An Ubuntu story

[whynotchevron]

I was helping a friend install DSL at his house and I was calling to sign up with the DSL provider ( you know the one AT&T is trying to buy ). When the guy asked what operating system I was using, I said, "Linux." I was put on hold for five minutes, and then a supervisor came back and told me, "You can't use Linux to connect to the Internet. It's a hacker tool ! I almost messed my pants .

[msjulie]

Hello whynotchevron,

The ignorance is plentiful.

I was looking at some Dell advertisements today at work--inserts in a local newspaper. Dell "recommends Windows XP Professional."

My thought was, "most people don't understand that their is a choice." Dell recommending XP to most people is like Dell "recommends eating and drinking."

The point is that most folks, can't imagine a computer without Windows. Some think of MacOS. Unfortunately, GNU / Linux offerings are off of most people's radar screens.

Thanks for sharing.

I believe an earlier post mentioned the HP printers only work with Windows and MacOS. That is pretty funny too.

Julie

[maniacmusician]

Julie: it really helps though, to have intelligent people spreading the word about Linux. I've already converted a couple of people. (one of them went back to windows, but that was because he understood he would have to re-learn things for Linux, and didn't have time for that; he conceded that Ubuntu was definitely a better OS than Windows) You've just got to know how to convert people. It's good to actually walk them through the installation process and have them do stuff themselves (unless it's setting up a dual-boot. probably better for an experienced person to handle that ). After that, for them to really learn, you have to just point them to some good documentation explaining the basics, let them know about the forums for when they don't understand something, and let them learn. encourage them to use the CLI because it's faster and more efficient. you can demonstrate by doing a sudo aptitude install vs using synaptic and they'll immediately see the time difference.

regarding the topic, yes, there's a lot of ignorant people out there. one time I was in a Staples store, talking to their "tech" person, if you can call them that. I was looking for SATA cables to hook up my new hard drives. The answer I got was "oh, those are the ones that have a bunch of different colored wires, right? I know where those are!" It was embarrasing for me to have to tell her "No, those are power supply cables. SATA cables are for connecting hard drives". Turns out they didnt even stock SATA cables anyways, so it was a huge waste of time

[loell]

at times like this, when linux is associated with "an obsolete OS" , "a hacking tool". i think it is the duty of every linux user to defend it,

you can make rebutals, like yahoo, ibm, google these big company names uses linux, surely even dumb people have heard of these companies.

name assocaition can always make a big impact whether it be negative or positive.

[smoker]

hi, eilu,

you should've bet the guy for a 50% discount it would work with linux!

Well, the printer is now home. it works fine with Ubuntu. The punch line? I'm dual-booting and Windows still won't work with it.

also, you should've got a 50% discount for salesguy mangling the operating manuals!

Yes, you could've got the printer for nothing! lol

[eilu]

hi, eilu,

you should've bet the guy for a 50% discount it would work with linux!


also, you should've got a 50% discount for salesguy mangling the operating manuals!

Yes, you could've got the printer for nothing! lol

why didn't I think of that!

[Hendrixski]

you can make rebutals, like yahoo, ibm, google these big company names uses linux, surely even dumb people have heard of these companies.

name assocaition can always make a big impact whether it be negative or positive.

I agree. Don't forget Oracle. While "dumb" people may not have heard of Oracle, people who think that they're smart will have heard of it! Even if you have something against them for "hurting" red hat, keep in mind they are the market leader for databases, and they use LINUX as their development platform, and recommend it (at least the enterprise versions of LINUX, like RHEL, and their new "unbreakable Linux" initiative).

I did not know Google used Linux, but I guess it makes sense, most of the worlds largest servers are either UNIX or LINUX.

[lyceum]

Since you are sharing an HP story, I have to share mine. I bought a HP/Compaq laptop a few months ago for school. The guy tried to sell me spyware blockers and anti-virus, the works. I am guessing that he did not know that it already came with a 60 day trial for Norton. Anyhow, I told him I use Linux/Ununtu so I would not need it. At first he acted like he knew what I was talking about, but finally admitted he had no idea what Linux was. After taking a few minutes to spread the good word, he got pretty excited about the free ($) part of free software with Ubuntu. (He was young.) This is not the funny part of the story. I just mention that because how can you work in a computer store and not know about Linux? He was young, but they sell Xandros and SuSE there for crying out loud! They have a Linux/FOSS section!

So I get the box home and put Ubuntu on it. In 15 minutes Ubuntu was up but the wifi did not work. I look on the box to see what is inside the machine. It does not say. I really didn’t want to look inside it, so I called HP’s customers service/help desk. The lady I talked to thought Linux was a program I installed inside XP. Once I got it through her head that it was an OS she flipped out! She refused to help me, acting like I was a terrorist or something. I asked for a supervisor and waited on hold for an hour and 30 minutes (no kidding). So I called back, walked through what I needed again and when I told him I had a question about what hardware was in the machine the guy said (I am not making this up) “Hardware, that is like software, but more difficult, right?” At this point I opted to open my machine.

[studiesrule]

I'm still amazed at how people look at Linux. Everybody I talk to has two replies:
1) It's only for experts and tech geeks like you
2) So what, its free. I can by winXP pirated for like Rs.50 which converts to like $1. (I'm in India).
I'm like what about your conscience. How can you rest using pirated stuff when you can use something JUST as good, if not better, for FREE. They told me to shut-up.
Perhaps on an unrelated tangent, I think that atleast with myself, I can't possibly justify using a pirated version when you get an equivalent for free. I mean, paying up for a WinXP is like Rs. 7,000-14,000 or $350-$700
is out of reach of most people here, and if it isn't illegal to say it, piracy is rampant. But I can proudly say that I'm piracy free and I use LINUX. (Actually my brother found that someone was linking/ posting pirated version of RHEL!)
And as ManicMusician said, it's all about walking people through the install. I made a really big mistake when two of my classmates were interested in linux. I walked both through the install, but wasn't present with them at the time. I told them the usual about how you never actually partition your drives in windows, because it ships like that. I also told them how much more difficult and painful it is to partition in windows (seriously have any of you used the stupid fdisk?) One of them liked it EVEN without the net, and the other is just grumbling. I told him to just call up the net guys and ask them for help, but NO, he's this is stupid.

On another note, oddly, I've seen several ISPs here provide service for linux users, albeit really poor ones. Infact my ISP made a shell applet for connection. However the employees are absolutely clueless on a whole. Another victory is my computer guy knows what linux is, and even if he doesn't deal in linux on a large scale (I think he stocks RHEL though).

[eilu]

@lyceum: from what planet were those people from?

“Hardware, that is like software, but more difficult, right?”

This person shouldn't be allowed near a computer, much less give tech support!

@studiesrule: I live in the Philippines, so our situations are quite similar. Even my university uses pirated software (though they'll never admit it); I asked the tech people why they don't go for open source (since it's a very bad example they're setting) and they basically said "that stuff is substandard!"

Incidentally, these tech people don't allow users to install/update anti-virus software (I think they've set the firewalls to block "virus") and wonder why, a month or so later, every PC in the campus flatlines. I kid you not.