ubuntu-manual team mailing list archive

[Benjamin Humphrey <humphreybc@xxxxxxxxx>]

Right I'm going to jump right in here and tell you what I think.

We cannot repeat the word "Ubuntu" twice in the same title/subtitle - it
looks sloppy. We cannot actually say the words "Lucid Lynx" on the front
page anywhere - this is just the development name, and Canonical don't use
it outside of development. We cannot use a word such as "companion" in the
title that will be hard to translate into other languages - companion is
usually used as a word describing human beings in English, and it will be a
nightmare to translate for it to make sense.

I like "Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04."

It's short (comparatively), it doesn't mess around with unnecessary
fancy-pants words, it has the version of Ubuntu in the title so everyone
knows exactly what it's for, and it tells you that it's *not *a complete
guide, it's just a getting started guide. Plus the docs team will be happy
as well because of this exact reason.

As for the negative publicity, I don't think it will have a huge affect on
us. I've tried to make it clear that it's just a working title, we're only
25% of the way through our release cycle, so we have another three months of
publicity before we actually release. On February 10th I'll email a few
blogs and get them to announce our Alpha release, as well as make sure they
tell everyone the name has changed.

I propose that we have "Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04" on something
similar to Vish's title page, with Wolter's Lynx as a watermark. Say all you
will about how it looks like it's an Apple book because it's similar to a
Leopard, or that people don't get the whole development name. I think that
having a watermark sketch of each animal for each release will be unique,
and the benefits of that will outweigh the negatives. I also believe that we
can appeal to the people who do know about the development name by including
a subtle graphic - we can't actually include the words "Lucid Lynx" but a
watermark would be okay.

If we can incorporate some fancy icons like what Thorsten or KolorGuild has
done, then that would be awesome too.

On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 10:59 AM, Kevin Godby <godbyk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I agree with Thorsten's and Wendy's assessments: I prefer "Getting
> Started with Ubuntu 10.04."
>
> "The Ubuntu Manual" sounds comprehensive, detailed, and technical.  I
> could see the name attracting a lot of non-beginner users who would
> then be disappointed at what they found.  The name also invites scope
> creep, an urge to expand beyond our target audience.
>
> "Getting Started" clearly defines the type of material the reader
> should expect to find contained with book.  The scope is better
> contained: we will only include material required to get started with
> Ubuntu.  Finally, the language is friendlier toward our target
> audience.
>
> --Kevin
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-manual
> Post to     : ubuntu-manual@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-manual
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>



-- 
Benjamin Humphrey

Ubuntu Manual Project Leader
Dunedin, New Zealand

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual
www.interesting.co.nz