[TEAM] Gathering "testimonials" for marketing purposes

[PK]

In my experience, marketing-wise, Xubuntu is an excellent *aftermarket*
product.

People first start out with the Ubuntu or Linux Mint they've heard about,
find out that performance on older hardware is a bit disappointing, and
start looking for lightweight replacements. Then they find Xubuntu:
lightweight, yet slick and user-friendly enough to be a complete
alternative.

Make no mistakes: the aftermarket is a very big market! Xubuntu is already
a big player there, and likely to remain so. The various Ubuntu fora are
full of testimonials of people who are happy with Xubuntu, or who advise
others to start using Xubuntu on some older machine.

I have one suggestion to make: the perceived quality of the "brand" Xubuntu
can perhaps be improved when the only codebase is Ubuntu LTS and its point
releases. So no more short-lived intermediate releases. Comparable with the
release policy that Linux Mint has adopted in 2014.

Keep up the good work! I's being appreciated by more people than you might
realize.  :-)

Regards, Pjotr.

2016-08-08 12:44 GMT+02:00 Pasi Lallinaho <pasi at shimmerproject.org>:

> Hello Michael,
>
> I'm not sure how this relates to what the Xubuntu team is planning to do.
>
> This is mostly for the reason that Xubuntu is a completely
> community-driven project and no money is put into the marketing. For this
> reason, the marketing tends to be more on the passive than active side.
> This means that we do not really do the kind of outreach you are describing.
>
> On the subject of converting, I don't think anybody in the team is working
> on Xubuntu because they feel the need to convert everybody into Linux. At
> least my personal main motive isn't to try to convert people to Xubuntu,
> but to make Xubuntu better for myself and thus for the others as well.
>
> That said (but while we have absolutely no statistics on the subject,
> specifically as we don't do active marketing), I know that a lot of people
> have converted from other (non-Linux) operating systems to Xubuntu.
>
> Finally, the proposal I made was simply to gather testimonials and thanks
> that come to us naturally, not actively going looking for it either.
>
> Rather than being negative and sceptic about the power of marketing, I'd
> like us to celebrate what we love about Xubuntu. We can't ever please
> everybody, so it is better stick to what we think is the right way to go
> and people will follow.
>
> Cheers,
> Pasi
>
>
> On 2016-08-08 12:53, michael meelis wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> For what is worth, that is what I have been going (as a lead) for 5
> years full time with http://www.freshbook.nl/faq/
> (check with google translate Dutch-English (or your language))
> (Note: Site design is now also 5 years old. Also click through to
> youtube for timestamps).
>
> I can tell you the whole case from:
> * First Windows user found the UI too ugly, so we make Xubuntu look
>   really cool
> * Than we had to make videos to show how cool it is (seeing is
>   believing).
> * Than we made a teaching video of 3 hours (production took one whole
>   year). Youtube kept on flagging it with violation on public domain
>   stuff. Even with videos that where uploaded much later. That **we**
>   were as violation their content that they had ripped from us!!! (GO
>   FIGURE)
> * Than we had 10 (+1) professional cartoons made to point out Windows
>   Annoyances. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zAQwetfXvw or
>   The +1 video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NShpY_oSs4
> * Than we had to make a cool website because ppl believe more what they
>   **read** than what they see with their **own** eyes. Weird but true.
> * Than we organised events all over the country (NL) where ppl could try
>   it out on their own computer. Help them upgrade and transition.
> * Than we took each weekend a stand at a different summer fair. To show
>   it to ppl that where not looking for it.
> * Than we recruited supporters to go out an do it.
>
> In the whole process we spent a **lot** of money on 3rd parties, salaries,
> PR, advertisement, flyers, marketing, etc, etc.
>
> Summer of 5 years work: we converted no one!!! Let that sink in!!
> Near no one! Only ppl who where already convinced we have helped with
> the transition. The conversion rate of near 0% is is statistically
> significant. We have have written it of as some sort of Mind Control to
> keep ppl in the dominant systems. To check this theory we retested it
> with Andriod users with slow smartphones. Same results.
>
> So do what you have to do but expect nothing.
>
>
> Hope this feedback helps,
> Michael
>
>
> --
> Pasi Lallinaho (knome)       › http://open.knome.fi/
> Leader of Shimmer Project    › http://shimmerproject.org/
> Xubuntu Website Lead         › http://xubuntu.org/
>
>
> --
> xubuntu-devel mailing list
> xubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel
>
>
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