I had a bit of a look around to see if some USB GSM modems would work with my Ubuntu laptop and I was also curious as to what the people in the shops would think of me asking to try it out.

None of them had heard of Ubuntu, although all of them had heard of Linux (mis-pronounced every single time in every conceivable way) The Carphone warehouse sold a computer with Ubuntu, I know it’s ubuntu because it uses the ubuntu and debian ntp servers and I find it unlikely that a manufacturer would go out of their way to use those specific ntp servers (networked time syncing) the t-mobile shop on the other hand didn’t have any machines, but the staff were friendly.

So what’s the problems?

Well education was a big problem, these guys had such a loose grip on the ideas and concepts. For all of what they’ve been told you’d think that Linux was a company and that ‘they’ would serve you drivers for anything and give you all the professional support you need.

I don’t know if this is just a general misconception and it probably goes along with the idea of calling everything ‘Linux’ even when it’s Ubuntu.

although you don’t see them calling the Google phone Linux, no they call that Android, for them it’s ‘Based’ on Linux and that’s a technical detail not even useful in general conversation. But they know it anyway which is better than not knowing it at all.

What’s sad is how badly we’re being treated as a community, how ill served our brands and ideas are being communicated. Perhaps if the GPL had some provisions to maintain the brand or communicate that it was free software, we’d now have a much better situation with these companies.

Thoughts? How can we get people using Ubuntu and calling it Ubuntu (not Linux, because that brand is burnt/toxic) or if your dealing with some other distro how can we communicate that distro without marketing deals and educational packs for each of these companies?

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