As what we can cite from its Wiki:

Kuliax adalah sebuah distribusi Linux yang bebas dan lengkap, dioptimasi ke penggunaan desktop, riset, dan pengembangan khususnya di universitas atau pendidikan tinggi.

As I no longer have decent time to directly involve with Kuliax codes, I think I can contribute something else for Kuliax. Marketing is what I’ve been learning lately, so why not talking about Kuliax marketing?

One weak point about Kuliax is lack of developers. Many may have lead to this lack of resource, but I can be sure about one thing. It didn’t have enough buzz. Is it because there are not many people using it? Well, if you search Kuliax on Google you’ll found some news dated back in 2006. It is when Kuliax was still fresh. People were buzzing about it, But only in a handful of location. University of Gadjah Mada is one place, and also some other universities abroad. And then the buzz is gone.

Kuliax serves an exact niche: academic institution. Kuliax has been developed with college education in mind. It was Kuliax strong point. So, what happen?

Kuliax graduated. Yes, detaching from college community may have taken Kuliax soul. Developed in, and along its current user has been the secret of many project. “Eat your own dog food” is the key. Not only eating your own dog food, you need to live in your dog house. Kuliax developers had graduated. leaving the original Kuliax environment. Even if they are eating their own dog food,the development activity won’t be as guided as when they were using it during under-grad.

Okay. So, that is one point. It is obvious that Kuliax need to find more user base and developer tosupport its life. It’s always about scrathing our own itch right? If no one is itching, what to scratch? To gather developers and users, we need marketing.

Kuliax need to generate BUZZ. When you are blogging, blogwalking is one way to spread buzz manually. But distro is another animal. It needs different treatment and strategy.

I’m thinking of providing things not available in other distro. No need to provide many things. Just do one package right. Many are still hesitate to compile source. Kuliax can reach this users by providing bleeding edge software of specific hardware support. However, basic requirement must be met. Kuliax need to be stable enough for daily activity. This may hurt developers’ heart. They may need to resort back to their root flavour: standar Debian bell and whistles. No need to provide completely new installer. Only custom the original installer to give Kuliax look and feel.

Can you thing of something else? How do you gather users around your distro? Start something simpler?

PS:

• Tidak masalah kan sesekali berbahasa Inggris? 😉
• This is just my two cents. It  can be entirely different from what other may think. In the end, this is my form of contribution to Kuliax: writing.
• By saying “learning marketing” I am implying that I’m no marketing expert.
• Do you think NavinoT should interview Kuliax founder? 😉