[Mageia-dev] Identifying Target Markets

[Michael Scherer]

Le jeudi 30 septembre 2010 à 22:05 +0800, Kira a écrit :

> "A distribution for Newbie" is good, but I think what Graham said is  
> better.

Well, 
saying "a distribution for newbies" is not as good as it sound.

If you market the distribution so people think "if you are a newbie, use
this distro", people will think "he use this distribution so he is a
newbie". This will drive knowledgeable peoples away to others
distribution, because they will feel they will learn more by using
another distro ( which is wrong ) and because others peoples will appear
as more knowledgeable when they use a distro that is not aimed at
newbies.

In turn, this mean a diminution of the global expertise in the
community. Less expert users to answer to support, less experts users to
report bug, fix packages, create softwares or contribute, and to
basically teach to new users how to be good community member resulting
in less quality, and a less sustainable community.

Apple does it correctly. They never say "we target newbie users".
See http://www.apple.com//why-mac/ 
"better computer" "most advanced os" "award winning support" "latest
technology" "software you love".

Everything resolve around how they are good, not how beginner you can
be. 

Or see http://www.apple.com/why-mac/better-os/
they say "it is easy", but they never say "it is easy and can be used by
a newbie". They say "it is easy and you will learn how to use it fast",
which is more positive. 

And so I think we should also try to avoid this pitfall, right from the
start, if we want to have a thriving sustainable community.
 
-- 
Michael Scherer