Ungreatful Friends

[robertc36]

:lolflag:Just a rant basically.
Today i spent 9 hours setting up a friends laptop with ubuntu installing apps and setting it to up to stream radio for his second life club (this includes making everything totally user friendly)
Also giving lessons on linux and making the commands executable.
He experiences a bit of a slow down on his windows pc running second life and then shuts ubuntu down.
Now refuses to run it until second life is running faster AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!
Anyone else had similiar experience.
Well i am now going to withdraw my free tech support :lolflag:

[jpeddicord]

Definitely have had many experiences like this.

I hate it when people think that hard disk space = RAM.

Me: "You need to buy more memory. A 1gb stick should do the trick."
Them: "But I do have enough! My hard drive has over 80!"

[dasunst3r]

It's definitely not surprising to see that happen, especially since the Linux client for Second Life (SL) is still in its infancy. Make sure you hooked your friend up with graphics drivers (if any) and give it some time. I have confidence that things will improve in six months.

[HermanAB]

Wait till his Windows PC is hosed with viruses and crapware and he has lost a good deal of important data - only then install Ubuntu. Otherwise it is just a waste of time.

Windows users are an incredibly forgiving lot. They will tolerate *anything* Windows does to them. It really requires a major catastrophe to make a die hard Windows user consider an alternative.

[kamaboko]

Did I read that right? 9 HOURS!?!!

[DoctorMO]

Were you just practising some games on his laptop for 8 hours?

[hellmet]

Wait till his Windows PC is hosed with viruses and crapware and he has lost a good deal of important data - only then install Ubuntu. Otherwise it is just a waste of time.

Windows users are an incredibly forgiving lot. They will tolerate *anything* Windows does to them. It really requires a major catastrophe to make a die hard Windows user consider an alternative.
Absoutely.. I've tried to port a friend of mine to ubuntu for 3 times. All those time, Windows was still working. The fourth time, XP had died, and was anyhow killing the hell out of him. Thats when he agreed to switch over.

[lisati]

Wait till his Windows PC is hosed with viruses and crapware and he has lost a good deal of important data - only then install Ubuntu. Otherwise it is just a waste of time.

Windows users are an incredibly forgiving lot. They will tolerate *anything* Windows does to them. It really requires a major catastrophe to make a die hard Windows user consider an alternative.

Carelessness on my part with a virus-infected email helped starting my search for alternatives.... fortunately I had backups!

[slimdog360]

:lolflag:Just a rant basically.
Today i spent 9 hours setting up a friends laptop with ubuntu installing apps and setting it to up to stream radio for his second life club (this includes making everything totally user friendly)
Also giving lessons on linux and making the commands executable.
He experiences a bit of a slow down on his windows pc running second life and then shuts ubuntu down.
Now refuses to run it until second life is running faster AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!
Anyone else had similiar experience.
Well i am now going to withdraw my free tech support :lolflag:
tell him to get a first life before getting a second

[Tundro Walker]

Windows users are an incredibly forgiving lot. They will tolerate *anything* Windows does to them. It really requires a major catastrophe to make a die hard Windows user consider an alternative.

I noticed that, too. I think it can be attributed to the "terrorist / battered house-wife" syndrome, where you stay with an abuser, because you know how it acts, you're used to it, and in some sick, deep denial you somewhat feel that maybe you deserve what it's doing to you. (IE: "this wouldn't crash so much if I was better with computers...oh, I wish I wasn't so stupid! Stupid me! Stupid me! I'm just getting what I deserve!") No, you're not getting what you deserve. You deserve to be treated like a human being. You deserve to have something work when you use it. And, if it can't work, you deserve for it to exit gracefully, or give you the power to kill it without disturbing everything else you have going, or forcing you to reboot the whole damn machine.

It's difficult to break an abusive cycle. I should know...it took Windows eating my old hard-drive before I finally got fed up and made the plunge to ONLY use Ubuntu. Until then, I was dual-booting, and mostly using Windows, because I didn't want to take the time to get used to Ubuntu. Sometimes, folks just need a tragic situation like that...the alcoholic's "moment of clarity"...to wake them up.

Also look at it this way. People are usually smart, but not very wise. As such, they don't value things unless they pay up the wazoo for them. So, charge them $100 for Ubuntu (an 'install fee', if you will), and then charge them $50/hr for your support service. Once you make it expensive, they'll start taking it seriously. Go out and buy the "Official Ubuntu Book" for them at the local book store, and sell it to them for $100 as the "official operating manual".

[runningwithscissors]

That'll teach you to not bother people with your Linux evangelism.

[FoolsGold_MKII]

That'll teach you to not bother people with your Linux evangelism.
What this dude said.

Today I come home and my flatmate complains to me about Vista and how it prevented him from deleting some files/folders that he was trying to clean up. Thing is, these weren't even system folders or something critical to the operating of the system - they were HIS folders, and even as the admin he couldn't do squat to remove them. Nothing was running which could have locked the folders/files open, a reboot and immediate attempt to delete the stuff still didn't work, etc. So I find him in the middle of sticking his software back after having reformatted/reinstalled.

I didn't feel the need to point out the advantages in Linux. I just went back to my PC and fired up Urban Terror. :)

[daynah]

This isn't related to linux, but being the geek to get trampled on. :( In class, the girl brought her presentation on her laptop as a backup because she wasn't sure it sure it sent to her hotmail account. Good thing cause it didn't. She's sweating bullets about her USB ports being broken too.

Every one turrns and looks at the me, the geek sitting in the back on linux.

So instead of trying to resend the file through her email, I just do it another way that I know will work (using box.net, many a lifesaver) and I try to explain the process to her. But she just wanders off like I'm a groupmate doing my job.

Nope, I'm a girl who usually tries to hide her geek parts so I don't intimidate hot guys and here I am, looking like a geek, in the front of the class for a stranger... and you don't thank me, and don't take the time to learn what I'm teaching you so this doesn't happen again. Arg!

[bclark]

I'm a girl who usually tries to hide her geek parts so I don't intimidate hot guys

o lala geek parts!