Recently I had the unique pleasure of communicating with Kim Brebach. You may recognize him as the author of “13 Reasons Why Linux Won’t Make It to the Desktop“, and “13 Reasons Linux Should be on Your Desktop“, as well as a series of insightful articles on the state of Linux as a desktop operating system for DesktopLinux.com. He is a technology consultant with Technoledge, a technology marketing group based in Sydney, Australia. I contacted him to see if he would participate in a short email interview for OSS, and he very graciously agreed. Here are his thoughts on some of my questions.
OSS: Do you feel that most people know that Linux is available, but don’t know enough about it, or do you feel that many people aren’t even aware that Linux exists?
Kim: Ordinary people are blissfully unaware of Linux, Open Office etc.
OSS: What is the single biggest obstacle people new to Linux must overcome?
Kim: Finding their way into this strange world without a map or a simple user guide.
OSS: If you had to pick one thing that the open source community needs to focus on to make Linux more user-friendly from install onwards, what would that be?
Kim: An Introduction to Linux written in plain language, with a step-by-step example install. I have seen a couple of packages at newsagents (done by PC mag publishers) which did a pretty good job of this. The package includes the CD/DVD and a magazine-style manual. Being on the shelves of newsagents also helps raise the profile of Linux.
OSS: Are projects like Ubuntu making any progress towards a newbie-friendly Linux?
Kim: Absolutely!
OSS: Do you feel more users are going to start considering Linux now that some have found Vista to be a bit of a disappointment?
Kim: Only some of the tech-savvy might do that. Ordinary users will just complain or buy a Mac.
OSS: In what ways can the open source community reach out to potential users?
Kim: Marketing, Advertising and PR. Okay, so there’s no money. Linux has distinct advantages over Windows (cost, package management, no disk defrag needed etc). How about going to community markets and setting up Linux stands with demos and penguin T-shirts and toys for the kids? Linux for the community, by the community.
OSS: Do you think companies like Novell and Red Hat are helping or hurting open source by using a semi-commercial business model?
Kim: They help raise the exposure of Linux in the corporate world. They hurt by compromising the model of freely shared code.
OSS: Could producers of video games, financial software, and office software have a positive impact if they allocated resources for developing Linux applications?
Kim: Of course. Ordinary people buy PCs to run certain apps and to play games.
OSS: Even if Linux isn’t ready for home desktops just yet, can it hold up in a corporate office environment, especially given its greater security and cost effectiveness compared to Windows?
Kim: Linux can hold up anywhere, as long as there is some tech support, because it’s inherently more stable and secure than Windows.
OSS: Any advice you’d like to give to people who are thinking about trying an open operating system but not quite sure if they should?
Kim: Try Ubuntu or one of its derivatives (Mepis or Linux Mint) on a second PC. Play with it!
Kim raises some excellent points. Maybe what the Linux community needs is an open source marketing project, whose goal is to promote Linux and open source software in general. Part of the goal of Open Source Society dot org is to raise awareness of the availability and the viability of Linux and the open source movement as a whole, but a dedicated group of individuals whose sole purpose is to spread the word could accomplish far more. This, coupled with a concentrated effort among developers and testers to incorporate the opinions and experiences of everyday users, might just take Linux beyond the level of cult obsession to serious alternative in the minds of mainstream users.
I would like to extend my personal thanks to Mr. Brebach for taking the time to talk with me and answer my questions. He has made a valuable effort to put forth a perspective that Linux junkies like myself, from fans and users on up to developers and project leaders, would do well to take heed of.
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December 11th, 2007 at 23:05
Kim talks about the need for marketing for Free Open Source Software (FOSS). The Digital Tipping Point Video Collection on the Internet Archive is just such project. We have interviewed hundreds of prominent politicians, business leaders, and lead software developers about why FOSS is going to take off on the desktop and how it will change global culture. We are giving away our footage on-line under a cc by-SA license so that anyone who wants to use that footage to create their own video stories can easily have access to hi-res footage of interesting interviews. We currently have 55 hours of footage loaded onto the Internet Archive’s Digital Tipping Point Video Collection, which is linked below. Please be advised that, for the later half of December, 2007, the Internet Archive is upgrading their software, and so certain functions such as string search, keyword search, and tag clouds will not be available. However, these functions will be added back as January approaches. Here is the link to the Digital Tipping Point Video Collection:
http://archive.org/details/digitaltippingpoint
Here is the website for the Digital Tipping Point:
http://www.digitaltippingpoint.com
Go get some video and tell your story!
January 1st, 2008 at 11:31
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February 28th, 2009 at 17:58
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