Who is the Mepis Evangelist
Posts: 23
I am writing about an issue that no one in the *nix community is taking advantage of. The release of Vista.
I am doing what I can in my blog, but I feel we really need to get out and evangelize Linux, and more specifically Mepis.
Who on the Mepis team is the evangelist? I know Warren does what he can,but he is the main developer, and idea man.
My point is that Mepis needs to get someone to evangelize Mepis, and get articles into the magazines, and even get on TV. Microsoft has finally put out a product that while full of new things, and some interesting bells and whistles. They have finally lost focus on the corporations of America, and the world for that matter. None of the bells and whistles really propel the business user beyond Windows XP. There is no really good reason for a corporation to switch to Vista, as a matter of fact it is more of an expense for them to do so.
So I say, if you have a blog, or have access to upper level IT management, it is time to really start talking about getting Linux on the desktop, more specifically Mepis. Lastly if Mepis would like to look to hiring an evangelist, I am available. 
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/linux/n00b
Chris
Rather than MEPIS hiring
Posts: 23
Volenteer, hired, all good by me. Just need something official like.
Warm Regards
Chris
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new A.Einstein
Doing my part ...
Posts: 2
I have included:
MEPIS Linux powered
to my email trailer.
It is seen at the end of my newswire posts to the
discussion groups I contribute to. A small sample
of those posts can be seen at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evangel/messages
Perhaps my evangel efforts are not out spoken, but
I do give MEPIS visibility. Others could follow my
example.
MEPIS is the best of all the Linux Distros I have
used. And I regularly install and try many.
Presentations
Posts: 305
Anyone doing professional presentations has a terrific opportunity to demo MEPIS and OO to large groups.
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Presentations
Whenever I do one, I inevitably get questions afterwards about my setup--I am thinking of putting some system info on the back of my business card...
Every month, some kind of
Posts: 6
Could use need one maybe. Someone to at least organize a effort to get more advocacy started with existing users and also make more buzz and convert users.
FO rinstance the coordianator could design a buzz generating effort every month, some kind of pormation for MEPIS. But not through one evanglist, many different people doing it. Maybe split up taskes. Press Releases could be handled as such. One person compiles a specific type of media outlet, online, print etc. and another writes a few different PRs while another is simply choosing one and emailing them to appropriate media outlet.
I think this could be a good thing for people to think about it, try to get one person this month to put it in their CD drive and give it a whirl.
Like, another month could be trade and industry magazines. If you are part of an industry maybe tink of typing up how MEPIS works for you and which software equivelents you like. Show how easy it is to switch with the magic of MEPIS and then mention how Vista takes so much hardware that they could have a modern system for free by upgrading their old box to Simply MEPIS or another variation.
Next month could be general PR to news media month. Submit a PR to your local newspaper. Take a human twist to it, not geek. "Im old and I can't afford a new PC so the SimplyMEPIS works for me just like windows, but with non of the spyware that broke my Windows 98SE computer." "I am poor and the only way I could get a office program that would work with Word docs was to get MEPIS, the software for Windows98SE cost to much." I am focusing on win98se because MEPIS will work on a lot of the win98 boxes out there and win98se is not supported and lack of software combined with spyware causes a lot of trouble, even if only perceived by some.
Next could be forum month, everyone switch the avatars on their forum posts, add sigs or mention it jsut once ina thread. Only for the month, and try to answer a few questions if people ask. They switch back after that. maybe people will start a MEPIS meme 
Then you could do a YouTube month. Show off Beryl and provide a link in the comments every time someone likes it and comments, tell them to give it a try and a few min sys requirements. To make each post a little different mention "it's not only eye candy, MEPIS comes with *insert software replacement or performance improvement over sluggish Vista* and it is free, go download SimplyMEPIS" Mentions that it is a live CD and is easy to run without installation and i fyou don't like it, give the CD to someone else.
Next month Blog. You either start a blog, make an entry, or search blogger or whatever for Vista complaints. Then post MEPIS in blogs about how Vista takes to much RAM etc. post a comment and a link, done.
Another month could be public old skool boards. Your grocery store has a message board, pin up a small add printed form your PC.
OCntact a tech week. Tell PC techs the magic of mepis and the virtues of live CD. Maybe a few screen shots in and a tutuorial on using partition software or something. Maye how to add some tech used softwre to the CD. Explain how it is a great replacement and could get them an extra hour or half hour of billable time, so they can make money giving away SimplyMEPIS for free. This mailable doc could be made by some graphic design guru's or amateurs on the forum?
Contact a consultant month. Send a flier to a consultant explaining the cost savings and old hardware compatability combined with safety and the magic of MEPIS. This is a great software oportunity now that MEPIS has egroupware etc. and explain all of the software.
Programmer focus month. Look for programmers that do custom programming and point them toward MEPIS. They can remaster it with custom designed data basing software and get a good support contract and upgrade contract? anyone who worksin this area could maybe find some benifits and then a mailable piece could be made for few people to send. Maybe point them to the development edition and mention usable software and compare the languages available to like languages in Windows.
I have got my brother to switch, but he got a laptop and doesn't want to put it on their. But he did put it on his older desktop and used it for doing spreadsheets. Now school is around and his laptop already has software to use and Open Office got him marks taken off due to double spacing errors, so he just uses his laptop and doesn't bother with MEPIS or Open office for school.
He did have a big problem, he never had it before and I can't figure out wat went wrong with the formatting. It did it again, his teacher uses MS office, so it is one of those things.
This opportunity with Vista taking to much RAM is a great. Some mags pay for articles and will always take a PR with a human interest or bottom line based title that is written almost like a article with the who, what, when, where, and why. If a hundred people do one small thing, this adds up to much more than one guy poorly and alone doing more than several things.
Who is an author or wannabe? Let them write PR's every now and then. We have lets say, 10 authors here. 10 Pr's a week for a month isn't to bad coverage. Bloggers? Let them blog. forum posters, let them use their sig or search for posts about Vista sucking. to each his own, promoting MEPIS casually and more naturally. Contrived evangelism can be a bad thing, it can burn out it's attention from magazines etc. If a hundred people are trying to get media buzz and the journalist searches to see what has already been writen ans sees there is a buzz, he is more inclined to write I would think. I don't know, I don't work in that area or do Press Releases or have any journalism experience. I just read some stuff and learened a little about this when researching business ideas.
I think that this is Marketing stuff, but done by a 100 different people it becomes evangelism and is less contrived and thus more buzz worthy and legit looking. their are actually marketing firms that do just this, they pay folks ot frequent chat rooms and mention once or twice how they are going to get a coke right nw and start a conversation about favorite coke brand or mention a competition or whatever. They pay stars to whear clothes, they give them free things o they will use them. Not all advertising is in media, so that is something else to remember I suppose.
This is Great
Posts: 23
This is exactly what we need to be doing. But we need some sort of management from the Mepis group themselves. With Dell moving toward Ubuntu, it behooves us to find some place to home Mepis on a hardware platform as well. There is a small hardware manufacturer in San Diego, those of us old enough to remember Kaypro will remember the owner of it. Check out http://www.kaycomputers.com/ I have tried to drop Mr. Kay a line, with no success so far, but then again I can only call as myself. With the backing of Mepis, I, or someone on the team could contact him, and see if he is interested in offering a Linux Distro to his customers.
When I first contacted him, Dell had not made the move they did, so he might be more open to it now.
Warm Regards
Chris
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new A.Einstein
http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/
Posts: 6
http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/01/magazines/business2/microsoft_vista.biz2/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
Here is part of the reason why MS still rules the desktop market and an answer to the question of why it is cheaper for the PC manufacturers to just ship Windows Vista or whateverthe latest windows is.
On the positive (or negative side ifyou are stuck with Vista on a new PC) http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2006/12/25-shortcomings-of-microsoft-vista-os.html
Maybe th people to go after is to try and get search engine placements for searches about upgrading to Vista for business? Maybe convert blended OS environment PC networks as the support for SMB has changed and Appletalk etc. has ben droped. It is a small market but they may already be using linux and Mepis can be for the office lady while they use Apple graphic design machines. Most office operations can benefit moslty as the software works. Home users are upset their favorite things may not work and remember the time that they had to use IE for that one website. I know Wine will work with IE, maybe the new 400MB AntiX, the lite MEPIS derivitive, could be distributed with Wine and a few scripts/web links to let folks download and install IE, media player etc.? Not sure at all, but this could be good. The windows manager is fluxbox and would need to be changed to IceWM or something more MS user friendly. I like fluxbox and installed it, as well as Xfce (lookd great and does see thru widows even with old graphics chip.) on Mepis after hard drive install.
Just some random thoughts on an endless pondering..."why do vendors not use linux, it's free. Wouldn't it save money" is answered in the article, very interesting and shows the rivalry between MS and...well, anyone and everyone!? Well, Google is trying to cut down on MS browser share so it iwll be interesting as Google is more popular than MS any day of the week.
MepisDh, interesting article
Posts: 23
But, it was written back in late 2006, and does not take into account the move made recently by Dell. It is sure that it costs the manufacturer money to install Linux due to the loss, or increase in their cost to MS. However, it is just that kind of bravery that will pay off in the end.
Michael Dell did not drive his company to where it "was" with out seeing how to beat the other guys to the punch. So now that he has decided to offer Linux, he is again stepping away from his competition, and this will probably bring Dell back on top very quickly.
For the most part I have always liked Dell computers, and the move made by Dell will definitely help persuade me to buy from them when I need a new machine, even if I have to buy one with windows to get the hardware I want. I am also sure it will persuade other Linux users to do the same.
Finally, by them just saying that they are going to start selling computers with Linux on them is a big shot in the arm for Linux, because it says to the general public that Linux isn't just a techie server OS, maybe I can use it too.
Again, we need to help get Mepis out there. We need a deal with Dell, HP, Kay, Emachines, whoever, but we need that to help move mepis beyond just our favorite distro.
Warm Regards
Chris
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new A.Einstein
First things first,each and
Posts: 153
First things first,each and every Mepis user is a promotion tool for Mepis.myself I have links to both Mepis.org and Mepis Lovers forums on my site, and I also plug it via posts concerning reviews and updates. What with the fine and proud user base that Mepis has that is the greatest source of advertising that we can put out. Taglines in e-mail and mepis user bars in forum posts is a super way to get the ball rolling. Not to mention the word of mouth that Mepis gets when opening a laptop and everyone wants to know what you are running and why did it hook up so fast? Just keep up the fine work Mepis is spreading and the user base is also,each of you are a evangelist, so go for and multiply.
Linux User #266786
http://www.thebarrel.net
http://www.baldysparadox.com
One way to evangelize MEPIS,
Posts: 4077
One way to evangelize MEPIS, add http://digg.com/rss_search?search=mepis&area=all&type=both§ion=news to your RSS reader (akregator, liferea or Google Reader) and read digg submissions about MEPIS -- this is a good chance to digg stories about MEPIS and to add comments about it (yes you might not like digg, this is still one way to promote MEPIS, similar things can be done on other user-driven sites)
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Check out MEPIS Wiki: www.mepis.org/docs
Rather than MEPIS hiring, I
Posts: 2299
Rather than MEPIS hiring, I think at this stage it would be more a matter of you volunteering..... But every effort to get MEPIS out there is welcome....
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question