While looking up links for another post, I came across this site about Linux Software RAID. The guy has a banner ad at the top of his page for GnuCash and as much as I dislike advertising, maybe it’s a really good idea for breaking into the brand-aware consciousness of non-Open Source and Free Software people. I think if people saw what they were missing, they might do something about getting it.

Most passive software users are aware of the big names and the latests versions (the amount of times I hear the phrase “Microsoft XP”, without the person knowing whether they are talking about Windows or Office, or indeed understanding the difference), maybe if we started adding a banner or other ad to our blogs and home pages, our own products might start to invade the minds of these people. Perhaps I should contact some projects that I’m find of and ask them for some banners and set up some kind of not-for-profit ad scheme.

Admittedly, most people have developed the ability to phase adverts out of their web browsing experience, we just subconsciously acknowledge an advert as an advert and ignore it’s content, we may not even notice what it advertises, so maybe this would be entirely futile, but the passive computer user might abosrb this kind of brand recognition, erm… passively.

Of course principles are bullshit without actions.