Linux Advocacy mini-HOWTO, Paul L. Rogers [great novels txt] 📗
- Author: Paul L. Rogers
- Performer: -
Book online «Linux Advocacy mini-HOWTO, Paul L. Rogers [great novels txt] 📗». Author Paul L. Rogers
Linux Advocacy miniHOWTO
Paul L. Rogers, Paul.L.Rogers@li.org
v0.5c, 3 May 2000This document provides suggestions for how the Linux community can
effectively advocate the use of Linux.
–—
Table of Contents
1. About this document 2. Copyright Information 3. Introduction 4. Related Information 5. Advocating Linux 6. Canons of Conduct 7. User Groups 8. Vendor Relations 9. Media Relations 10. Acknowledgements–—
1. About this documentThis is the Linux Advocacy miniHOWTO and is intended to provide
guidelines and ideas to assist with your Linux advocacy efforts.
This miniHOWTO was inspired by Jon “maddog” Hall when he responded
to a request for feedback on guidelines for advocating Linux during
NetDay (http://www.netday.org) activities. He responded positively to
the guidelines and observed that they were the basis of a list of
“canons of conduct” that would benefit the Linux community.
This document is available in HTML form at
http://www.datasync.com/~rogerspl/Advocacy-HOWTO.html.
Nat Makarevitch (nat@nataa.fr.eu.org) has translated this document
into French ( http://www.linux—
france.org/article/these/advocacy/Advocacy-HOWTO-fr.html).
Chie Nakatani (jeanne@mbox.kyoto-inet.or.jp) has translated this
document into Japanese (http://jf.linux.or.jp/JFdocs/Advocacy.html).
Janusz Batko (janus@krakow.linux.org.pl) has translated this document
into Polish (http://www.jtz.org.pl/Html/mini/Advocacy.pl.html).
Bruno H. Collovini (buick@microlink.com.br) has translated this
document into Portuguese
(http://www.microlink.com.br/~buick/dragons/op1/minihowtos/br-advocacy.html).
Mauricio Rivera Pineda (rmrivera@hotmail.com) has translated this
document into Spanish (http://www.linux—
es.com/docs/HOWTO/translations/es/mini/Advocacy-Mini-Como).
The author and maintainer of the Linux Advocacy miniHOWTO is Paul L.
Rogers (Paul.L.Rogers@li.org).
Comments and proposed additions are welcome.
If you need to know more about the Linux Documentation Project or
about Linux HOWTO’s, feel free to contact the supervisor Tim Bynum
(linux-howto@sunsite.unc.edu). Tim Bynum will post this document to
several national and international newsgroups on a monthly basis.
A personal note: Due to various circumstances, I have not been able to
dedicate as much time to maintaining this miniHOWTO and interacting
with the Linux community as I would have desired. I apologize for
this and if you have attempted to contact me and I was slow in
responding, please forgive me being so inconsiderate. While I still
have many other commitments, I am anticipating that they will start
requiring less time to meet and allow me to catch up on other parts of
my life. I appreciate your patience and would like to extend a
special thanks to all who have taken the time to suggest additions and
corrections.
–—
2. Copyright InformationThis miniHOWTO is Copyright © 1996-2000 by Paul L. Rogers. All
rights reserved.
A verbatim copy may be reproduced or distributed in any medium
physical or electronic without permission of the author. Translations
are similarly permitted without express permission if it includes a
notice on who translated it.
Short quotes may be used without prior consent by the author.
Derivative work and partial distributions of the Advocacy miniHOWTO
must be accompanied with either a verbatim copy of this file or a
pointer to the verbatim copy.
Commercial redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however, the
author would like to be notified of any such distributions.
In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through
as many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright
on the HOWTO documents, and would like to be notified of any plans to
redistribute the HOWTOs.
We further want that all information provided in the HOWTOs is
disseminated. If you have questions, please contact Tim Bynum, the
Linux HOWTO coordinator, at linux-howto@sunsite.unc.edu.
3. IntroductionThe Linux community has known for some time that for many
applications, Linux is a stable, reliable, robust (although not
perfect) product. Unfortunately, there are still many people,
including key decision-makers, that are not aware of the existence of
Linux and its capabilities.
If Linux and the many other components that make up a Linux
distribution are to reach their full potential, it is critical that we
reach out to prospective “customers” and advocate (being careful not
to promise too much) the use of Linux for appropriate applications.
The reason that many a company’s products have done well in the
marketplace is not so much due to the product’s technical superiority
but the company’s marketing abilities.
If you enjoy using Linux and would like to contribute something to the
Linux community, please consider acting on one or more of the ideas in
this miniHOWTO and help others learn more about Linux.
4. Related InformationLars Wirzenius, former comp.os.linux.announce moderator and long-time
Linux activist, also has some thoughts
(http://www.iki.fi/liw/texts/advocating-linux.html) about Linux
advocacy.
Eric S. Raymond provides an analysis
(http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar.html) of why the development model used by the Linux community
has been so successful.
The free software community has recognized that the terms “free
software” and “freely available software” are not appropriate in all
contexts. For more information about using the term “opensource
software” when marketing “free software”, please visit the Open Source
(http://www.opensource.org/) site.
If you need to brush up on your Linux sales techniques, take a look at
the Linuxmanship (http://zgp.org/~dmarti/linuxmanship/) essay by
Donald B. Marti, Jr.
The Linux PR (http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~conradp/linux/pr/) site
discusses the importance of press releases to the Linux community.
Another way to gain valuable experience in this area is to organize a
NetDay at a local school using the guidelines presented in the NetDay
How-To Guide (http://www.netday.org/NetDay/howto/guide/).
Linux International’s (http://www.li.org/) goal is to promote the
development and use of Linux.
The Linux Documentation Project (http://www.linuxdoc.org/) is an
invaluable resource for Linux advocates.
The Linux Center Project (http://www.portalux.com/) provides a
thematical index of resources about Linux and free software.
The Linux Business Applications (http://www.m-tech.ab.ca/linux-biz/)
site provides a forum for organizations that depend on Linux for day-to-day business operations to share their experiences.
Linux Enterprise Computing (http://linas.org/linux/) and Freely
Redistributable Software in Business
(http://www.cyber.com.au/misc/frsbiz/) cover resources and topics of
interest to those deploying Linux in a business/commercial/enterprise
setting.
The Linux Advocacy Project’s (http://www.10mb.com/linux/) goal is to
encourage commercial application developers to provide native Linux
versions of their software.
The Linux CD and Support Giveaway
(http://visar.csustan.edu/giveaway.html) program is helping make Linux
more widely available by encouraging the reuse of Linux CD-ROMs.
Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. (SSC) hosts the Linux Resources
(http://www.linuxresources.com/) site and publishes the Linux Journal
(http://www.linuxjournal.com/).
The linux-biz (http://www.lege.com/linux-biz.html) mailing list is a
forum created to discuss the use of Linux in a business environment.
The Linux Mission Critical Systems survey
(http://wauug.erols.com/mclinux/results.html) documents successful
existing systems which have a large load and are up 24 hours per day.
A number of online publications are now devoted to covering Linux.
These include:
· LinuxFocus (http://mercury.chem.pitt.edu/~angel/LinuxFocus/)
· Linuxove noviny (http://www.linux.cz/noviny/)
· Linux Gazette (http://www.ssc.com/lg/)
· PLUTO Journal (http://www.pluto.linux.it/journal/).
Additional links to online publications can be found at the Linux
Documentation Project (http://www.linuxdoc.org/links/media.html) and
the Linux Center Project
(http://www.portalux.com/informations/journals/).
5. Advocating Linux· Share your personal experiences (good and bad) with Linux.
Everyone knows that software has bugs and limitations and if we
only have glowing comments about Linux, we aren’t being honest. I
love to tell people about having to reboot four times (three
scheduled) in three years.
· If someone has a problem that Linux may be able to solve, offer to
provide pointers to appropriate information (Web pages, magazine
articles, books, consultants, …). If you haven’t actually used
the proposed solution, say so.
· If you are available for making presentations about Linux, register
with the Linux Speakers Bureau
(http://noframes.linuxjournal.com/lsb/listing.html).
· Offer to help someone start using Linux. Follow up to make sure
that they are able to use their system effectively.
· Some people still believe that Linux and similar systems operate
only in text-mode. Make sure that they are aware of the
availability of graphical applications, such as the Gimp
(http://www.gimp.org/).
· Try to respond to one “newbie” posting each week. Seek out the
tough questions, you may be the only one to respond and you may
learn something in the process. However, if you aren’t confident
that you can respond with the correct answer, find someone that
can.
· Seek out small software development firms and offer to make a
presentation about Linux.
· If the opportunity arises, make a presentation to your employer’s
Information Technology group.
· Participate in community events such as NetDay
(http://www.netday.org/). While your first priority must be to
contribute to the success of the event, use the opportunity to let
others know what Linux can do for them.
· Always consider the viewpoints of the person to whom you are
“selling” Linux. Support, reliability, interoperability and cost
are all factors that a decision-maker must consider. Of the above,
cost is often the least important portion of the equation.
· Availability of support is often mentioned as a concern when
considering the adoption of Linux. Companies such as Caldera
(http://www.caldera.com/), Cygnus Solutions
(http://www.cygnus.com/), Red Hat (http://www.redhat.com/), and
S.u.S.E. (http://www.suse.com/) offer support for some or all
components of a typical Linux distribution. In addition, the Linux
Consultants HOWTO (http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Consultants-HOWTO.html) provides a listing of companies providing commercial
Linux related support. Of course, some of the best support is
found in the comp.os.linux and linux newsgroup hierarchies.
· Point out that the production of opensource software
(http://www.opensource.org/) takes place in an environment of open
collaboration between system architects, programmers, writers,
alpha/beta testers and end users which often results in well
documented, robust products such as Apache
(http://www.apache.org/), GNU Emacs (http://www.gnu.org/), Perl
(http://www.perl.com/) and the Linux kernel
(http://www.linuxhq.com/).
· Stand up and be counted! Register with the Linux Counter
(http://counter.li.org/).
· Report successful efforts of promoting Linux to Linux International
(li@li.org) and similar organizations.
· Find a new home for Linux CD-ROMs and books that you no longer
need. Give them to someone interested in Linux, a public library
or a school computer club. A book and its CD-ROM would be most
appropriate for a library. However, please be sure that making the
CD-ROM publicly available does not violate a licensing agreement or
copyright. Also, inform the library staff that the material on the
CD-ROM is freely distributable. Follow up to make sure it is
available on the shelves.
· When purchasing books about software distributed with Linux, give
preference to books written by the author of the software. The
royalties that authors receive from book sales may be the only
monetary compensation received for their efforts.
(— Need to fix or change the Powered by Linux text —)
· Encourage Linux-based sites to submit their entry for the Powered
by Linux (http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/pub/LDP/powered.html) page and
suggest that banners promoting Linux
(http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~conradp/banners/), Apache
(http://www.apache.org/), GNU (http://www.gnu.org/), Perl
(http://www.perl.com/) … be displayed on their site.
· Participate! If you have benefited from opensource software
(http://www.opensource.org/), please consider assisting the free
software community by:
· submitting detailed bug reports
· writing documentation
· creating artwork
· supplying management skills
· suggesting enhancements
· providing technical support
· contributing software
· donating equipment
· furnishing financial support.
The Linux Documentation Project (http://www.linuxdoc.org/) provides
a list (http://www.linuxdoc.org/devel.html) of Linux and Linux-related projects.
· Finally, keep in mind that we all have infinitely more important
issues to deal with than the selection of a computing environment.
6. Canons of Conduct· As a representative of the Linux community, participate in mailing
list and newsgroup discussions in a professional manner. Refrain
from name-calling and use of vulgar language. Consider yourself a
member of a virtual corporation with Mr. Torvalds as your
Comments (0)