Kubuntu future and the name itself

[Ryan Gauger]

On 04/11/2012 06:17 AM, Nils Kassube wrote:
> O. Sinclair wrote:
>> On 11/04/12 12:04, Nils Kassube wrote:
>>> O. Sinclair wrote:
>>>> I kind of support that - where as Ubuntu is a word in a language
>>>> and has a meaning, Kubuntu (and Xubuntu, Lubuntu et al) does not
>>>> in themselves mean anything.
>>>>
>>>> From<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubuntu#Name>:
>>> | "Kubuntu" means "towards humanity" in Bemba, and is derived from
>>> | ubuntu ("humanity").
>> Well you certainly got me on that one.. but let me quote Jonathan
>> from his blog that got me started on this:
>>
>> "We must remain part of Ubuntu, they are a great community for
>> distros and we couldn't survive without them. Kubuntu is often
>> incorrectly called a "derivative" of Ubuntu but we are part of the
>> Ubuntu family and we are one of their flavours which is just where
>> we should be.
>>
>> New markets? Kubuntu Active is taking shape. I'd love to have TV
>> friendly media centre support too for example.
>>
>> But do we need a new name? Kubuntu has never been a great name, it
>> was actually a joke name made up by the original Ubuntu developers
>> for the KDE side. I wonder if a new name would give us a new lease
>> of life like Calligra has. Suggestions welcome :)"
> I'm not so sure if the name is a problem. I think it is more a question
> of marketing. To paraphrase my first boss (actually he was qouting
> someone else): "You may want to give away a lump of gold but you will
> only find a taker if you advertise." Take Firefox as an example. They
> got their share of the browser market by an advert campaign and not
> because of a great name. Or take MS Word as a second example. It is a
> common name for a mediocre product but MS dominates the market due to
> agressive marketing.
>
>
> Nils
Even though Kubuntu will (starting with 12.10) be sponsored by Blue 
Systems, I think the name should stay the same. I (like a lot of other 
people on this list) think that the name "Kubuntu" is not the best name, 
but I do not know how the public would react to a change in names. It 
will still be based off of Ubuntu, and will still continue to use KDE by 
default, so I think the name should stay the same. But marketing could 
change. The public DOES need to know that Kubuntu has changed sponsors. 
The website design could change, and I think a new logo for Kubuntu is 
needed. They have always been basing the Kubuntu logo off of Ubuntu's. 
Maybe no change, but text below the logo "Sponsored by Blue Systems". 
Just a thought...

Nils: Microsoft did not get their share from aggressive marketing. That 
may be a reason, but not /the/ reason. The reason was because Microsoft 
enabled companies to view their source, not steal it, but view it, so 
that users/companies could create programs and utilities for Windows 
that would be able to modify the registry components, Windows 
components, etc.. Apple did not allow companies to view any of their 
source or information, which allowed companies and users limited space 
on where their programs could go. Companies did not want to mess with 
trying to figure out how to get their Windows programs to work on Mac 
OS, so most programs (like they are today) were built for Windows, not 
Mac OS, which explains why Windows has the majority of the market share 
today: because they were open AND because people knew about it. So in 
response to what you said, I do think that aggressive marketing is 
needed, but when doing this, emphasise on the things already being 
advertised on the web (Ubuntu ads on Google Ads), but also focus on how 
Ubuntu is completely open-source. So you are definitely right, people do 
not know about Ubuntu. I think Canonical should start not only 
advertising on the web, but also on TV's. People who spend most of their 
time watching TV and not computers are less-likely to see the web ads, 
and you are also just about certainly going to catch a broader audience. 
I think if the ads interest people, they will most-likely want to try 
out this free operating system, Ubuntu. And then, maybe they will want 
to try out more flavours of Ubuntu, like Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, 
etc.. Thanks!

---Ryan
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