openSUSE 11.2 Launch Planning

[Jonathan_R]

jbrockmeier mentioned earlier about how to possibly break it up for different markets.

I suggest 2 basic ones, where the subcategories can fit underneath.

Server

Business
Education and University
Experienced Linux users
Developers
Web developers (Ruby/RoR, PHP, Perl, Django, etc.)
.Net developers
FOSS application developers
SMBs

Desktop

Business or Home
University
New Users
Experienced Linux users
Developers
Web developers (Ruby/RoR, PHP, Perl, Django, etc.)
.Net developers
FOSS application developers
SMBs

See, if we split it up like was suggested, we could end up with a lot of respins. I would suggest doing it like this. In the repository manager is community repositories, we could do things like multimedia repositories, web developers repositories, Samba repositories and so on. That takes care of the basics. Then on install, add a screen that asks what type of user, so that later on, it configures the system based on how they answered.

If they choose New User, then a little description could explain it as, most of the system will automatically be configured for you whenever possible.

Where as an experienced or advanced user may not want that and so the blip would read something like, This setting will leave most of the configuration up to you.

[consused]

Originally Posted by jbrockmeier

...What else am I missing?

I assume by K-12 you mean schools (primary and secondary) as there may be many countries that don't call it K-12.

It's a launch, so what about the Media as a sector i.e. computer press/news, magazines, journalists (they also use linux) that do all those reviews. Don't wait for them to pick up from Distrowatch, target them with something (ubuntu seems to get more reviews than anyone else).

Government sector in european countries (@Chrysantine mentioned it earlier). Why? "It's the economy stupid" . They are waking up to Open Source to save huge licensing fees. For example, UK PM said that government IT projects must look at OSS to take advantage of lower licensing costs (BBC news story). I guess the real push there will eventually be commercial (Novell). Goverment people may already be having a look at leading distros. If the PM mentioned it, he was briefed by civil servants involved in overseeing IT projects. Try and target them somehow at the launch.

[Knurpht]

Is splitting it up during install already mentioned? Like we have the choice of desktop environments. So, after starting the installer, it will give you a couple of choices:
Server install
Desktop install
Laptop install
This way you'd still be providing everything to everybody, so persons like me could install a full desktop on a Server install and so on

[Jonathan_R]

What? We can't hone and fine tune it a bit more, while offering greater diversity?

[Yorick]

Originally Posted by jbrockmeier

Fully agreed. So let's look at some of the target audiences:

* Education
* K-12
* University
* New Users
* Experienced Linux users
* Developers
* Web developers (Ruby/RoR, PHP, Perl, Django, etc.)
* .Net developers
* FOSS application developers
* ISVs
(I split those groups up because they have different needs)
* SMBs
* Desktop users
* Server users

What else am I missing?

I agree that targeting is important however I believe we should aim for a simpler set of demographics. If, for instance, we are using the Ambassadors at the sharp end then they need an agreed upon, common approach to promoting the launch so that presentations and other marketing materials are the same no matter where we are (within the strictures of local environments of course).

I agree with the server - desktop separation.

Each of these two group then could be divided into

• New Users
• Experienced Users
• Developers

So then we would have three presentations, one for each group but with material that could be added or removed depending on whether it's a group dealing with servers or Desktops.

Pamphlets would be either one of two: Desktop or Server.

This would give a simple start point and then more detail could be added at local level to suit the finer demographic.

[john_hudson]

Originally Posted by Yorick

I agree with the server - desktop separation.

Each of these two group then could be divided into

• New Users
• Experienced Users
• Developers

This misses the point; marketing should focus on the uses to which people are putting the software, not their expertise. I would also suggest that developers who have not heard of openSUSE are too small a market on which to focus marketing effort at a distro release. They need to be contacted in other ways, e.g. publicising the OBS.

[srschifano]

Another sub-area I think to focus on would be possible Windows 7-converts. It will be coming out close to Fichte's release, so as a "rival" from a marketing perspective it would be logical to focus on it.

Perhaps something along the lines of "unlike other OS's, openSUSE has been improving with each release" or "consistently better than the previous version".

Not that I have a bad opinion of Windows Vista or 7 (indeed, I love using both OS's). I'm just talking from a marketing stand point.

[consused]

Originally Posted by john_hudson

This misses the point; marketing should focus on the uses to which people are putting the software, not their expertise. I would also suggest that developers who have not heard of openSUSE are too small a market on which to focus marketing effort at a distro release. They need to be contacted in other ways, e.g. publicising the OBS.

Normally for marketing purposes I would agree about having an application focus, so that any marketing material could highlight in an appropriate way, the key application programs along with any new or improved features being delivered in the release. The material should appeal to all users irrespective of their current skill level, in the same way that openSUSE can.

Leaving Developers aside, I don't see the point of dividing a target audience by skill level except when promoting an entry level version that is available separately from the main one. As John Hudson points out Developers and their particular needs can be handled in specialized ways.

Looking at jbrockmeiers's original list, the "New User" and "Experienced Linux User" categories are somewhat vague. Does it mean new to computers/linux/openSUSE? What's the experienced Linux User interested in? We could debate that for ages. In another thread someone argued that power-users haven't got time for linux and its difficult ways. How do you define a power-user nowadays (useful if you're selling H/W)? Trying to appeal to categories that are difficult to define can waste a lot of planning time/resource. Best to categorize audiences that already exist as clearly groupings such as schools and universities, I would have thought.

[TaraIkeda]

I think the main purpose of OpenSuse 11.2 is to target the most obvious:
Target Windows 7

Its pretty obvious to me, OpenSuse use KDE4 and many have compared it to Vista and windows 7 already.
OpenSuse should take the push to gain the media attention that we know Win7 will get, Win7 already gets a lot of hype as it is so why not try to dish out our own offense?
Its only money that gets win7 its attention but with the right kind of strategy OpenSuse could capitalize.
Here is what I feel needs to be done:

1: OpenSuse needs to get its own theme going, loose Oxygen and perhaps use QTcurve instead.
2: Loose Aya as the default plasma theme for Opensuse, I think air as seen in KDE 4.3 beta is pretty nice.
3: Improve multimedia installation, make sure that getting multimedia is better documented too like a link after installation or something...

Those are the 3 I can think of right now.

[consused]

Originally Posted by TaraIkeda

I think the main purpose of OpenSuse 11.2 is to target the most obvious:
Target Windows 7

Its pretty obvious to me, OpenSuse use KDE4 and many have compared it to Vista and windows 7 already.
OpenSuse should take the push to gain the media attention that we know Win7 will get, Win7 already gets a lot of hype as it is so why not try to dish out our own offense?

Focusing too much on the competition may detract from concentrating on the strengths of openSUSE. Sure, there has to be publicity, but if you know that Win7 will get huge amounts of publicity, and Microsoft has massive marketing budgets plus a captive audience, why burn the sponsors' funds on a losing strategy?

I think that the first task for openSUSE is to convince the Linux community that it can deliver a reliable distro where things just work on release, especially multimedia and the installation process. It arguably delivers the best all-round KDE desktop, a good gnome desktop, an impressive infrastructure, and an increasingly open development cycle. That is a big enough marketing task to begin with at launch.

If openSUSE manages to get the attention of Media that covers both Linux and Windows, then it will attract the attention of clued-up users.

I don't think openSUSE is ready yet for the sector of the Window's market that thinks "Google is a browser", buys it with the H/W, and gets a new system when the old one is full or broken.