[00:00] <Burgundavia> anyway, I have to run
[00:00] <Burgundavia> if you have more questions, email me
[00:00] <Burgundavia> corey.burger@ubuntu.com
[00:00] <K_Dallas> I am just curious as how ubuntu's strategy and build different from SuSe or RedHat as they also pay their savvy developers
[00:00] <Burgundavia> they haven't played the community aspect as well
[00:00] <Burgundavia> and it has hurt them
[00:00] <Burgundavia> both are playing catchup
[00:00] <K_Dallas> thank you, i might do it in the next few days specially that my teammates had never heard of ubuntu ;)
[00:01] <K_Dallas> you mean with opensuse and fedora?
[00:01] <Burgundavia> yes
[00:02] <K_Dallas> i see
[00:02] <Burgundavia> notice all the governance stuff opensuse and fedora are doing now
[00:02] <K_Dallas> never thought about that
[00:02] <K_Dallas> not really
[00:02] <Burgundavia> that is because Ubuntu has shown that consistent community governance makes people trust the process more
[00:02] <K_Dallas> good, we actually had a course on ethics and governance in the last period
[00:03] <Burgundavia> yes
[00:03] <K_Dallas> so the problems we are seeing among debian developers, and such, it is hurting their image and success
[00:04] <Burgundavia> yes, part of the lack of good governance
[00:05] <K_Dallas> How much Canonical CEO is involved in ubuntu and with the team, sorry i have forgotten his name but i mean the astronaut
[00:05] <Burgundavia> Mark, very much so
[00:05] <Burgundavia> he sites on both of the governing boards
[00:05] <Burgundavia> the CC and the Technical Board
[00:05] <K_Dallas> excellent. is he an IT guy as well
[00:06] <K_Dallas> i havent read his bio, sorry
[00:06] <Burgundavia> yes, very much so
[00:06] <Burgundavia> parts of launchpad are written by him
[00:06] <Burgundavia> wikipedia has a good writeup
[00:06] <K_Dallas> i will look him up, thanks
[00:07] <K_Dallas> do you think that some one from your marketing be able to give me some data, numbers for the success rate of ubuntu at least compared to other linux distros
[00:08]  * K_Dallas is the first time hearing about the launchpad and reading it on canonical page, pretty interesting
[00:09] <Burgundavia> K_Dallas: those numbers just don't exist
[00:09] <Burgundavia> well, they do, but not publically
[00:09] <K_Dallas> darn :(
[00:09] <Burgundavia> and I seriously doubt you are going to get them
[00:09] <K_Dallas> ok :) no pushing
[00:09] <Burgundavia> I don't work for Canonical
[00:09] <Burgundavia> I have tried to get the data out of them myself and failed
[00:10] <K_Dallas> i understand
[00:10] <K_Dallas> the marketing data, usually are pretty expensive to buy if they sell them
[00:10] <Burgundavia> most marketing data is utter crap, tbh
[00:10] <Burgundavia> having been a Marketing Director, I can tell you this
[00:11] <K_Dallas> :) good to know
[00:11] <Burgundavia> now I really have to run
[00:11] <K_Dallas> thanks so very much for all your help
[00:11] <K_Dallas> appreciate it a lot
[00:12] <K_Dallas> have a nice evening 
[00:19] <somerville32> :)
[05:08] <desertc> You know that Highway Poster that was created for Ubuntu Marketing?  How do I convert the .JPEG image that was created into something that I can print out, like a .PDF ?
[05:10] <desertc> Ah - I see Eye of GNOME can handle that conversion.
[05:14] <desertc> Anyone had success with posting this up in public spaces?
[05:14] <desertc> I am thinking about printing 500 copies and putting them up during my vacation.
[06:22] <DPic> http://digg.com/linux_unix/Dell_FREEDOM_Box_A_Fully_Open_System_for_Home_Users_by_2010
[06:22] <DPic> Thoughts? 
[11:26] <K_Dallas> Good morning folks!
[11:27] <K_Dallas> Last night I had a great chat here about Ubuntu marketing strategy and stuff. Thanks.  My question today is: Has Ubuntu worked with DELL and WalMart to have it installed on their system or it has been their own decisions? (FYI, I am preparing a presentation in marketing and ubuntu) thanks
[11:58] <K_Dallas> Q2: Do you think that 2008 could be a great year for Linux Desktops? 
[13:36] <K_Dallas> Last night I had a great chat here about Ubuntu marketing strategy and more. Thanks (Burgundavia) .  My question today is: Has Ubuntu worked with DELL and WalMart to have it installed on their system or it has been their own decisions? (FYI, I am preparing a presentation in marketing and ubuntu) thanks
[13:36] <K_Dallas> and Q2: Do you think that 2008 could be a great year for Linux Desktops? 
[15:41] <K_Dallas> Hello! Q1: What has been the underlying strategy of Ubuntu going to DELL and Walmart? Is it mainly focused on North America or there have been other works in Europe, Asia, ...
[15:46] <somerville32> K_Dallas, Mostly North America if you include Walmart
[15:49] <K_Dallas> Q2: i see, thanks
[15:49] <K_Dallas> oops
[15:49] <K_Dallas> so i wonder why not europe especially that they are more open to no-patent for software, and opensource
[15:54] <somerville32> I didn't know Walmart's empire expanded into the east.
[16:17] <K_Dallas> somerville32, they are already in china and india
[17:32] <desertc> K_Dallas: Q2: 2007 has already been an outstanding year for Linux desktops.
[17:32] <K_Dallas> agreed
[17:32] <K_Dallas> but would you be able to give me some numbers, statistics? i have found a few but not enough especially wrt Ubuntu
[17:33] <K_Dallas> www.icd.com seemd to have some good data but they are not for free
[17:33] <desertc> K_Dallas: You should understand that Canonical is the corporate entity behind Ubuntu.  Ubuntu is a loosely affiliated group of people from all over the world.
[17:33] <K_Dallas> i know
[17:34] <desertc> So, when you say, "What has been the underlying strategy of Ubuntu going to Dell and Walmart", that's not technically correct.
[17:34] <K_Dallas> i am not stranger to linux but it iwas to some extent thanks to ubuntu that now we have dell+ubuntu and walmart+ubuntu lindows couldnt pull it off
[17:34] <K_Dallas> desertc, but linux could stay in the realm of its fan or could open up to the public
[17:35] <K_Dallas> that is a strategy in my book. 
[17:35] <desertc> Regarding specifc numbers, Dell has not shared any numbers.  There are some estimates that they have met numbers, there are some estimates that they have not met their numbers, with the Ubuntu systems.
[17:35] <K_Dallas> one personal example: i always loved debian but whenever i wanted to install it i knew that i had to spend time configuring my display etc. ubuntu was all right from the get go
[17:36] <K_Dallas> i see
[17:37] <desertc> Instead, consider the proliferation of other Linux desktop vendors.
[17:37] <K_Dallas> beside, from what i have read, Mike actually kind of ngotiated or talked to walmart or was it dell people so it was not that they felt just like it and decided to use ubuntu
[17:37] <K_Dallas> desertc, have they been more successful  recently
[17:38] <desertc> Five years ago, there were two or three vendors who actually sold Linux pre-installed.  Today there are dozens.  And Canonical is even developing a hardware certification process to differentiate them!
[17:38] <K_Dallas> i know that fedora and to some extent opensuse are used here and there, fedora i guess more, but have they boosted their volume
[17:38] <K_Dallas> great, very nice
[17:39] <K_Dallas> i barely know vendors which have linux preinstalled except for dell and walmart
[17:39] <desertc> Those are obviously the biggest, but there are others that sell online and provide exceptional customer service.  System76 being the most well recognized in the Ubuntu community.
[17:40] <K_Dallas> desertc, how much of this change, in your opinion, is due to ubuntu emergance?
[17:40] <K_Dallas> i see, will check them out, thanks
[17:41] <desertc> Who is this presentation for?
[17:41] <K_Dallas> after years of engineering work, i am back to do an mba
[17:42] <K_Dallas> we have a marketing class and since in the other classes everybody is talking about Steve Jobs and Dell, I decided to talk about ubuntu since to me they have done an impressive job of bring it ubuntu int the mainstream
[17:42] <K_Dallas> but i have not much of data and info about their marketing strategy (which i am told is more like demarketing ;) and that is why i am inquiring and goolging
[17:44] <K_Dallas> i am also going to install ubuntu on the laptop, which is total shock to my classmates even though many of them are from IT!!! and do the presentation in openoffice and write up the report with LaTeX ;) total opensource
[17:44] <K_Dallas> they have the doubt that i used to have 7-8 years ago
[17:44] <desertc> Making Linux easy to use and making it widely available was inevitable.  Everyone who looked at the technology and the market knew it would happen, but someone had to step up and get it done.  Other organizations had made half-hearted attempts, but they were always making jury-rig fixes that did not hold up.  There was a perfect-storm of Linux brewing for a while now, and Canonical was the first one to capture that energy.
[17:46] <K_Dallas> desertc, but how much of canonical's efforts were technical improvement, how much was advertising and marketing? 
[17:47] <K_Dallas> mandrake was an easy to install distro back in the old days but it never caught up
[17:47] <desertc> For other parts of your presentation, the MBAs may be interested to know that Open Source is not just the best way to own technology.  It's also (in almost all cases) the best way to develop technology, since it reduces development and support costs.
[17:48] <K_Dallas> agreed, with reserve
[17:48] <desertc> Did Mandriva make it easy to play encrypted DVDs, for example, or load proprietary codecs ?
[17:48] <K_Dallas> but i cannot really talk much about all the benefits as she has given us 8 min of presentation so i have to be really focused on marketing + 1 min of intro
[17:49] <K_Dallas> desertc, never used mandriva and with mandrake i never played DVDs
[17:49] <desertc> There is simple to use because you can't do anything, but I am talking about doing everything you want to do and it being simple.
[17:50] <K_Dallas> i got the point
[17:50] <K_Dallas> so that is one factor in ubuntu's success
[17:51] <desertc> Yes, you can do everything you want to do, and it is easy to do that.
[17:51] <K_Dallas> make it as easy as i layman desktop with XP 
[17:52] <desertc> I think XP is not easy to use, actually, but I suppose if that's what you know right now, then your analogy would be in the right ballpark.
[17:52] <desertc> I would equate it with an iPhone, myself
[17:52] <K_Dallas> desertc, people are used to windows so even if it is twisted, they think it is easy
[17:53] <K_Dallas> that could work, iPhone, my younger classmates are so hooked up on these gadgets ;)
[17:53] <desertc> You may be getting easy and familiar confused.  Easy means fewer steps, in my opinion.
[17:54] <K_Dallas> when you are familiar with a maze, it becomes easy to you
[17:54] <K_Dallas> but i get your point
[17:54] <desertc> In Ubuntu, to install a program, you open the program manager, find the package, click install, and use the program.  It is by far the easiest way to use programs on any operating system.
[17:55] <K_Dallas> :) well mainly because they are all in the same place and use the same installer and so on and so forth which are all the strengths of ubuntu
[17:55] <K_Dallas> but that is a good point to mention, thanks
[17:57] <K_Dallas> but does canonical target a certain age group, or geographical place? Going to sever business is targeting very specific clientele
[17:57] <desertc> I mentioned the perfect-storm before... That package ease-of-use came from the improvements of apt-get, the packaging tools of .DEB, the standardizing interfaces of GNOME and KDE, and Canonical took these all and put their technical support behind it.
[17:58] <K_Dallas> never used perfect-storm, last time i use ubuntu it was synaptic and apt-get
[17:58] <desertc> It is important to understand that Ubuntu did not come out of the blue with this operating system.
[17:58] <desertc> I am saying it is a "perfect storm" of technologies that made something like Ubuntu inevitable.
[17:58] <K_Dallas> ok ;)
[17:59] <desertc> Everyone saw something like this coming.  It was Canonical who finally stepped up to do it right.
[17:59] <K_Dallas> i agree. debian was already one of the best if not the best out there and building upon it was a good decision
[18:08] <desertc> I think you can find the information on the marketing targets on Ubuntu.com
[18:08] <K_Dallas> i will look again, i might have missed it, thanks a lot for the conversation
[18:09] <K_Dallas> i only wished i had more CDs to give out during the presentation ;)
[18:12] <K_Dallas> I am going to hand out the job announcement for marketing manager opening at the end of the presentation ;)
[18:15] <desertc> Here, print out this community generated magazine and give to everyone: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-7/
[18:15] <desertc> Just produced this week.
[18:22] <desertc> Ugh -- what was the point of exploiting Hands Reiser in the Full Circle Magazine?  The story from 2006 isn't even news.
[18:23] <desertc> K_Dallas: Maybe print out Issue 6, instead.
[18:24] <K_Dallas> of course, i am also going to print the chinese edition ;)
[18:33] <K_Dallas> Amazing! my other project is about TESCO and globalization, your issue-6 has a piece of news that they are not offering PC+Ubuntu in the UK ;)