Launch Parties

The last couple of weeks saw the release of both Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux 9.10, both of whom had people throwing launch parties to celebrate these events but something didn't sit right with me about the idea of Microsoft doing them. It's taken until now to organise my thoughts and explain what I mean.

A party to celebrate the launch of a new product is an excuse for those involved in bringing it to the public consumption to kick back and congratulate each other as a group effort, that all their hard work has paid off and outsiders can now experience it. This is natural.

Any FOSS project with a large user and contributor base around the world have plenty of people who rightly should celebrate their combined efforts. They are part of it, not just consumers who placidly consume the end product. They are fans of the project as well as users, so a chance to invite some mates round and do some advocacy is a natural thing. It's a launch party where everyone invited can benefit, instead of just the host. You can turn it into an install fest where people bring their laptops with them and all install the distro.

This is a real grass roots user base who celebrate something they believe in and contribute to. These are people who will spend their own money and give up their own time to do something they enjoy and believe in. They will organise themselves in a passionate and organic way and end up with something very pure and unforced for their friends. Even if all they do is host a launch party and give a few new people a chance to see Linux, it's helping spread the word. Maybe those new people won't switch yet, maybe never, or maybe they'll switch to a different distro later on but still Linux. Maybe it just opens their eyes to the fact that a PC using life without Windows is actually possible without spending a fortune on a Mac and let them mull that over, potentially coming back to ask questions at a later date. This is still a win, and it's still real people expressing themselves in their own ways. In other words, it's genuine.

Real genuine fans are something FOSS projects are made of, these people spend their free time in IRC, forums, mailing lists etc helping people out, or writing documentation, finding and reporting bugs, implementing new features etc You can't buy this level of commitment. You can't fake this level of commitment either. Proprietary companies have to pay everyone to do all of that, or it does not get done.

From an advertising perspective, companies have long known that any "official" recommendation of a product from the vendor is all but blanked out as biased. They know the angle they need is users recommending it to their friends. If your friend tells you something is great, you're much more likely to take that as a genuine opinion rather than a paid endorsement. This is where both Apple and FOSS shine. Yes, in some cases people can go OTT and act more like zealots for their cause, but in many cases it's a genuine recommendation.

The problem Microsoft have is that they have long abused everyone, from their partners, potential partners, competitors, corporate buyers, tax payers, lawmakers, courts and end users. They have no genuine friends, they have to buy friends. This is known as astroturfing which Microsoft (among others) use in abundance. They bribe people to pretend to be regular users who love Microsoft products, as well as pay people to disrupt competitors products like FOSS forums, mailing lists, blogs and IRC channels. This extends to the Windows 7 launch parties they wanted people to throw.

Microsoft also use their vast network of partners to produce reports and statistics showing how Windows is better in every category when it's clearly not. They try to ensure that those who do articles and reports like that are viewed as "independent" when they're paid by Microsoft to say what Microsoft want them to say. From buying shares in a parent company, being a sponsor, having staff on the inside paid to promote Microsoft at every turn or just having some third party bully reporters to spin a story one way or leave facts out to mislead readers it's all about having to pay people to be friends because they have no genuine friends.

Look at how many accounts astorturfers have on social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, all paid to befriend you with the sole purpose of trying to sell you something. Plenty of people have pointed out that some of these networking sites are no longer suitable for what they were designed for ie real people networking with real people. The greed of the corporations and their parasitic cohorts have cynically invaded them for their own profit motives.

Any advertising or advocacy campaign has to sit right for the product and company. Apple's "I'm a Mac" series were brilliant, witty and distinctly "Apple". Yes they've been well parodied now, but they were still a new and funny idea to sell the differences between a Mac and people's experiences of having to use Windows. They worked because they have a lot of truth wrapped up in them, and people got that message. The great innovators at Microsoft then responded in their usual mind-bogglingly original "I'm a PC" adverts which were seen as brash and unoriginal, when compared to their main retail competition Apple.

They then spot that FOSS has genuine fans spreading the word so they want to associate themselves with that by bribing people who host them with free copies of Windows 7 to host a Windows 7 launch party. They set out the idea that hosting a Windows 7 launch party is a privilege to win by applying for it, playing into the mindset of scarcity ie demand is so high and places so few that you may miss out. They sent out party packs and instructions on how to party "Microsoft style" instead of letting the parties and their participants express themselves. As usual it's all about corporate branding and image, not about the end users. This turns Windows 7 launch parties are nothing more than a badly aligned and unpaid marketing gimmick that some people fell for.

As I've already stated, a launch party sits well for people who are involved somehow in the creation of the product. Microsoft hosting parties in different countries for the staff in Microsoft UK, Microsoft Germany, Microsoft Japan etc is fine. This is natural. When you have to pay friends to host a launch party when they are simply end consumers who will still have to buy the product anyway is just wrong. The people at these parties had no part in bringing Windows 7 to market. Why celebrate the achievement? It's rent-a-friend.

In other words a global corporation Microsoft tried to orchestrate a fake grass roots community event with top down instructions, for a release of a commercial product developed in house. It was the always a square trying to fit into a round hole. Like a lot of what Microsoft do these days, it's been rightly mocked by real people. Look at YouTube for all the parodies, it has become a joke if it was ever anything else to begin with. It's just another failed attempt by Microsoft to steal ideas from the competition who are dancing rings around them in terms of good will, user experience and brand loyalty.

They see ideas working for others and steal them to use them, but it does not fit with the perception people have of Microsoft. They have nothing original to contribute and a long history of self inflicted ill will. I'm guessing their marketing department haven't heard the phrase "the clothes do not make the man". They need to match the advertising to the perception and realities of using their products. Unfortunately, they make third rate products which they licence with lots of conditions at premium prices with lots of booby traps for the unwary, so this level of honesty will never come out of Microsoft.

As far as products go, people love and use FOSS because they like the products and (in many cases) like the ideals of "open source" or "free software" that surround it. People love and use Apple products because it works well for what they do, it integrates with what they need. Nobody loves using Microsoft products. Plenty of people are forced to use Microsoft products because their companies buyers were wined and dined by Microsoft and fell for the lies they were told. People are forced to use Windows because they buy a new PC and don't get offered anything different. In some cases if they were offered a choice they would still go with Windows because it's what they know, flaws included.

Apple are in an odd place of being a mix of the two. As closed as they are, as little free expression they allow their users, they have a LOT of genuine fans who will gladly give the same commitment to Apple products as FOSS fans give to their projects. The difference is that Apple fans have virtually no say where Apple products go in terms of features. Apple decide that, and the fans open their wallets to buy it.

The bottom line is that the only people advocating Microsoft products in general and Windows specifically are people who have something to gain financially by you believing them and handing over money for them.