Linux Advocacy mini-HOWTO by Paul L. Rogers (learn to read activity book TXT) 📖

Linux Advocacy miniHOWTO

 

Paul L. Rogers, Paul.L.Rogers@li.org

v0.5c, 3 May 2000

This 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 document

This 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 Information

This 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. Introduction

The 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 Information

Lars 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