[ubuntu-uk] 11.04 Natty Narwhal

[Jonathon Fernyhough]

On 17 August 2010 21:45, Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> wrote:
> We get people in #ubuntu-uk asking for help. They mostly say things like:-
>
> "The latest one"
> "8.04"
> "How do I find out?"
>

OK, then it works. That's great!

> I actually am typing this
> on a Mac and I have to make some effort to find out what version of
> OSX it is because I don't know.

*boots VM* Well what do you know. About This Mac, Version 10.6.4.

> Isn't that because they _rely_ on the animal branding. The OSX box has
> a dirty great snow leopard on the outside.

Yup. Marketing. It's like having a tiger in your tank, but a leopard
in your laptop. I have a meerkat in my machine. Not quite sure what
it's up to.

On 17 August 2010 21:47, Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> wrote:
> Again Android doesn't use the codename as the branding for consumers -
> the same way we don't. I have no idea what dessert goes with which
> release of Android, I just know 1.5 -> 1.6 -> 2.1 -> 2.2. I have a
> vauge idea about eclairs and froyos because I've seen giant desserts,
> but your average joe doesn't see that.

I suppose it comes down to your market. Thinking about it, mobile
phones are consumer items. It's a Nokia or a Samsung, not a Symbian or
Brew or Android or Windows Mobile. Or is it? They are definitely
promoting Android phones (I probably don't need to talk about iPhone
here), but then the version numbers are nice and low. Android 2.
iPhone (iOS) 4. Perhaps the key point is these companies (Google and
Apple) already have mindshare and each version has definite, obvious
improvements over the last. Linux generally has incremental
improvements, so there's not an obvious "wow" moment (just look at the
development of Aqua and Aero and compare to GNOME). Anyone I've shown
Ubuntu to likes Compiz, not the OS, but this is not what is marketed
and certainly not why most of *us* use Linux. The interface also stays
the same for the vast majority of users after an upgrade - no new
theme, no new effects, just the same as before. Maybe we need a hint
after an upgrade: "New themes are available! Would you like to view
them?", taking them to Appearance.

I think this goes back to a discussion from a while back to do with
marketing to a specific target audience (business, school, home). Each
want different things - but until we start to think of it in that way,
and identify the market for Ubuntu, it won't see a great deal more
adoption outside of the Linux community; while taking Red Hat and SuSE
market share can be profitable for Canonical, it's not exactly why I
spend my time hacking away (in my own small way).

What was my point? No idea. I've gone way, way off topic.

Jonathon