Tips & tricks to get Ubuntu noticed

[Evan Leibovitch]

Timothy Webster wrote:
> Here in Hong Kong, a few people, companies I know are pushing the 
> wireless Fon. Fon hopes to deploy skype wifi phones in Hong Kong. Very 
> cheap personal wifi router with public and personal zones. The price 
> of cell phones or service is not the issue in Hong Kong. You know the 
> difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. In Hong 
> Kong since no one owns a car, most people spend the equivalent money 
> on electronic toys. People here don't read much on transit instead, 
> games are very popular. So internet devices are around the corner.
In China, they're not around the corner, they're already there. There 
are a number of popular Linux-based smartphones that have not been 
released here, from big companies such as Motorola and small companies 
which won't be sold outside the region. Those phones aren't sold here 
because there is _more_ demand for Linux devices there than here.

> Linux is going to running most internet devices. What is holding linux 
> off desktops in Hong Kong, is the simple fact that Universities here 
> use Windows.
Not all change happens quickly, and there are other issues.

The big Linux push is coming from localized distributions such as Sun 
Wah, Red Flag and TurboLinux, who understand the terrain better than 
western orgs. While there appears to be an active Ubuntu community in 
China, RPM-based distributions dominate the landscape there even more 
than in North America or Europe. And it's important to remember that the 
mainland government has made an extremely aggressive push to Linux (but 
that push has been in line with the Asianux standard, which is RPM-based).

> People use what they are trained to use. As part of the Ubuntu 
> campaign, we need for push Ubuntu/Linux to be used in schools.
Actually, from my experience some of the trend there is actually in the 
other direction. People will get trained in what they hope to be able to 
use in their jobs. As Linux use increases in Chinese business and 
government, education will adapt. Much software R&D on the mainland is 
Linux based.

> If Canada is to be competative as a high technology country, we need 
> to teach the required skills. The massive linux adoption in Germany 
> and northern Europe help's their technology competativeness. Also 
> India, which is software development house of asia, benefits from 
> large scale linux adoption.
It should be kept in mind that in many countries Linux is not just a 
matter of competitiveness (after all, the operating system is but one 
component in an IT solution). It's a matter of technological 
independence from the US (and to a lesser extent the rest of the G7) in 
countries such as China, Brazil and Malaysia (where open source has 
official government support). This is why Linux adoption is top-down as 
much as (if not more than) bottom up, and government/business support 
for Ubuntu is as important as community push.

- Evan