[Mageia-dev] Identifying Target Markets

[andré]

Michael Scherer a écrit :
> 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.
>
>    
how about :
"Mageia : Linux that just works"
"Mageia : Easy, Powerful, and Secure"

The danger is to identify Mageia too much with any particular market.
Mandriva has attracted users and developpers by its ease of use.
Mageia starts with this strength, which we should promote.
That doesn't stop us from communicating the range of capabilities of 
Mageia, just that we should avoid too narrow a focus.

- André (andre999)