[LI] Focus of LI at IT.COM

[Gandalf Mithrandir <gandalf@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi there everyone,

Some thoughts on the Linux India pavilion @ IT.COM.

It's all very cool to talk of apps to demonstrate and things to present in
the pavilion. But, before all that, let's take a look at the prospective
audience. Apart from the business folks, the EDP and MIS managers et all
walking around , anyone who was there last year will tell you that children,
parents and students formed a huge chunk of the audience.
So, let's not loose focus - the business folks should already know about
Linux (or else they are in trouble - ;-) ) and their awareness is not a key
here.  Linux has has a rather decent run with respect to publicity in IT at
least. And with these folks too, applications / technologies that are big
make sense. Corel is a fine example, for if we talk about Wordperfect being
offered free on Linux, there is an impact made when people who know what
Corel is and what their support for the platform means.
Home computers. How many people use Linux to connect to the Net? Create
documents, manage accounts or whatever. Is Linux used as the single OS on a
machine? If not, then we should show that it can be. We need to look at
applications that get most often used - Star Office is a good example. But,
it's with the next generation that LI should really reach out. Catch em
young makes more sense that ever before.  We already start with an advantage
- TUX is an icon that kids will understand. That is something that could be
reinforced (- the idea about large penquins walking around is not 2 bad).
That's why the discussion on trying to run Linux on multiple platforms seems
a bit out of place - show a kid RH6.0 running on a x86 AND a SGI AND a Sparc
AND an Alpha and say it works just as well the likely response will be - "So
what?". What difference will it make - a comp is a comp is a comp.
On the other hand show the kid Quake or Civ  and say here are games on Linux
- you could make a point. This point hit me recently when some friends of
mine were shocked to see Quake running on Linux. Games are a big draw. The
image that Linux has is that of a Geek centric command line OS. And let's
face it, the image of Windoze is that of a friendly GUI oriented usable OS.
(The fact that it isnt any of that , isn't a point worth discussing, so
let's ditch that). Let's combat that stereotype. The last thing that we want
to show kids is a "tough to use" arcane system that seemingly has a large
learning curve. I'm not saying that going Gooey is the way out, but a slick
GUI feel is something Linux could be very easily associated with.

And getting a whole lot of people excited about Linux is the whole point of
the exercise, isn't it?

ReSourcefully,
M

Gandalf Mithrandir /* Any Sufficiently Advanced Operating System is indistinguishable from Linux */ gandalf@xxxxxxxxx
                  //Do not meddle with SysAds for they are quick to anger and subtle in their ways//

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