My 14 year old brother - converted!

[kiv]

I have been using Ubuntu (single booting) for 6 months months now so I'm still fairly new to the scene.
However, I love Ubuntu. I love the freedom, I love the fact I feel like I own my pc again!

Well last night, after coming home from work I found my 14 year old brother stressing out over his windows box (again). He is not a computer geek but has a good idea of whats he's doing and whats going on when he is using a computer.

I have shown him Ubuntu in the past, and he understands and appreciates the concept, and even likes Ubuntu itself. I have mentioned switching to him in the past but he uses the pc alot for gaming so I didn't push it.. but last night I thought I'd have one last go.

I turned on my pc and Ubuntu Studio booted in to all its magicalness and compiz fusion graced my eyes with its beauty. I showed my brother, "Jack", and told him to play with Ubuntu for an hour, and not to worry about breaking anything.

I came back an hour later and he was still sat looking through all the menus of Ubuntu. Before I had a chance to say anything he turned around and said,

"Get rid of windows now, I never want to see it again!"

I told him that it would not be possible to play all of his games on it, but he did not care.
I explained that I could partition his drive, to which he replied,

"No, I just want to use ubuntu."

I told him that he could buy another hard drive for about £30 and perhaps dual boot that way if ever he wanted to in the future.

Anyway, he wanted Ubuntu Studio - which doesn't have a GUI installer like the vanilla Ubuntu. I gave him the Ubuntu Studio CD and stood back to watch my 14 year old brother install his first ever Linux Distro with no problems at all!

He will be joining these forums this evening and I'll point him to this thread - I'm sure you will all give him a warm welcome!

Thanks guys.

[LaRoza]

Perhaps we should have a forum of the "Recently Converted" :D.

Amazingly, the best way to convert someone is to close mouth, give disk. Linux speaks for itself.

[misfitpierce]

Agreed... And congrats to him for seeing the light of freedom :)

[kiv]

Perhaps we should have a forum of the "Recently Converted" :D.

Amazingly, the best way to convert someone is to close mouth, give disk. Linux speaks for itself.

I couldn't agree more!

I was amazed at how naturally he took to using it.

Once it was installed I informed him about the HUGE and friendly community out there that will be happy to help with any problems he has.. and that google is his friend! haha.

I then told him how to use the "Terminal" and how most instructions to do something require him to use that.

I walked away.. came back.. and found out he was using a guide to install Compiz Fusion! He did it all perfectly.. even down to adding the sources and dependencies.

He had been using linux/ubuntu for minutes!

I can't wait for him to sign up here! :)

[LaRoza]

I can't wait for him to sign up here! :)

Tell him I said hi, and that my brother wanted to install it also, but refused to follow instructions and messed up his computer. (Actually, he just deleted the Linux partition, after I told him the MBR was overwritten and NOT to do that. I restored the MBR with the Super Grub Disk.)

[kiv]

Tell him I said hi, and that my brother wanted to install it also, but refused to follow instructions and messed up his computer. (Actually, he just deleted the Linux partition, after I told him the MBR was overwritten and NOT to do that. I restored the MBR with the Super Grub Disk.)

Thanks, I will do.

Does your brother use now? ..or have you cut of his fingers?!

[LaRoza]

Does your brother use now? ..or have you cut of his fingers?!

I didn't do anything, he still has the DVD though.

I think he is afraid to switch, and since he doesn't use his computer much at the moment, it doesn't come up.

Cutting his fingers off? I never thought of that...

[kiv]

I didn't do anything, he still has the DVD though.

I think he is afraid to switch, and since he doesn't use his computer much at the moment, it doesn't come up.

Cutting his fingers off? I never thought of that...

yeah it works like a charm.. poor Jack.. only has stubs to type with... when they got sore he used to use his nose..but focusing on the keyboard made him blind..so its a wonder he manages at all really! heh.

By the time my bro is my age (20).. he will be a linux geek.. which is great but I'm jealous as my mind has been bummed by windows all these years!

[aimran]

Start them young!

[kiv]

It's an odd feeling converting someone to Linux/Ubuntu..

I felt proud.. because I believe "linux" is the right thing.. know I know how a preacher feels! ha. (although I would never give a preacher the satisfaction of converting me to a religion!)

[LaRoza]

It's an odd feeling converting someone to Linux/Ubuntu..

I felt proud.. because I believe "linux" is the right thing.. know I know how a preacher feels! ha. (although I would never give a preacher the satisfaction of converting me to a religion!)

It is a nice feeling.

Preachers don't preach for their own satisfaction, they do it for a higher cause. Hey! You are like a preacher now!

[kiv]

Anyone else had any interesting converting experiences ?!

Have you converted.. have you been converted !?! ...

[kiv]

It is a nice feeling.

Preachers don't preach for their own satisfaction, they do it for a higher cause. Hey! You are like a preacher now!

Woooo! Open Source is indeed a higher cause.. I will fight for it!

[LaRoza]

Woooo! Open Source is indeed a higher cause.. I will fight for it!

You do, it seems!

[kiv]

You do, it seems!

EDIT: "I will continue to fight for it!"

as do you! .. thats an impressive number of posts!

[LaRoza]

Anyone else had any interesting converting experiences ?!

Have you converted.. have you been converted !?! ...

I introduced Ubuntu to many people, but I do not know if they use it. (I give the disk)

I am responsible for a Zenwalk installation. It was an old computer with Windows 98. Win98 couldn't use the flash drives the users needed, so I installed Zenwalk which made it work. The reason I had to use Zenwalk was because the computer only had 64 MB of RAM. Thats right, Linux worked where all else failed.

[kiv]

I introduced Ubuntu to many people, but I do not know if they use it. (I give the disk)

I am responsible for a Zenwalk installation. It was an old computer with Windows 98. Win98 couldn't use the flash drives the users needed, so I installed Zenwalk which made it work. The reason I had to use Zenwalk was because the computer only had 64 MB of RAM. Thats right, Linux worked where all else failed.

brilliant.. I was tempted to give some other distros a try at one point .. I tired Fedora 7 and openSuse.. but Ubuntu has made me the happiest ... especially Ubuntu Studio! *yum*

[LaRoza]

EDIT: "I will continue to fight for it!"

as do you! .. thats an impressive number of posts!

I spread Linux where ever I can, I even carry it around with me...just in case!

(The posts build up, I don't pay attention to them, but when I do look at my numbers, I start to wonder, "Am I a GEEK?", than the answer is clear as day...yes, I am.)

-EDIT

I try as many distros as I can, my collection is quite big. I prefer Ubuntu, but many others are good. Slackware is a good distro and I would use it if I didn't use Ubuntu.

[kiv]

My brother just joined the forum! w00t!

his username is "Jdbuntu" ... should be here by now .... *taps foot* ..

[xpod]

Start them young!

Here here


Anyone else had any interesting converting experiences ?!

Have you converted.. have you been converted !?! ...

If you can call my whole family now using Ubuntu a conversion??
We only used Windows for 4 months prior to discovering Linux/Ubuntu one day so it did`nt take too much "converting" if truth be told.Windows was basically sacked after the first week with Ubuntu.

I could`nt remove Ubuntu from the house now even if i wanted to,not without some very unhappy wee faces.It`s here to stay as far as we`re concerned,regardless of what other distro`s may come & go along the way.

Good on the young man though,he seems to have taken just as long to decide about Ubuntu as what i once did....a couple of hours top:)

[bapoumba]

My brother just joined the forum! w00t!

his username is "Jdbuntu" ... should be here by now .... *taps foot* ..
Welcome Jdbuntu :)

[Jdbuntu]

Strange .... i have already posted ..... but it has not come up .......

anyway ....

as you probably guessed, i am kiv's younger sibling, i am by no means a computer geek, but living with someone like "him", some certainly rubbed off on to me :)

i game quite a bit, but am fed up of Vista using all my ba*tard RAM, and XP being, just, well ..... bloody awful !

so, i now have Ubuntu Studio, with compiz fusion ..... it is lookin awesome !


i haven't got any of my files on here yet, still love it though !!!!

i have seen it on kiv's pc many a time and loved it, but the gaming side putting me off.

Bill Gated P*SSED me off one time too many !!!!!!!!!!!





Thanks for being nice :)


Laters,

Jack

[mike102282]

Strange .... i have already posted ..... but it has not come up .......

anyway ....

as you probably guessed, i am kiv's younger sibling, i am by no means a computer geek, but living with someone like "him", some certainly rubbed off on to me :)

i game quite a bit, but am fed up of Vista using all my ba*tard RAM, and XP being, just, well ..... bloody awful !

so, i now have Ubuntu Studio, with compiz fusion ..... it is lookin awesome !


i haven't got any of my files on here yet, still love it though !!!!

i have seen it on kiv's pc many a time and loved it, but the gaming side putting me off.

Bill Gated P*SSED me off one time too many !!!!!!!!!!!





Thanks for being nice :)


Laters,

Jack

Yes MS is the main reason i use linux too they are just greedy and all they care about is profit.

[Jdbuntu]

Yeah, i do know what you mean.

many people are happy with Windows .... (i'll ignore the shudder i just had and keep on typing)
but, it has MANY downfall's ......



laters, Jack

[lamalex]

some of your games will run under WINE which is a windows compatibility layer, worth giving a shot if you don't want to give up your games.

[LaRoza]

You might want to try out some Linux cames, I am sure people here can give you good recommendations. I only play DOS games, in Linux (DosBox).

[maniacmusician]

Linux does have some good games. OpenArena, Sauerbraten, and neverball are the free ones that come to mind. I'm sure there are tons others, and some commercial ones as well.

edit: OpenArena and Neverball are in the repositories, but sauerbraten isn't. you'd have to get it from another source, like http://www.get-deb.net

[FuturePilot]

Amazingly, the best way to convert someone is to close mouth, give disk. Linux speaks for itself.

+1 I've found out that is so true. I've seen it happen.:)