Marketing for Open Source – Advocacy and Outreach
Back in the early days of free software, the concept of “marketing for open source” would likely be considered sacrilege. Free software was the opposite of commercial software; instead of being driven by sales and marketing strategies, the software that was written was opinionated and driven by the author’s interests. All was well if what users were looking for aligned with what the author was building.
Generally, these users would not be into sales and marketing anyways, which in one sense was good as the focus was on the software itself. This early era gave birth to some of the most popular free software tools out there, such as emacs and vi, which are hugely popular and have active and vibrant communities. These tools might not have gained the popularity they have if they did have more traditional marketing. For the audience the authors targeted, this grassroots-focused approach was the right one.
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