Why Ubuntu just might succeed

Following on the heels of my post about why the Linux desktop fails, Joe Panettieri describes precisely why Ubuntu has a chance of bucking the trend and making Linux relevant to a wider audience:

Canonical/Ubuntu gets marketing.

Speaking of Canonical's decision to cancel Ubuntu Live, Panettieri writes:

Spending big bucks on Ubuntu Live -- and preaching to a niche audience of Ubuntu fanatics -- wasn't a great use of Canonical's marketing dollars.

Instead, Canonical hosted a range of education sessions at OSCON [as as well had a presence at LinuxWorld]....Many attendees were Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SuSE Linux and Windows Server administrators, who were seeking more information about Ubuntu. In other words, Canonical was preaching to new listeners rather than the same-old Ubuntu crowd. Smart move, Canonical.

Indeed. Mark Shuttleworth and the Canonical/Ubuntu crew understand that it's not good enough to be good enough when you're trying to displace entrenched incumbents. You have to be better, and you have to tell the world why.

So many in the open-source world believe that technical superiority means that a product should win. Unfortunately, technical superiority in just about every field of endeavor - from politics to software - perhaps guarantees you a shot at the title, but the title generally goes to the contender that markets the best, not the best contender.

It's therefore refreshing to see Canonical skirmishing with the right tools. It has community fervor. It has marketing. It has an increasing array of partners and enterprise traction. It also has an excellent product. Given the four, it just might succeed.

[The_Decider]

Thank you for proving my point I made in your previous article.

Ubuntu is pure hype. It is clunky, behind the curve, and just not ready to be the #1 distro.

But people use it because their marketing department hypes it up and it gets a lot of users even though it is subpar for Linux, it is better than XP or Vista, but what isn't.

See also the lemming effect.

The world would be a better place without business and marketing clowns.

[seanupton]

@The_Decider: Back up your unsubstantiated FUD! You have no data or warrant to back up your arguments that Ubuntu is hype, clunky, behind the curve, or whatever. Ubuntu is good at generating enthusiastic users, has one of the best mechanisms/platforms to collaborate with upstream development communities in Launchpad, is better at attracting developers than other distros, etc. This is not mutually exclusive with technical quality or production-readiness (I've put Ubuntu in decent-scale production for several years, and Debian a number of years before that, and I'm one of many happy people who have done so with success).

[ArtInvent]

Probably the biggest drag on Ubuntu (or any other distro that gets really popular): the cacophony of sour grapes from hardened and entrenched devotees of other distros that haven't been as successful. Ubuntu's big sin is that it's users and developers actually for some reason want it to be popular and spread - and they actually say this out loud and in public. This is heresy to many old-time Linux guys, who would prefer to work in the shadows with a really cool machine that no one but like minded geeks understand.

The sooner we can all turn a deaf ear to these stone-age 'marketing is evil' naysayers behind, the better.

[buntfu]

This article explains my decision to focus on Ubuntu as the recommended OS for Buntfu.com (a community based PC vendor).

Whether you like or not marketing is key. Canonical/Shuttleworth now exactly how to spread the word, cater to their fan base and give back to the community. All the while producing a truly excellent operating system that everyone is involved in. Including one of the largest, most active community driven help forums anywhere.

I believe its very important to fully support these types of efforts as long as the efforts are commiting no evil intentionally.

Everyone seems to have the same disease of build something up then if it gets too popular lets tear it down. I think we tear it down when its not truly out for the communities best interest and begins showing signs of typical corporate evil. Until then (if ever) we should continue backing the efforts to drive linux and the community forward.