<div dir="ltr"><div>In my experience, marketing-wise, Xubuntu is an excellent *aftermarket* product.<br><br>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.<br><br></div>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.<br><div><div><br></div><div>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.<br><br></div><div>Keep up the good work! I's being appreciated by more people than you might realize. :-)<br><br></div><div>Regards, Pjotr.<br></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">2016-08-08 12:44 GMT+02:00 Pasi Lallinaho <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pasi@shimmerproject.org" target="_blank">pasi@shimmerproject.org</a>></span>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Hello Michael,<br>
<br>
I'm not sure how this relates to what the Xubuntu team is planning
to do.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Finally, the proposal I made was simply to gather testimonials and
thanks that come to us naturally, not actively going looking for it
either.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Pasi<div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<div>On 2016-08-08 12:53, michael meelis
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>Hi,
For what is worth, that is what I have been going (as a lead) for 5
years full time with <a href="http://www.freshbook.nl/faq/" target="_blank">http://www.freshbook.nl/faq/</a>
(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 <b><span>*</span>we<span>*</span></b>
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: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zAQwetfXvw" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr>v=8zAQwetfXvw</a> or
The +1 video is: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NShpY_oSs4" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr>v=7NShpY_oSs4</a>
* Than we had to make a cool website because ppl believe more what they
<b><span>*</span>read<span>*</span></b> than what they see with their <b><span>*</span>own<span>*</span></b> 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 <b><span>*</span>lot<span>*</span></b> 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</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div></div><span class=""><pre cols="72">--
Pasi Lallinaho (knome) › <a href="http://open.knome.fi/" target="_blank">http://open.knome.fi/</a>
Leader of Shimmer Project › <a href="http://shimmerproject.org/" target="_blank">http://shimmerproject.org/</a>
Xubuntu Website Lead › <a href="http://xubuntu.org/" target="_blank">http://xubuntu.org/</a></pre>
</span></div>
<br>--<br>
xubuntu-devel mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:xubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com">xubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/<wbr>mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br></div>