[ubuntu-uk] efi boot, Windows 8 and Linux

[Gordon Burgess-Parker]

On 22/09/2011 13:01, alan c wrote:
> On 22/09/11 12:50, Simon Greenwood wrote:
>> On 22 September 2011 11:53, alan c<aeclist at candt.waitrose.com>  wrote:
>>
>>> On 22/09/11 11:14, Simon Greenwood wrote:
>>>> On 22 September 2011 10:50, alan c<aeclist at candt.waitrose.com>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 22/09/11 09:47, Paul Sutton wrote:
>>>>>> We would have to do a lot of awareness raising and support things like
>>>>>> install days to get round things like this.   as the borg say "we will
>>>>>> adapt"
>>>>> The FLOSS world's lack of competence, or even appetite, for publicity
>>>>> or marketing is the elephant in the room.
>>>>>
>>>>> 1) FLOSS, GNU/Linux etc, 'marketing' is pretty well non existent
>>>>> compared to non free products. 'I advertise, therefore I exist'
>>>>> (apologies to Descartes).
>>>>>
>>>>> 2) Of all things, marketing is -very- unsuited to the free libre,
>>>>> distributed model.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Marketing, maybe, promotion not. I would argue that that is pretty much
>>> why
>>>> Ubuntu exists, to create a user-friendly Linux and to encourage its use.
>>> Community was the single most important reason why I personally
>>> started to use Ubuntu.
>>> This is almost a word of mouth thing. Person direct to person. I am
>>> not saying we cannot  do anything at all, just that evidence suggests
>>> that we are not going to win with ONLY existing strategies.
>>>
>>> Promotion: how is marketing different from promotion? Do microsoft
>>> have a marketing department and a promotion department?
>>> Our lack of experience in these matters is painful.
>>> --
>>>
>> That's a good philosophical question. Microsoft has marketing and Linux has
>> advocacy. I wouldn't say there's a lack of experience, just not a single
>> monolithic business that pushed Linux on the desktop, which where Windows is
>> concerned, has been Microsoft's policy for a good 20 years.
>>
>> There's no shortage of companies marketing the benefits of Linux on the
>> server side: HP, Oracle and IBM to name the biggest, but the argument is
>> always the cost benefit of migration.
>>
>> The biggest barrier to get over on the desktop is that Windows is just
>> there, that people think of IE as 'The Internet' and that Word is the only
>> way to do word processing. People still want it to Just Work, which is where
>> Apple gets it right with a Unix based operating system, albeit with a
>> increasingly proprietary desktop on a very limited subset of hardware. When
>> there's a Linux-based desktop that does that, a decent part of the battle
>> will be won.
> So, on the grounds that if we 'continue to do what we have always
> done', we 'get what we always got', what then?
I think that the major problem is this: MS and Windows is SO ingrained 
into the public consciousness (fuelled by what certainly in the past 
were undoubted very rapacious and dubious business practices) that's 
it's going to be a VERY hard job to change public perception.
The general public ARE swayed by what they see advertised, whether on TV 
or in magazines. All the people who go for "designer" label clothing 
etc. THEY are the sort of people who drift along to PC World and get 
sold - a Windows machine, a) because there is no choice and b) because 
they don't know and don't care whether Linux exists or not.
I think that there does have to be some sort of advertising campaign - I 
would suggest on the security and no viruses angle - but until that 
happens them I'm afraid that Linux is going to be the preserve of server 
applications and the already converted...