Contributor guiral.lacotte

Arabic users face allot of problems in rendering any arabic texts, especially in Firefox or in terminal. Firefox fonts for arabic are limited and bad, and in terminal there is no support for Arabic. Many Encoding problems when adding arabic subtitles to a movie.

More and more users of Ubuntu don't know the ethical aspects of FLOSS (Free Libre and Open Source Software). For example, numbers of new users don't make the difference between Freeware (logiciel gratuit in french) and Free Software (logiciel libre in french).

Ubuntu should explain what Free Software is and why it is so important. We could for example :

- print Free Software on Ubuntu CDs sent by Shipit
- list the 4 freedoms of Free Software in an attractive and good looking screen during installation ;
- add an item in System menu : About Free Software with more detailed information ;

I work with April, a french speeking organisation aimed to promote and protect Free Software. We have a group looking for and creating resources (texts, images, movies) to explain what Free Software is and what it is so important (sensibilisation in french) :
http://wiki.april.org/phpwiki/index.php/Sensibilisation

For example, why have the following documents in French :
http://www.expolibre.org/
http://www.apitux.org/index.php?2006/07/07/170-flyer-libre
http://www.livretdulibre.org/

Of course it needs to be translated and adapted.

Another reference is http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

Thanks for your interest.

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I believe that a "standard installer package" as in Windows platform which does all the job for you to install any application will appeal more people and make it easy to move from other OS's to Ubuntu. It is really difficult and complicated for a newbie to install application in Ubuntu. For instance, when I first moved to Ubuntu from XP, I wanted to download and use my favorite programs like VLC player, i really didn't know what to do after I downloaded the file. If it was a single "installer" file, all I needed to do was to click it twice and there you go! My friends also complained that "compiling" to install applications is hard to prefer while they have an opportunity to install any file with a couple of clicks.

In my opinion, that would be more appealing for non-Ubuntu users.

When I first started using Ubuntu, the way I heard about it was several links down in a google search for "linux". This is exemplary of the poor exposure that Ubuntu has. We need to spread public awareness about the operating system, through media outlets, online campaigns, and possible tv/radio/billboard spots.

I think that the best place to start would be online campaigns, especially a series of official videos on youtube and other video sites. These should focus less on technical specs and the benefits of open-source, and more on the benefits of switching from Windows while retaining the ability to preform daily tasks. This will be targeting the main bulk of computer users: Microsoft customers who want to email, type, web browse, and don't like paying for an OS. Other facets of this campaign should include spreading the word about Ubuntu to non-tech oriented, high traffic website (myspace, yahoo), getting Ubuntu back as #1 on distrowatch.com, and creating guides in layman's terms so that non tech-savvy people can understand how to preform simple tasks. For example, don't tell people to open xorg.conf; tell them to type in the terminal 'sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf'.
Doing all of this will require a re-mobilization of the Ubuntu marketing team, several people to design a professional looking marketing video, and structure. Once more momentum is generated, the media will be apt to catch on to the trend. However, we want to make sure at all costs that this is positive exposure. Anything negative (eg. Ubuntu is for geeks only) could immensely hurt our image. Physical advertising is harder to get together, but if someone can find an investor, this could be very possible.
A final idea would be to push for Ubuntu in school systems. I know that where I live, the schools are forced to run Windows 2000 because of slow computers and no funds. Ubuntu could both free funds for education and implant knowledge about the system into children, our future consumer base.
Comment back with any ideas on how to improve this.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam


edit: We are now #1 on Distrowatch! Also, here is a great example of a promotional video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLHjT5-XM9o

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I think that Ubuntu could benefit from having a simple "Home" version and a "Standard" version available for download. The simple version wouldn't have nearly as many options visible to the user and would be designed for a non-techie who wanted to use Ubuntu. The standard would of course be the version of Ubuntu we all know and love. The code would all be the same, but a different front end that's both simplified and Linux at the same time.