“But the *really* cool thing is…”

4:58 pm General

What have I been doing for all these years? What is GNOME? What is the WengoPhone?

Hugh McLeod says that the trick to marketing is to have something so cool, you’d want to talk about it *even* if you weren’t in the business…. Seth Godin encourages us to create a purple cow – something unique, and thus remarkable.

GNOME is a graphical desktop environment.

The WengoPhone is a softphone you can use to make free video calls and cheap phonecalls.

Yawn.

So now I’m wondering – when I’m talking to someone, what is the *really* cool thing about these projects – so cool it makes my eyes twinkle with enthusiasm when describing it (and no, that’s not the alcohol), so cool that people’s ears prick up and they want to hear more?

5 Responses

  1. Quentin Hartman Says:

    I can’t speak to the WengoPhone as I don’t use it, but GNOME is “cool” and makes me excited because:

    – It’s a DE that does what I need and gets out of my way.
    – It’s more than a DE, it’s a community that I can participate in.
    – It’s exciting to watch evolve.
    – It’s a concentration point for a lot of other exciting things happening in OSS

    Granted, these things aren’t likely to get Joe Sixpack terribly excited, but they work for me.

  2. Adam Williamson Says:

    There isn’t one. Get used to it.

    Some people make purple cows. Some make milk bottles. Both are necessary. One is a more interesting topic of dinner party conversation. The people who make milk bottles don’t ditch their careers because they’re not exciting to talk about, they go on making milk bottles and find something else to talk to other people about.

    I’ve always found the “let’s make GNOME more exciting!” drive faintly ludicrous. The only people who find computer widgets interesting already find GNOME interesting. No-one else does or is ever going to. Just resign yourself to it. If you’re having trouble making conversation at dinner parties, go find an interesting hobby.

  3. Ryan Paul Says:

    Isn’t it obvious? The really cool thing that makes GNOME exciting is Freedom! And a really awesome community. 🙂

  4. gian Says:

    and the answer is… nothing

  5. P.H. Says:

    Gnome makes computers friendly.

    Wengophone give you a free means to connect with your friends, wherever they are.

    You should be proud, really!

Leave a Comment

Your comment

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.