Re: -Events-

From: Michael Meskes (meskes@debian.org)
Date: Sat Aug 02 2003 - 13:31:19 CEST


On Sat, Aug 02, 2003 at 03:27:10AM +0200, Jürgen A.Erhard wrote:
> Debian booths represent Debian. But what *is* Debian? What *image*
> does Debian have, in the community (and Debian *is* community-driven!
> Lose sight of that, lose the soul of the project), and among its
> users?

Sorry, but here I already disagree. A Debian booth an a trade show
represents Debian GNU/Linux the product, not the project.

> Debian is a volunteer project. Debian is *not* a company. So, why
> should Debian look(!) "professional" (for some definition thereof)?
> Why should Debian try to emulate KDE (which targets a different
> audience, I think)?

Yes, Debian (the project) is not a company which is good, but Debian
(the product) nevertheless is used by a lot of companies. Actually more
and more companies see the advantages. So the booth should not look like
a company booth, but like a booth run by a project that cares about its
users even if they are just that, users.

> Debian is "the Universal Operating System", yes. But: what does this
> actually mean? Could mean two things: a) it's the OS for everything:
> server, workstation, desktop, embedded devices, you name it. b) it's
> the OS for everyone: poweruser, hacker, home network admin, big
> corporation admin... and the *clueless luser*.
>
> I'm all for a), but not for the luser part of b). b) is well-served
> by the SuSEs and RedHats out there. (I could rant about some more
> about this, but this is not the place).

Why? Aren't we here about freedom and against discrimination? Isn't this
a discrimination of those lusers? :-)

Honestly though, we were talking about a more professional booth which
certainly will attract more admins of any kind and not just lusers.

> So, who is our target audience? Who do we *most* want to come to our
> booth(s)? First answer this, then go from there.

If you ask me, I'd say everyone. I'd love to see more corporate guys
coming, but I'd also like explaining the simple stuff to beginners. Why
not?

> I'm sure about the "professional event appearance". I don't like it.
> To be more specific, I don't like what people *mean* when they say
> "professional appearance". Look at the KDE booths. You want emulate
> them, it seems.

Not emulate, show them that we are better. :-) Ralf will kick me if he
reads this. :-)

Why don't you like it? Linuxtag e.g. is a show to present our work to
the public, it is not a developer meeting.

> I say "No" to that. It doesn't fit in with Debian, at least not the
> Debian I (and a majority of our users, I think) like.
>
> Debian is, among other things, *lots* of platforms. "identical
> hardware" would mean i386, probably. Would *look* "professional", but
> wouldn't look "debian".

Do you really believe many people will notice the difference between an
X desktop on i386 and an X desktop on powerpc? I'm all for an additional
geek platform, something special, but for the "normal" presentation
machines, this would help.

> Badges. That's it. Shirts? Well, either you get someone to sponsor
> them, or you demand people to buy them. So, an entry fee for helping
> with the booth would get established.

No problem to get them sponsored I'd say.

> PS: I was booth personnel at LT '99 and 2000, and chatted up a number
> of visitors at both times, so I'm no outsider to Debian booth
> business. But I see a disturbing (only for me, I'm afraid) trend
> here... but that's not the primary reason I didn't do booth duty since
> then.

Maybe you should have, as the feedback I got in 2002/2003 was way better
than that in 2000.

Michael

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Michael Meskes
Email: Michael at Fam-Meskes dot De
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