Tips & tricks to get Ubuntu noticed

[Fabian Rodriguez]

Hi,

I don't know how but it seems I had been subscribed here on a gmail 
account I don't use anymore or something...

So I decided to subscribe again after a brief chat tonight on the IRC 
channel. Tony Yarusso was talking about advocacy and I started sharing 
some tips & tricks that have worked for me, so he suggested to post some 
of that here. I'd love to hear other people comments and stories. Plus i 
really need to put together a Ubuntu-QC team roadmap and contribute to 
the one being worked on for Ubuntu-CA - but that's another story.

So here's my two favorite tips for Ubuntu advocacy:

#1 Stickers, logos, everywhere. People are comfortable and they gather 
around a brand. I am not sure I feel very good about that, but it has 
worked a lot for Ubuntu, just think about the nice free CDs. Everytime I 
convert a machine to Ubuntu or add Ubuntu as dual boot, I ask (and 
obtain) permission to put one of those huge Ubuntu stickers - 2"x4" 
aprox. I also put one on my car. I wear that shirt I got from the loco 
team, and I bought a Cafe Press polo I wear when I go to events - or 
even the supermarket. The stickers also go on every laptop I can put one 
on. You'd be surprised how many people know about Linux *and* Ubuntu.

#2 I use Ubuntu as much as I can. I experiment with other distributions, 
mostly recently,  using QEMU.
** At home, my wife and I have shared a desktop PC @500Mhz 512MB RAM 
with a ATI Radeon R300 and a 21" LCD display for the past 8 years. After 
several years using an old win98, I started with Mandrake 9.2, and 
switched when Hoary came out. The home router runs dd-wrt and I've 
converted our phones to SIP/IAX. An Asterisk server is in the works. My 
parents are on Ubuntu too. They're all good advocates when any 
colleagues or friends ask how they manage viruses / malware / updates - 
and free unlimited long distance calling.
** For work, I use two laptops: one cheap but fairly fast Ubuntu 
Averatec (K7, 1.6Mhz, 512MB ram, unichrome S3 video) and one dirt cheap 
and quite useable Xubuntu Toshiba (P3-600, 192MB RAM)- see 
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,10042,00.asp
Both laptops have the stickers. The small one is an instant conversation 
starter because it's soooo tiny. People ask how much its cost me and 
when they find out (U$200 in March) they ask about speed/ram and of 
course how I get to run WinXP on that. :) We know I am not doing any 
complex OOo or XaraLX manipulations on that Toshiba, but it's still a 
good demo of what Ubuntu can do for old equipment - with recent software.

I guess the best trick that works for me is never, ever talking about 
Ubuntu if no one asks about it. When working, I just go about my 
business and usual computing tasks and people notice there's "something 
unusual" at some point: different splash screens/theme/desktop, fast 
boot times, fast network connecting/searching (wifi), detailed system & 
resources info, and of course the occasional "oh, i have to fill a bug 
for that" or "mmh, gotta fix this translation" and "I should document 
this" - just as if I *owned* this project.

When at social events or a friend's party, I just let my wife talk about 
it. BTW, she's the one that suggested I should just shut up about it in 
the first place. Good advice :)

Cheers,

Fabian Rodriguez
Montreal, QC
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/FabianRodriguez