
Linux's Marketing Problem - fortran77
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/linuxs-marketing-problem/
======
rvz
Realistically, the closest use of "Linux on the Desktop" \+ marketing is
ChromeOS and Chromebooks. Yes, its using Linux underneath but Google is
marketing the system as ChromeOS which is easily relatable with the Chrome
Browser which everyone knows. With every other distro out there, marketing
"Linux" would just introduce confusion towards the average user due to
customization, different DEs and apps available and errors involved. Google
had to unfortunately market Linux under a different name for users to notice
their product.

Apple and Microsoft have dedicated support that helps users whenever a
hardware/software error occurs, they are usually the main point of contact.
Linux distros sort of have this with "bug reports" but its very user
unfriendly and due to the distro software stack, multiple points of contact:
(X/Wayland team, GNOME team, kernel devs, distro maintainers, etc). Google
knew too well to improve on this pitfall with their Pixel lineup to have a
dedicated support team for their Chromebooks.

Linux still dominates the server market, however the desktop will always be a
issue for Linux as it is not for the faint of heart for changing sane
defaults, customising the DE, window manager and startup scripts which the
user may end up spending hours searching error codes or having to revert their
setup altogether, which just wastes time to get started. At least ChromeOS and
Fuchsia are aiming for a consistent experience similar to Windows and macOS.

> It’ll only come if someone can unify all the splintered groups around a
> cohesive, simple message and market it to the public.

Sane defaults in a Linux distro would be a start for a standardised Linux
desktop and would finally solve the inconsistency problem and reduce the MxN
configuration issue for narrowing bugs. Apart from Google, The Haiku project
[0] is doing well at creating an integrated OS with sane defaults for a
desktop OS + an SDK for developers which is unified, similar to macOS and
Windows but open-source. If they can do it with less than 10 core developers,
I find it hard to believe as to why the Linux community could not come
together to achieve the same thing.

[0] [https://www.haiku-os.org/](https://www.haiku-os.org/)

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kick
This is the worst article on Linux I've read in years. Installing Puppy Linux
to disk almost never happens in reality, because that's not even a secondary
aim of it. They picked a distro that isn't aimed at being installed to
demonstrate their point, because no distribution in the top ten is actually
difficult to install.

~~~
robbya
"Instead, the front page is largely a treatise on how Puppy Linux isn’t
actually a “distribution” per se, and a technical description of what does and
doesn’t count as a true Linux distribution."

I think the above quote from the article is why Puppy was used.

Why is the front page for Puppy full of technical nit-picking about
terminology? Why isn't it focused on getting the user to productivity faster
and easier.

Or maybe to follow on to your point, why doesn't the Puppy home page clarify
that install to disk isn't a goal. That info on the home page would have
certainly helped the author more than the definition of a distribution.

~~~
kick
Puppy Linux isn't in the mainstream, isn't aimed at users who aren't in the
know, and you can cherry-pick anything if you look far enough outside the
realm of "Plausibly installed on more than five hundred consumer systems."

~~~
robbya
Is that clear from their homepage?

> Ease of use → grandpa-friendly certified™

[http://puppylinux.com/](http://puppylinux.com/)

If I wasn't tech savvy and I stumbled into Puppy, I'd assume it was targeting
non-tech savvy people based on that statement at the top of the homepage. Then
I'd likely feel burned by "Linux" when it wasn't. There is a marketing problem
there.

Although in that example, why is a mainstream user looking at puppy in the
first place? So I think you're right, that's a cherry picked example.

------
8bitsrule
" cohesive marketing strategy"

Doesn't work with cats.

