[issues] Re: [techtalk] Desktop OS?

[James Sutherland]

On Tue, 5 Jun 2001, coldfire wrote:

> in response to the idea of bringing linux into the mainstream ... i've
> found that LUG participation focuses in almost all cases primarily on this
> cause.  the majority of time i've spent at lug meetings has been educating
> the new comers to linux or else thinking of ways to invite more people.
>
> one of the most momentous meetings was when a fairly old couple .. not to
> stereotype or anything .. but they were pretty "woodsy" (to refrain from
> the usage of 'redneck') .. initially, my thoughts were oh god .. teaching
> these people is going to be hell.  then they busted in on our conversation
> saying "yeah, we just installed redhat and were wondering ..."  needless
> to say, we were all very impressed and this was also very inspiring.
>
> i believe that more and more people are getting fed up with microsoft ..
> whether it be for the whole anti-trust case, the flaws in the windows
> operating system, or just the hype about a "new" operating system called
> linux.  they here about linux as free, and generally, most people who run
> linux love it .. hence, they run it.  this motivates people to get out and
> experience more.

Linux is one of those things which you love once you try it. Just sitting
someone down in front of a box running KDE and showing them how easy it is
to use helps, but you can't beat getting them using it on their PC for a
couple of days to hammer it home!

On IRC, you can easily identify the Windows users - they disappear for a
couple of minutes, saying "brb - need to reboot". I've never actually seen
a Linux user do that (excepting kernel hackers trying new kernels, of
course!).

Once you get a Windows user running in Linux exclusively for a couple of
days, provided he/she doesn't need any Windows-only apps, 9 out of 10
times they'll be hooked. The most important thing, I think, is to make
sure they don't just grab a RedHat boxed set, fire up the installer, hit a
question they can't answer and give up: do your LUG members go round and
help newbies through the installation if they have problems, then get them
started with Gnome/KDE??

IMO, the ability for the LUG to hand out CDs of $DISTRO with their phone
number on saying "Try this, if you have any problems, just give me a ring"
is one of Linux's greatest assets - Microsoft just can't do that! :-)


James.