Believe! May the Nix be with you!

[mrdibbler]

I learned an important lesson over the weekend. One of my friends a lady in her 'forties' is beginning a part time degree, and needed her computer set up with the appropriate software. The computer in question is my fiancees old computer, as she no longer needs it. The friend has been using M$ for a number of years, purely on an user basis for basic wordprocessing, some IE surfing and the odd bit of grapical work - ie paintshop. I suggested that as I was starting from scratch, why not try linux. She agreed and I installed 'ubuntu'. After taking her on a very basic tour of it and expaining that 'Open office' would do exactly what she wanted. The timid soul that she is she still said 'no', please put M$ back on the PC. The reason given is that she already knows M$ and she does not have time to get into yet something else. Also, I would not always be around to help her if anything went wrong and she is not a techie.

The fact is that the majority of users (I believe) fall into this category - they are not techies, and never will be. Quite a formidable barrier to overcome. I really dont know the answer to this one. I won't give up though. I still believe that she should have given linux a go, especially as her computing needs are so few - she would have had a very stable system and missed out on all the crashes, viruses, trojans, ad-ware etc. etc.

Never mind - onward ho. My fiancee - Sue however, seems to like linux, although she is very new to it. So one down and one gained equals par for linux.

What are your experiences at linux evangelism?

[Sye d'Burns]

Well, in your friend's case, it is completely understandable for her to fear the unknown since you "would not always be around to help her if anything went wrong and she is not a techie."

This is where Live CDs come in. My wife's grandmother had her hard drive go bad on her computer recently. While I was looking around for another one, I put in a Knoppix disc, since no hard drive is needed, and showed her how to do basic things, email, internet, etc. As she had no choice, she gave it a go.

Fear of the unknown is a show stopper. In my experience, live CDs have become an integral part of my evangelistic experience when a guiding hand can't always be had. The person can play in a Linux sandbox without fear that they will destroy the system. I've even managed to turn my mother on to Knoppix - Frozen Bubble in particular ;)

The other method that works for me is constant exposure and convenience. My wife, no techie herself, has been an excellent pupil. I multi boot XP, Slackware 10 and Ubuntu - one with KDE and the other gnome. After showing her how to do basic things, I've been delighted to see that more often than not, she passes on rebooting into the 'comfort' of XP and does whatever she pleases in whichever distro I've left up.

[az]

That is human nature.

You cannot change the world. It's just an OS, most people don't care.

On the other hand, there still will be some people running Warty in 2008 because it just works for them. They will be annoyed by people who want them to upgrade to Hoary or Bendy or....

[nocturn]

The reason given is that she already knows M$ and she does not have time to get into yet something else. Also, I would not always be around to help her if anything went wrong and she is not a techie.


I've heard people use this argument before, and they are right upto a point.
What they often forget is that they will need a Techie's help multiple times a year when using Windows because of the next big virus, or exploit in IE that trashes the system.

For example, my parents are running a Linux PC with little to no computer experience, and I rarely have to help them.
My sister knows here way arround basic computer stuff, including installing Windows herself, but due to crashes and the like, here computer requires 10 times the amount of work.

[Jad]

Convert The World

I think in some cases we have to use the philosophy behind Linux, for me I'm not using Linux just because its stable, virus free system, What convince me first time, is the philosophy, and you can tell people about patent of Microsoft, and the free world of GNU/Linux.

[poofyhairguy]

Quite a formidable barrier to overcome. I really dont know the answer to this one.

Best answer for me- let that person use their computer as they want for a few months with windows. Then come back later and do a spyware scan, no doubt you'll find something (especially if you neglect to add Firefox originally). The tell them (honestly):

"See. See! (points) These programs are watching what you do on your computer, and are probably stealing your personal information. I know you are comfortable with windows, but are you comfortable with random companies knowing more about you than some of your best friends do? In Linux, there is no spyware OR VIRUSES, so you avoid these hassles."

etc. etc.

Basically use **** Cheney's plan for getting Americans to support his war- scare them into doing it.

For some people, fear is the only way to bring about change. I've gotten many new users this way, and each of them (except one- my sister just couldn't deal with the differences in Gaim vs plan AIM) has agreed with me in the long run.

I guess its back to the old debate: do the ends justify the means?

[Jad]

Basically use **** Cheney's plan for getting Americans to support his war- scare them into doing it.
I Love it

[mrdibbler]

<snip>
Quote: "This is where Live CDs come in. My wife's grandmother had her hard drive go bad on her computer recently. While I was looking around for another one, I put in a Knoppix disc, since no hard drive is needed, and showed her how to do basic things, email, internet, etc. As she had no choice, she gave it a go."

Excellent. Thanks. I will give the knoppix a go. Hopefully my friend will like it. This may be a good approach with other friends who I "Support". In fact I am going to stop all support for M$ on any of my friends PC's unless they are going to try Linux at least for a while.

One Idea i've had is to set up dual boot for them and only allow Linux to connect to the net. Since it is mostly net access that seems to kill windows.

[poofyhairguy]

Excellent. Thanks. I will give the knoppix a go. Hopefully my friend will like it. This may be a good approach with other friends who I "Support". In fact I am going to stop all support for M$ on any of my friends PC's unless they are going to try Linux at least for a while.

One Idea i've had is to set up dual boot for them and only allow Linux to connect to the net. Since it is mostly net access that seems to kill windows.


Make sure any computer you use a live CD with has enough RAM to do it (128mb for Knoppix). If not, people will think Linux is slower that MS. :)

Dual booting is a good idea, I do it simply because all of my friends have hard drives full of illegal data they are not willing to part with and I refuse to spend the time to back up for them. Keeping this crap on a window's drive makes the install go a lot easier FOR ME.

[BWF89]

I tried to get one of my friends to use Firefox instead of IE but even when I explained and showed him tabbed browsing and the security advantages he just said "No, I'm not interested.

Now I'm trying to get one of my other friends to use Firefox but he hasn't installed it yet.

[jdodson]

i used to try and convert everyone i knew to gnu/linux. i thought if everyone started using firefox and openoffice then the switch to gnu/linux would be painless.

i have used gnu/linux for 5+ years. i have no problems getting most things to work in gnu/linux that should be able to run. however, i have realized that most people A.) don't care about using something different and B.) don't have the time or knowhow to get things running if something goes wrong.

i have had MANY friends who as of late, have switched to ubuntu. i have talked them through TONS of stuff because they can't do it on thier own or don't know how to search for the answer. sometimes it gets old, but i mostly don't have a problem with it. anymore i let people come to switch on thier own, if they want to, so be it. if not, so be it. i let them know the success i have had, however i don't "preach" to them that they have to switch.

i think people need to realize on thier own that they need to swtich, for whatever reason. then they need to take ownership and make the change happen. forced change ususally results in confusion, anger and the switch back to windows or macos.

[ubuntu UsER]

however, i have realized that most people A.) don't care about using something different and B.) don't have the time or knowhow to get things running if something goes wrong.

My experience is even harder. I can add C.) my friends don't care about viruses, trojans, exploits, spyware, mallware, blahblahblahware , reinstalling Windows all the time, they say that they don't need firewall(sic!) and antivirus program(sic!^2) because firewall and antivirus programs need a lot of RAM. They don't care because they simply say " hey, i don't have very important data on my pc so i can have some viruses, i don't care about it, yeah my system is running slow, but i will reinstall it and it will be much better". Grrrr, i hate it. Why people don't care that they have pc-zombies? They have very dangerous systems, and they are infecting each other. This is so stupid and i can't believe that people are so ignorants...

[Pitbull11188]

Anyone who uses IE after seeing firefox in action is a hopeless ignoramus and doesn't deserve your tech support.

[mips]

Suppose it comes down to a persons personality, the adventurers don't seem to mind.

About two weeks ago I showed a friend Ubuntu on her laptop. Next thing you know I had to install it as a dual boot offcourse. This week I get asked to remove windows and install Ubuntu as switching between them is a bit of a pain. So the question gets asked, "Can I run both at the same time?" My answer was Virtualbox, this way ubuntu apps can be on the one workspace and windows on another (With seamless windows! Thx to VB v1.5)

So in the last two days I did a proof of concept on my own laptop. Formatted it, installed Ubuntu, followed by VB&windows and it works great, even with 512MB but we will upgrade. Weird thing is windows boots faster in the VM than from a HD, pretty slick.

The only reason for VB would be to use windows when the person gets stuck or has to use a windows app. This way while you are learning you can slowly wean yourself off windows.