One of Linux's biggest lessons: Don't preach, mention

[chucky chuckaluck]

zealotry is pretty offensive (in the tactical sense) and it usually gets a defensive response. i see learning as an offensive action (again, i mean that in the tactical sense). learning is usually the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. trying to shove something down someone's throat is likely to get a response along the lines of "i'd rather do it the wrong way than do it your way!"

[cardinals_fan]

Thank you for this thread. Anyone, for ANY reason, who thinks that they deserve to dictate what OS someone else uses is a jerk. So many people claim to believe in freedom and choice, and then proceed to stuff Linux down the throats and hard drives of their friends and family. LEAVE THEM BE! Please!

[RiceMonster]

you don't see the "BIG picture".
and so on and so forth

The point was, it's computer software, not life or death, whether life on earth will cease to exist, or whether people are not being given the right to live a real life. FOSS/Linux adoption is not nearly as important as if the earth is flat, women's rights or global warming. That is why we really should not have Linux/FOSS crusaders wasting so much of their time. I'm not saying I don't support FOSS, because I certainly do, I'm saying it's just not as big of an issue as people make it out to be, and Linux/FOSS users shouldn't be so concerned about whether people start adopting it or not. Let growth happen, but stop treating it like a major world issue.

[motang]

I can't lie, I have been there many years ago when I first started to use Ubuntu and from my experience I have learned the same thing. Don't preach but just mention the benefits and let the others know what you can do and what you can't do with it. By letting them know what they can't do they won't come back say well I can't do this. If you mention the limitations then they are acceptance to it and will be more willing to find newer ways of doing things so just accept the fact that an OS can't do every single thing they want it to do.

[ZarathustraDK]

I don't know whether preaching is good or bad.

I'm pretty sure that preaching is not an option when dealing with well-educated intelligent people, because they can see through the rhetor.

However, not all people are well-educated nor intelligent. Some people buy into that sullen form of rhetor, wrought in fallacies and palm-on-forehead-stupid kind of arguments. Should these people be allowed to be swallowed up by other 'speakers' whose agenda is a more nefarious and less benevolent than that of the FOSS-agenda?

Logic and argumentation-theory should be obligatory in elementary-school, it's infinitely more useful than religion-class, homeroom-class and the likes.

[aysiu]

It's possible that some people might be generally well-educated and intelligent but not so much so when it comes to computers. I know quite a number of people like this, actually.

Even though these people use computers all day at work; and use computers to keep in touch with friends, organize personal photo and music collections, and shop; they still don't feel computers are worth investing time and energy to get to be well educated about.

[Sporkman]

I had my wife use ubuntu at one point. Unfortunately, whenever something went wrong, she told me like it was my fault & expected me to fix it. So whenever Firefox hung, tomboy crashed, etc, I heard an earful.

Since then, I've bought her a Mac, so now whenever something goes wrong, I raise my hands in a "denial of culpability" gesture.

[Canis familiaris]

It's possible that some people might be generally well-educated and intelligent but not so much so when it comes to computers. I know quite a number of people like this, actually.

Even though these people use computers all day at work; and use computers to keep in touch with friends, organize personal photo and music collections, and shop; they still don't feel computers are worth investing time and energy to get to be well educated about.

Yes I know a lot of people like that too.
But the sad fact is that they DO invest time and energy on things they could really avoid and do not realise that a simple learning curve would save them even more time.

[madjr]

The point was, it's computer software, not life or death, whether life on earth will cease to exist, or whether people are not being given the right to live a real life. FOSS/Linux adoption is not nearly as important as if the earth is flat, women's rights or global warming. That is why we really should not have Linux/FOSS crusaders wasting so much of their time. I'm not saying I don't support FOSS, because I certainly do, I'm saying it's just not as big of an issue as people make it out to be, and Linux/FOSS users shouldn't be so concerned about whether people start adopting it or not. Let growth happen, but stop treating it like a major world issue.

In its time People were happy with the World being FLAT, so why did a few placed their life in jeopardy and fight to change people's minds?

In its time "women's rights" didn't matter

Until just recently no one cared about "global warming", even after 50 years of scientist lecturing about it over and over.

those 3 issues you mentioned were NOT important in their time either.

FOSS will gain importance in society, to the point it will be as the 3 above. 10 years ago no one gave a damn. Now look at it.

i do agree with you that linux is just an OS the same way firefox is just a browser.

but am not into FOSS because of linux or firefox, am in for the freedom of choice and open standards.

i could care less if my neighbor uses linux or windows.

what i care about are the Big world organizations, governments and educational institutions. adopting FOSS, openness and standards.

[Jadd]

This is very true. I found out too late. I had decided that Ubuntu had too many hassles for me to recommend it to people (unless it's preinstalled), but I mentioned it every now and then. Two of my friends now use Ubuntu, one of which used to make fun of me for it. This is despite my cautioning them about new driver issues... Just by using it and discussing it, I was spreading Ubuntu, I didn't realise how many people want an alternative. The first friend wanted Ubuntu because it was more secure, and the second because he was bored with Windows (I think). I help them with their Ubuntu related questions, but at least I don't feel responsible for any difficulties they might encounter, they chose Ubuntu by themselves.