Re: [edlug] the letter to acomp RK CDs

[Greg Lewin <greglewin@xxx.xxx.xxx>]

Faye Gibbins wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Anand and myself have brain stormed a letter to accompany Bob Kerr's 
> OpenOffice CD's he plans to send out. Here is the text. Constructive 
> comments are welcome but I intent to complete it this weekend. After 
> talking to several members at the pub (more later) we feel that it 
> would be best signed off "EdLUG Committee".
----

Looks good.

You could also include text links to OSS sites to help drive the message 
home.

e.g.

http://www.opensource.org/

is not hard even for the lazy to type in.

I guess the fact that OSS can be high quality as well as free may be one 
of the hardest parts to get across. Conventional non-OSS culture is 
pervaded by the idea that "free" ==> "there must be a catch" ==> "it's 
probably rubbish".

My experiences in handing out copies of the GNUWIN CD - in person and in 
Christmas cards - have been mixed. While most people are appreciative of 
being given something, many were a bit confused about what it was, and 
at least one person never even bothered to see what it was (I'm less 
than chuffed about that, but I suppose it's part of the package in 
trying to enlighten people when they didn't ask to be). Admittedly this 
was just the naked CD with no supporting docs and without the high 
production quality of the Open Office CD - which helps a lot.

Another possibility is that having been given the free software, some 
may expect free training and close support too! Again this is a minority 
reaction, but it can happen.

Greg


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