On July 4, we hosted our neighbors and our neighbors from our last house at a traditional gathering.  The conversation took a weird turn and, my goodness, we were talking about Linux.  It was this conversation that leads me to this post today.  I am no geek, but with a little cajoling, I'm using Ubuntu Dapper Drake as a desktop system and loving it.  But when I tried to tell these very bright people about it, they glazed over and played to me what seems to be a very large marketing problem.  

"Linux is for big companies and servers, " they said.  "It's too technical for people like us."

Of course, this got me looking into the overall zeitgeist of Linux on the web, and, well, it's incredibly wonderful at supporting people who want to adopt, but it's woeful in explaining its potential to replace Windows on the desktop of the average person.  I think we can thank Microsoft for this--FUD.  But, the community is to blame as well.  Consider this:

• Ubuntu is suitable for both desktop and server use. The current Ubuntu release supports PC (Intel x86), 64-bit PC (AMD64) and PowerPC (Apple iBook and Powerbook, G4 and G5) architectures.

That's what the home page of Ubuntu.com says about 66% of the way down.  I'll posit the average user's 7-second reactions:

1. Huh?
2. Oh, it's for servers.
3. Oh, it's for hardware I don't have.
4. Oh, it's for people who are unix programmers.
   

Sadly, my early experience of the Linux community is that it abhors marketing, but that is what is killing them.  What if Ubuntu.com said:

• There are two versions of Ubuntu.  For any computer built in the last few years, it is a perfect desktop environment with a beautiful interface that comes with thousands of *free* applications.  If you're using Windows, you should switch. <go from here to the Apple "Switch" campaign>.  For IT professionals, there is a version for enterprise servers that is scalable, rock solid, and deployed at 5,000 corporations across the world.

There seem to be a lot of people enamored of the "source" part, but not too clued in to talking about the GUI part.  So, for now, I begin my campaign to tell the open source community that marketing people are your friends.  Get to know one.

And, consider this little Koan:  What if the word "Linux" was taken out of the equation altogether.  Think about Mac OSX. Does it say "BSD UNIX Mac OSX?!"  No, it says:

• Meet the world’s most advanced operating system. Instantly find what you’re looking for. Get information with a single click. Mac OS X Tiger delivers 200+ new features which make it easier than ever to find, access and enjoy everything on your computer. Whether that machine is Intel- or PowerPC-based, you’ll enjoy 21st century innovations before anyone else.

This is called benefit selling, and it's beautiful.  I wish we could market Ubuntu Dapper Drake like this!