Let's invade Ubuntu Forums!!!!!

[viperskunk]

Okay so OpenSuSE 11.0/11.1 is better than Ubuntu 8.10.
Agreed?
Agreed.
And still Ubuntu has the largest user base and forum community. it is also not ubuntu is necessarily more newbie-friendly than the latest versions of suse. (earlier versions, sure, but not the recent ones)So why do they have more users than us here? It is because almost every newcomer to linux has someone behind them guiding them into linux. someone does your first install for you, or someone tells you about it etc.
And with a large communtiy and userbase, (ubuntu forums is by far the largest one around), help is quick and easy.

it is not that ubuntu has less problems than suse...but it is simply that whatever problem you are having with ubuntu, there is high likelihood that someone else has had the same problem before you, with such a large user base. documentation on the forum is huge. opensuse ha also got amazing docs; but still we are second best (and Linux Mint is catching up fast).

so here is what i suggest.
let us invade their forums!
for example, for every two posts you write here, post once on ubuntu forums luring people onto the 'greener' side of life.

cmmon, we all love to hate Novell, but few can argue against the fact that OpenSuSE (not novell's SLE) is as much a community project as ubuntu.
i am sure people will switch, even if the switch is slow at first.

this is not a war.
it is just trying to assert that green is a more ubiquitous colour in nature than brown.

[viperskunk]

what you folks think?

[Spyhawk]

I think this is a (really) bad idea.

Sure openSUSE is better than Ubuntu (I'm sure of that too ), but... nobody here want that Ubuntu fanboy comes on openSUSE forums to "spread" their brown thing...

I don't like "fanboys" for lot of reason... I hope openSUSE users are smarter than this, and don't do the same mistake.

If you want to "invade" Ubuntu's world, just write a nice, unbiased, complete review of openSUSE. And digg it. Everyone here will digg it too

[microchip8]

I think your proposal is just stupid, no hard feelings. You don't just go "invade" some Linux forum and try to convert the people there to your distro. The only thing that will come out of such an action is a distro war and flames. This is all that you will get. Further, a lot of Ubuntu people are blinded by it and are know as the biggest trolls on the Internet in regards to Linux and their distro so it will be extremely difficult for you to convince a large enough amount to swtich over that will be enough to justify your effort and actions.

Further, Ubuntu is not popular because it is the best of all distros, but because of the excellent marketing machine that is Canonical. Novell does a poor job at that since they are more focusing on the enterpriese world instead of the home user, its strategy is different than the one deployed by Canonical.

If you have an excellent marketing machine like Canonical, no matter how bad your product might be, it will still sell as hot bread to the largely clueless public.

The userbase that Ubuntu today enjoys is largely because of Canonical's effort to make it the most popular distro around. Most popular one does not directly imply that it is the best one.

If you go around their forums are try to convert Ubuntu users to openSUSE, you will find yourself after a while exhausted from argumenting with them and your efforts will be in vain. Maybe a few will switch, but the larger userbase will just stick to Ubuntu. This is true for every other distro around. Lets turn around the cards. What if a Ubuntu user came here and tried to convince openSUSE people to switch over to Ubuntu. How many of the loyal users of openSUSE do you think will completely switch? My guess is very few, if none at all.

[viperskunk]

Okay. So I totally agree that it will start the war of distros etc etc.
And I totally agree, it is not nice if an Ubuntu user comes here. That is why it is not a good idea to infiltrate the entire forums.
But where was ever a harm in having a little bit of fun????
Like cmmmon, i mean you guys took me too seriously!!
I find it absolutely hilarious when a forum thread goes on and on, page after page, debating which of any two distros is better. It happens on our forum too. It happens everywhere.
It is just really nice to write something innocently controversial (but not scandalous, of course) and watch the fun where everyone joins in. (even if it is against you, it is flattering coz it tells you they actually took you seriously).
I mean I had a hearty laugh, seeing how seriously I was just taken here.
Calm down...life is long....

[viperskunk]

All i am saying is, let us add some spice.

> "viperskunk" <viperskunk@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote in
> message news:viperskunk.3j2nnc@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org...
>
> All i am saying is, let us add some spice.



How about we don't. Linux is about freedom of choice.

If you want to troll a forum, do it at http://www.forumwarz.com/


--
AZC

[viperskunk]

And with regards to writing unbiased review, it is not possible for me to not be biased towards opensuse. (i guess in this declaration lies my honesty..rather than a review). and most of the distro 'reviews' that are on these blogs, are nothing more than a screenshot guide of the install process and what the default desktop looks like and what apps are included. cmmon! that is no "review". it tells you nothing more than what the pretty/not-so-pretty installer looks like.
The reviews i really like to read are about various projects undertaken by a certain distro, and the most important question is this- why should i choose this distro?

For example please read these two reviews:
First look: OpenSUSE 11.1 beta 3 very promising

as compared to:
11 Prime Features of openSUSE 11.1 - A Comprehensive Review

you will notice the difference. sadly there are a lot more of the former artcle's kind found. and i am not well adept to write the latter kind.

[ken_yap]

Inverse golden rule: Do not do to others what you would not want done to you.

Why do you want to engage in such negative behaviour anyway? We should be glad that they are running open software at all. Maybe they will look for something better when they feel like it. Or maybe they are happy with what they have. Isn't that just fine?

And besides proselyting often has the opposite effect. Remember the fable of the wind, the sun and the man with a hat.

[microchip8]

Originally Posted by viperskunk

But where was ever a harm in having a little bit of fun????

Sure, if you call "fun" being a troll who's going around on other distro forums trying to convince people to switch for whatever reason... Because this is how they will see and label you, a troll and nothing more. Some will jump right into the discussion, others will see what's going on and will just not bother.... But if you wanna do that, I'm fine with it. I guess everyone has its own definition of "fun". Like they say: to each his own

Like cmmmon, i mean you guys took me too seriously!!
I find it absolutely hilarious when a forum thread goes on and on, page after page, debating which of any two distros is better. It happens on our forum too. It happens everywhere.

And did you see the outcome of such threads? More hatred/disliking and war and a final conclusion that neither of the distros discussed is better that the other. The Ubuntu side will keep arguing Ubuntu is better and the openSUSE side will do the same. And in the end you will get a highly biased "conclusion" about which one is better. A conclusion you shouldn't even think of trusting.

It is just really nice to write something innocently controversial (but not scandalous, of course) and watch the fun where everyone joins in. (even if it is against you, it is flattering coz it tells you they actually took you seriously).

I don't think they are taking you seriously. If they did, they will switch over without much arguments. What happens in such discussions is that they are specifically "designed" to let all the fear, anger, doubt, and misinformation come out. It's like an itch you have but couldn't scratch it for a long time. As soon as such a thread starts, you finally get the chance of scratching the goddam nasty itch, and you release all the buildup pressure inside

I mean I had a hearty laugh, seeing how seriously I was just taken here.
Calm down...life is long....

Actually, on the contrary, life is really really short. It may seem long to you because of the way a human perceives things but compared to other things in the Universe, a human life is just a picosecond, if not less. Also there's a high degree of uncertainty in life, hence the saying: you never know when and/or from what you will die.