Software Freedom Conservancy

[Tom Spear (Dustin Booker, Dustin Navea)]

Jeremy White wrote:
>> No objection from me..  Although, I should mention that I haven't seen
>> much in the way of a link to donate to the project.  Theres no link on
>> the main page anywhere that I can see.  Perhaps the fund would be a
>> little bigger if it was easier to find a donate link?
>>     
>
> Hmm.  On the lower right hand side of the main page is a donate
> link, and there is also a donations request on Sourceforge.
>
> But you raise a good point; feel free to make a suggestion
> for how it should change (a patch?) - I'm certainly not opposed.
>
> (Although the honest truth is that we raise more money than
> we need right now, at least for Wine.  For CodeWeavers, we can
> always use more money :-/)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jeremy
>
>   
hmm.. I didn't see that at all lol.  I did however notice the 
contributing link shortly after I sent the last email.  I think if we 
put the donate link (as well as the codeweavers link) on the left just 
under the search link they might get noticed a little more..  Of course 
you do raise a good point about raising more money than wine really 
needs, so on to the next idea...  The short answer is that I dont have 
an idea right now, but I have done some thinking about it.. If you want 
the long answer, keep reading, else, just click close lol...

Obviously codeweavers requires advertising and marketing in order to get 
new customers.  The majority of that advertising so far has been done by 
the community and word of mouth.  The biggest step towards taking 
codeweavers mainstream is obviously to get more people to switch to 
linux..  the press has done a decent job of helping us out in that 
respect, but a lot of people dont read the magazines.

I mean I see it all the time on various forums, my favorite being the 
forum entitled the worst tech support call you have ever made...  
Someone will get DSL service, and not have a router, and think that it 
will work out of the box with whatever os they use...  So when it doesnt 
and they cant figure it out, they call dsl tech support, and ask "Do you 
support Linux?"...  Guess what the tech support rep asks 99% of the 
time...  "What is Linux?  Is that a new version of Windows?"..... 

Back to the point though, people dont read magazines or stuff on the 
internet so they dont know theres an alternative to windows.  That means 
they dont know about cW or crossover.  How do we get more users over to 
Linux?  Good question, unfortunately one I don't have an answer for 
right now.  Once we get users to Linux, or maybe even as the hook to get 
them to switch would be to show them crossover while showing them linux 
and how not prone to viruses it is, show them internet explorer running 
under it, or better yet show them stuff like word, excel, and adobe, and 
then show them firefox and say ok ie is the only app we are going to 
take away from you..  then the security issues are small (no ie to 
infect) but they can still use their regular stuff, and their machine 
will seem more responsive compared to how it ran on windows.

I'm sure those are all ideas your people have already had and discussed, 
but shoot, it would be nice to see some linux based booths at e3 or ces 
or the revamped comdex once it comes out..  of course the best way to 
get mainstream is the force your way mainstream, more and better 
placement on store shelves.. get the stores to start pitching linux and 
the benefits of using it over windows.  then have the rep help them 
decide on a distro and put them in touch with someone familiar with 
linux.  of course that is all beyond codeweavers and wine's scope, but 
that is the idea.. get other linux companies to start pushing it more.

M$ wants to play hardball?  We gotta start predicting their pitches.

Tom