Just got an email from someone doing Software Freedom Day planning, and wondering about giving out discs at a baseball game on Software Freedom Day.
I think this is a great idea, but I’m curious how many people would actually try openSUSE (or any Linux distro…) if they receive the disc at a sporting event?
Obviously, this would be a target-rich environment for people who hadn’t tried Linux yet. You could definitely meet and talk to a lot of people who aren’t familiar with openSUSE, Linux, or open source, and hand out a lot of openSUSE discs.
That’s great, but what about the downsides? Are baseball fans likely to hold on to the disc, take it home and give it a shot, or is it likely that they’ll discard the discs or just never get around to trying it out?
I love the idea of having openSUSE contributors converging on sporting events on Software Freedom Day and talking to people about Linux and openSUSE, but I wonder if giving out discs would be an efficient use of the discs.
I think we should be seeing more kiosks and reps at events and non-geek presences to show off how Linux is better than other OS, or possibly why different is better.
Expanding the knowledge to people who don’t already have it is how you expand the user base.
I think handing out CDs to people who don’t know what Linux is would be useless.
I don’t see baseball fans using a Linux disk to be honest. Half the crap i get at a baseball game doesn’t ever make it home from the game. IT either is spilled upon or I set it on the ground and forget about it or something else happens to it. Unless of course it is “valuable”, defined as in the eye of the beholder.
I think it might be a waste of resources
Jonathan
Our LUG and I, have done similar things several times. Going out into the streets and handing out CDs and fliers to random people – for Software Freedom Day and other events.
In my experience it’s extremely ineffective. People (at least here in Denmark) are usually very friendly and curious, but the number of people who have turned up later at our LUG meetings, or have given any feedback, can easily be counted with my fingers.
My mantra when it comes to marketing GNU/Linux, is that to switch operating system (not just to GNU/Linux), at least one of the following pre-conditions must be present:
a) The person must be motivated, have some time and patience, and be at least moderately technically savvy, or;
b) The person must have a reasonably savvy user available to help him first hand.
I fear that 99% of the people at a baseball game will probably meet neither pre-condition – and therefore even if they *do* try openSUSE, they’re very likely to fail and have a bad experience.
Of course handing out the discs might have some effect in terms of planting some seeds – raising awareness of GNU/Linux and openSUSE, and maybe six months from now when their MS Windows comes crashing down or something else comes up they’ll think about GNU/Linux as a possible solution.
To be honest, I believe the discs might end up being used as frisbees. You might have more success at places where people sometimes gather with laptops. Perhaps coffee houses, common areas around college campuses, libraries, and book stores. Remember to offer people a reason to sample the live cd. Those reasons might include freedom, creativity, community, or maybe just the coolness of a particular open source application.
An interesting idea when one considers the sheer numbers that can be reached at a baseball game. Unfortunately, not the right forum, I suspect.