Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Updated (EN) tri-fold brochure

Hi :)
Ooops, i should have read this first.  Please ignore the email i just sent!

+1 to all that Webmaster from Kracked Press said.  Having a Windows-only Dvd/Cd 
that carefully avoids mentioning other platforms is smart.  Even a simple 
statement like "LibreOffice works on Windows and other platforms" can be scary 
and off-putting to many Windows users.  


If there is extra space then i tend to find that it makes burning the Dvd/Cd 
easier and less prone to errors.  If you really feel the need to fill any space 
you might still have then perhaps videos or documents from satisfied users, or 
examples of different types of completed documents.  Perhaps Windows installers 
for other OpenSource products (such as Firefox 4.0, Thunderbird, Gnumeric(? 
because it's a neat tiny space-filler), Vlc) with a disclaimer to say that no 
documentation or anything has been included on the Dvd/Cd for them but can be 
found on the internet.  


I find that people suddenly understand what Libreoffice is about when i simply 
say that LibreOffice is to MS Office what Firefox is to Internet Explorer.  It 
even helps explain the TDF-LO relationship because it's about the same as 
Mozilla-Firefox.  Firefox is a well-known success story so tying the LibreOffice 
name in with that would seem a smart manoeuvre.  


However, i think it's probably better to having a little empty space on the 
Dvd/Cd to allow people to add things for specific events if appropriate.  I've 
been to events that sent bulky papers in advance including maps and stuff and 
then arrived to be given  a bulky Welcome Pack.

Anyway, again just thoughts which you have doubtless already discussed 
yourselves.
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)




________________________________
From: webmaster for Kracked Press Productions <webmaster@krackedpress.com>
To: marketing@libreoffice.org
Sent: Sat, 21 May, 2011 1:53:07
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Updated (EN) tri-fold brochure

On 05/20/2011 04:23 PM, Tom Davies wrote:
<snip>
> Hi :)
> Ok, i think the pamphlet has been ready for quite a long time now.  It's 
> getting
> better but it already was good enough.  Do we need it to be perfect first 
time?
> I don't believe there is any such thing as perfection.
>
>
> I don't think we need instructions for all the different OSes, especially if 
> the
> Dvd is the Windows-only version.  Windows users often need quite a lot of
> hand-holding but often linux users are new to linux so they need help too as
> they still have bad habits and mis-information left over from their Windows
> days.  By contrast Bsd users are likely to already have a lot of unix based
> experience and be fairly used to advanced ways of installing, such as 
compiling
> from source.  We don't need to scare or confuse non-Bsd users by explaining
> those, especially in a pamphlet for the Windows-only version.  It's enough 
just
> to mention the platform.
>
>
> Or, going the other way isn't it dangerous to mention non-Windows platforms?  
> Is
> it wise to mention other platforms at all?
>
> Regards from
> Devil's Advocate :)
We started with the 3 platform DVD like the German's did with their initial 
woke.  But as things were being discussed about what extension, templates, 
samples, etc., should be removed or should be added, I started the process of 
removing all the non-Windows references from a copy of the DVD.  There were only 
4[?] pages that needed editing and the rest were exactly the same as the 3 
platform version.  So I ended up doing the work on the Windows-only DVD.  I 
think it may need editing of my edits, but still it was a start while the 
extension and template pages were being worked on by others.

At events where there are Linux and Mac users, having a 3 platform DVD is 
proper.  For those places that there are a lost of Windows users, having a 
Windows-only version can be helpful.  For those who are going to download an ISO 
file, and use only Windows, having a 1.4 GB download instead of a 3.2 GB is 
important.

So for me, at an event table, it would be nice to have side-by-side both 
versions.  For those people that know about the other platforms, knowing that 
LibreOffice will work on all three major ones can be a selling point, since MSO 
works on Windows and maybe an after thought on making an older version work on 
MacOSX.  Forget Linux.  So if you have someone know that no matter what 
computers you use, you should be able to use LibreOffice on all of them.  Cross 
platform may be very important to them.  For people that do not know anything 
about Linux or Mac except the name, they may need to have a DVD that only has 
Windows references on it.  They might think cross platform is a good idea, but 
may not know what it really is or why it is needed since they have never used a 
non-Windows machine except for their smart phones or e-readers.

To be honest, for may users, the more you tell them about how it works or other 
technical issues the more confused they can become.  Some will even avoid a 
product that may sound too technical to use or deal with.  A lot of Windows 
users can hardly install a simple package by double-clicking on the .exe file.  
I know many of these users.  Some do not even know how to browse through their 
hard drives to find a miss-filed document.  Some are stumped on how to do 
anything other than use the Internet browser, the email client, and maybe a 
simple word processor.  So we need to be able to have some document/pamphlet 
that work work for them.  But, the real users of LibreOffice should be those who 
know a thing or two about their computers or how to use them more than just 
email and web browsing.  So we need our main documentation to work for them.

So, have the main Win/Linux/MacOSX DVD, the Windows-only DVD, and later maybe 
have a CD or DVD that is geared to the user that does not know how to do much of 
anything beyond the web.  But for now we have the first two, and that is all we 
really need.

If you need a different platform, then you most likely know much more about 
using it than we would.

If you need a very simple hand-holding install package, you most likely either 
not need LibreOffice or have someone that will do the install for you and teach 
you how to do anything you need to do.

Actually, I kind of like HP's Linux driver system.  You run a .run file and ask 
a few Y/N questions, and then the script does all the downloading, 
compiling/making, and anything else that is needed to get the printers installed 
on your version of Linux.  I would hate to do all that myself via the terminal, 
even with detailed instructions.  It would be nice if all you had to do was run 
an .exe file to install any/all of you packages instead of having to use the 
terminal to type in commands for those packages that you cannot install by 
double-clicking on the .deb file.  But if it was easy as Windows, it may be as 
faulty/crash-y as Windows can be.



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