On Friday 07 January 2011 04:51:06 Efstathios Iosifidis wrote: > On 06/01/2011 11:38 μμ, Helen wrote: > > Well I've already written the short version, so there's some text > > there, maybe it's useful maybe not. > > > > I'm not going to spend too much time on beginner users, since they are > > not our target market, though I agree that some background on license, > > antivirus and so on is a good idea. > > > > I don't deal well with endless stragetgy and meetings. Give me a task > > to do and I get it done if I can. > > > > Helen > > I totally disagree with Helen, > > Beginner users ARE our target market. > > 1. Microsoft wants beginner users so they have them addicted to their > products. I think they're not focus on the server products as much as > they care about programs for the mass. Until now their marketing on that > is more than 100% success. > 2. Beginner user doesn't care if the OS is with a green Start button, > blue bar and meadow background. He/she cares to have a PC that will use > to be productive (we focus on end user and not web administrator). Also > cares weather he/she doesn't have to search for the software and the > crack of the software (licences etc). Until now (I heard) that only > Apple does that. You open your PC and you work. > 3. Advance users, don't need us to make flyers with a nice text on them. > They already know what openSUSE is all about and they already decide if > openSUSE or any other distro is the best for them.
I think we are talking about different things. The openSUSE strategy (while not yet rectified) states that our target user is this: We cater for users who are interested in computers and want to get work done, experiment or learn. That means grandma who doesn't care about computers is NOT a target for openSUSE. However, her niece who sets up her computer and maintains it might very well be a target user for openSUSE. In other words, we focus on people who are at least interested in learning about computers. If we start focussing on people who barely used a mouse before and don't want to know about computers other than "how do I open hotmail" we can better stop. Because openSUSE is not ready for them and never will be. Such users need someone to help them with their computer. > Well, that was one of many reasons I didn't fit with Greek Fedora > community. They were searching for contributors and not end users. Until > now, Greek openSUSE community joined events based on promotion of > openSUSE to beginner users (either on Linux or advanced windows users > that use cracked software). We do look for endusers. But for endusers who at least know what an operating system is, or are at least interested in learning. I doubt you ever find someone at a conference who is completely not interested in computers - but those would NOT be our target users. We target system admins, geeks, it students, but also people wo need to get work done in their office and who like to have an OS that HELPS them, not limits them. > Why don't we focus to flyers for schools? The kids are the next > generations of computer users and admins. > > Ubuntu in Greece is based on users. But those users are interested in computers, yes? So they must almost surely know at least some basics. I don't oppose writing a very basic folder and using it in some situations (like a school, as you wrote) but while users are good and the future is important we also have to think about the now. Imagine you are successful and get 100.000 new users, half of them school children. Who is going to answer their questions? We don't have the resources for that... Who will solve the bugs they find? Many of them will be small usability issues for which we don't have the resources to fix them... The growth of our userbase has to go hand in hand with the growth of our number of contributors - like you. So yes, it is important to get new users. But be sure to teach them to help each other and to build up a support infrastructure with volunteers or else they will be very disappointed because nobody can help them... > That's why they rule here, although > they only joined 2-3 of tech events during the past year (they didn't > make release party for 10.04 or 10.10). > > Anyways, those are some of my thoughts. Thanks. I hope my thoughts were helpful too :D > Stathis
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