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<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">Hi everyone, <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">After reading all the messages in
this topic, and learning how experienced marketing experts are
in the team, I have the following humble thoughts.</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">1. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">I am a techie person who is far
from being a marketing expert. Therefore, take my opinion with a
grain of salt.</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">2. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">For most of the users, simple
version numbers like X.x versus version Y.y don't say anything.
Nobody remembers what the difference was between LO 5.0 and 6.0,
but what other FOSS projects use, like Thunderbird 103 or
Firefox 111, is also totally meaningless to a normie. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">A version number like MSOffice'97
or JetBrains IntelliJ 2023 tells much more. People may know such
a program has features we used 26 years ago or just recently.
Therefore, I think a year based version number would make more
sense. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">I feel LibreOffice 2023 sounds
much more modern than LO 8.0. It has no sneaky marketing-bias,
it is a factual and meaningful information. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">Again, this is just what _I_
think. If the decision will be different, I will be totally OK
with it, I leave the decision to experts but wanted to add my
two cents. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">With regards, <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Bookman Old Style">Csongor<br>
</font></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/04/2023 18:23, Mike Saunders
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:fde87026-ace6-e220-9a91-f566f16cf5b9@documentfoundation.org">Hello,
<br>
<br>
On 06.04.23 22:12, Eyal Rozenberg wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<br>
Great, what's the problem? Why should we be in a rush to get
existing users to upgrade from 7.5 to 7.6?
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Well, one argument is that we have very limited resources to
support two branches. LibreOffice 7.5 won't be around forever, so
at some point we'll need to push people to update to 7.6/8.0, as
the previous version won't be maintained and could potentially
have security issues.
<br>
<br>
On Reddit, social media etc. we see lots of posts from people
using ancient versions of LibreOffice, and have no idea that there
are newer major releases. There are various reasons for that, but
IMO we need to keep people up-to-date. Not for quarterly sales
targets as a CompuGlobalHyperMegaCorp, as you say, but because
it's better for us all in the project when people are using
maintained and supported versions.
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">So, we should be at least skeptical about
copying MS behavior regarding MSO in which their marketing wing
is calling the shots.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Agreed that we shouldn't copy problematic behaviour, but if our
goal is to raise awareness of LibreOffice as much as possible, and
get it into as many hands as possible (and I know not everyone
agrees with that), then we have to be aware of the market in which
we're operating, and competing.
<br>
<br>
IMO, it's a lot like the whole "using proprietary services to
reach users" debate. Arguably, as a FOSS project, we should avoid
closed platforms like Twitter and Facebook. But we make a
compromise and are active on those platforms, because they are
very effective for reaching new users and communicating with them.
<br>
<br>
So I think our marketing has to balance these things. If we only
care about the technical side, we could use XTerm-style numbering
(just keep bumping a single number with every release). But as if
we want to reach Microsoft Office users and make a compelling
argument to them, our marketing has to fit.
<br>
<br>
And I know that Italo has a ton of experience and knowledge in
this field, so his perspective on this is very valuable IMO.
<br>
<br>
Cheers,
<br>
Mike
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
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