[Promotion] Re: Because you have better stuff to do than fixing your computer

[Wade Olson]

On 10/21/06, Thilo Pfennig <tpfennig at gmail.com> wrote:
> ( I also reply to freedesktop)
>
> 2006/10/19, Quim Gil <qgil at desdeamericaconamor.org>:
> > Can we borrow the "Just Works! (tm)" slogan?
> >
>
> Actually I don't think that such slogans are a good idea. I think
> Windows, Mac, Intel and AOL already go that line that THEY enable the
> user to do cool things.
>

Right, the "Just Works" angle might be a bit confusing because of its broadness.

Apple and MS "just work" a lot better fo a lot of new users because
it's tough to overcome years of prebuilt desktop experience, control
over the hardware in many cases, and a small army of driver writers.

That being said, over the life of the machine...with viruses,
licensing issues, end-of-life for support, DRM, lack of freely
available software (for photos, etc)....you start to think, "Hey, it's
GNOME/KDE/Linux/BSD that just works!"

If you thought that there was a target market for KDE/GNOME when 98
support goes down, XP should be even more so.  The average machine in
a couple years that isn't "Vista Ready" will be quite powerful, and
with Vista's restrictive installation policy (only switch machines
once, I believe)...these machines and the ability to use them will
"Just Work" with KDE/GNOME.

Conclusion: "Just Works" works, but clarification on what it really
means will lead to a more refined result/message.

Wade


> I really think that we rather should communicate other values, that
> might not be as "sexy", but maybe in the future.
>
>
> I would rather like to communicate:
>
>  * GNOME is free software: "Free your Desktop" (I love to see this
> slogan to be a shared slogan of KDE, GNOME and others like:
>  * "Free you desktop with GNOME" or
>  * "Free your desktop with KDE"
>