires more education I think, to avoid confusion and frustration.

jacog: Linux is a platform. Just like Windows is a platform and MacOSX is a platform. Individual Linux distributions are like "brands". That's how you should market it. Linux is a family of operating systems and there are dozens and dozens of brands.

Technically it's incorrect and RMS would probably throw a hissy fit, but it gets the point across and can easily and adequately be explained in a 20 second commercial.

> Is Linux the car, range of cars, the engine, the battery, the exterior, the interior?

In it's most common usage, it's the range of cars. Yes, there are alternative usages, but that's the most common one.

Quoting:"Linux" is not a brand in the same way that Chrystler, VW or Toyota are.

It's more like a brand in the same way that the "European Union" is a brand. Not everyone likes to see the brand 'expanding' with new 'members'. That's why cooperation 'between' Linux is so hard.

Quoting:Now, if I can only find out how to make FF not use Google by default

keyword.url it is, in the about:config. That's apart from browser.search.order. If I have some time, I might write an article about 'becoming free of Google', including how to remove as much Google as possible from FF.

My head must be poisoned, because I keep thinking... "if not Google, then what?"

There's a joke floating around about Bing that says "Bing" is an acronym for "But it's not Google".

clever