What is Digg?159 Comments
- flag564, on 10/11/2007, -21/+78Here's an idea:
Dont "switch" your family's PC unless they tell you to. This story reeks of arrogance and elitism.
Why on Earth cant Linux just sell itself on it's benefits??? I can think of many and some really positive idea for ads to help it along.
Instead, sadly it seems like it's leaning more on three things at this point:
1) MS bashing
2) Beryl YouTube videos
3) Forced or sneak switching of relatives and friends computers
This is just beyond counterproductive and wrong and does not make a great impression on the undecided public. - chicken101, on 10/11/2007, -5/+40it's a religion! Don't you ever call it a cult, buddy! I'm angry, real angry!
- sirhomer, on 10/11/2007, -10/+35I'm sick of hearing Photoshop is a widely used application. It's not.
- xerus, on 10/11/2007, -15/+39Every day I'm more and more convinced that Linux is some sort of cult.
- renegadeafk, on 10/11/2007, -7/+31All it takes is accidentally letting them see compiz or beryl
"Hey, where can I get that!" - bgreen, on 10/11/2007, -13/+32I switched my parents' pc to Linux a few months ago, as they needed to have their computer rebuilt. I evaluated what they used the computer for, and came to the conclusion that it could be done in Linux cheaper, easier, safer, while easing my maintenance of the system.
I installed Ubuntu on their system. I set up their Kodak camera, gave them explicit instructions for transferring pictures to the computer (using gnome's built in function for transferring pics). I installed Picasa for managing their pictures. I configured Firefox for them with Google toolbar to keep their bookmarks, and to use Gmail & Comcast webmail for their email (no local email to maintain & backup). They have a fullsize HP printer and a small HP photo printer that both work well. I installed a 2nd hard drive and use sbackup to run automated backups to that hard drive, which they don't even know exists. They no longer complain about their system slowing down, or having to reboot every once in a while. I can ssh to the computer for any administration that needs to be done. They can use Open Office for the few documents they need to edit/create. I've written them detailed instructions on how to upload pictures to Picasaweb. They don't know too much about the system, other than that it works.
Some notes-
I removed most any menu item they don't need or want. I only have them using a single desktop; multiple desktops confuses them. I put a couple large launchers on their main toolbar. Everything they need to use is right within their reach, and the confusing items are removed or out of sight.
This success could have easily been foiled if they were dead set on using any software suite that isn't available for Linux, or if their hardware wasn't well supported under Linux. - borninda818, on 10/11/2007, -29/+48Buddy, It's not worth the headache...Linux comes with an assload of problems for anyone who is technologically impaired (my whole family except me). Some peripherals have bad drivers, so many widely used applications (pshop, itunes) don't work on it, wireless internet is a headache (ubuntu), the games suck (except solitaire).
If ur family is used to windows, don't switch em to linux unless it's a comp in your house where you are present to help out. I promise you, all the calls you used to get about things not working will quadruple. I also do tech support for my extended family and I cant tell you how annoying it is to hear the same call from the same person every other weak about their ipod not working or their music not transferring. - Waterrat, on 10/11/2007, -12/+29 I like Linux.it's easy to use and worked right out of the box.
- Phocion55, on 10/11/2007, -7/+23I'll for once agree with flag564.
Awhile back a friend looked at my desktop (Gnome), and asked me "where the START button went".
Not all people are open to the idea of change. I'd have to be crazy to install Linux on her desktop. - Phocion55, on 10/11/2007, -8/+22Shut up and drink the Koolaid!
- Flamekebab, on 10/11/2007, -2/+15The number of people I see on my course with laptops that don't work properly is astonishing. "my computer is so slooowww" I hear at least twice a week, often more so.
Why?
Because Windows is pretty high maintainance unless it's setup really well.
Most laptops seem to arrive full of junk and then it's all down hill from there, unless the user is fairly savvy, which seems to be fairly rarely. - Flamekebab, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13@Aliarse
*claps slowly*
Yes, that was the joke. - 11arrows, on 10/11/2007, -10/+22Since I do tech support for practically everyone I know, I'd have to switch myself first and get really used to it before I switched anyone else over. However, in the long run it might be worth the trouble if everyone has less problems. something to think about.
- Kavok, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11@technopundit
Those damned radicals with that new fangled 'electricity'. - squidy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12I use Linux for more than 5 years now. Two years ago, I left an Ubuntu Live-CD at my father's home, in case he'd need one when his Windows XP would crash to death. One day he called me for help, I said just put that CD in the drive and reboot. With him on the phone, I told him how to setup his email and IM. I also said to him to run it for 1 or 2 weeks, since I couldn't repair his computer in that time.
After 2 weeks, he asked me to install Linux. He was bored to death of all those popups, toolbars scam and bugs he used to encounter in Windows. Ubuntu 6.06 was easy to use for him and he also managed to get his scanner to work all by himself! Sure he did run into some problems, like he once got back from the store with a non-linux compatible Lexmark printer...
A year ago, my grand-pa decided to learn computers, so we mounted him an hold machine with Linux on it (my father and me figured it was safer). He now runs it under my supervision without problems!
And finally, my forced my mother to switch to Linux because her computer (an Athlon XP 2600+) took 10 sec to log in, and she was only doing word processing and online banking... She got used to OpenOffice and is very now happy of her new and FAST computer!
Just do it, switch all the people you IT-"support" to Linux, you'll save time! - Kavok, on 10/11/2007, -7/+17I don't think many of you have used Linux lately. I recently did a little experiment with my mother and switched her over to Ubuntu for about a week just to see what would happen.
She uses the computer for web based games, email, and web browsing. Worked like a gem, took barely any 'fiddling' or 'hunting for printer drivers' etc..
Unfortunately we had to switch back to XP as my little brother plays games on that PC. :(
I -only- thing imho that Windows has over Linux is games, I would be on Linux 24/7 if it wasn't for playing games. - plnegative1, on 10/11/2007, -3/+13Not everyone wants to baby sit someone else's computer usage.
- jackhole, on 10/11/2007, -10/+19It can be that simple initially, if you have the budget to pay for a new license for windows. Later on, it becomes progressively less simple when that windows install decays or the computer gets a virus and you have to hose the system partition and reinstall again.
- ptrcrowder, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10I have not switched to Linux yet, however I am thinking of putting it on a CD just to try it, and if I like it I will use it as a OS, as well as keeping windows. Enjoyed you slide show, very informative. thanks, peter
- Kavok, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9We are the Linux. Lower your firewalls and surrender your computers. We will add your technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile
- deadbaby, on 10/11/2007, -4/+13I don't really have time to switch people. I like to tell people to call Dell, HP, etc when things go wrong. There's more to life than being everyone's personal tech support bitch. I would however happily tell people to buy a Dell computer with Ubuntu instead of Windows.
- Latka, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10From the slides:
You must be patient, helpful, and available to your new convert. Help educate and empower them. Remember the old adage:
Catch someone a fish and they eat for a day, teach them to fish and they'll eat for a lifetime.
I prefer: Give a man a match and he'll be warm for a minute, set him on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life - Kavok, on 10/11/2007, -6/+14@GawtMilk
Why can't it be that simple?
1. You spent $100+ on Windows XP, rather then getting your parents that extra large LCD for them to watch movies and look at pictures on. This is assuming that you also bought a new monitor, add $100 to the cost of that monitor and look what else you could have got them.
2. If they are computer illiterate, they will eventually infest the computer with spyware and viruses - it happens every time. - Flamekebab, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8"Not everyone is some pseudo-religious freak that cares that they have to spend a few bucks to buy software that actually works."
Shame that it seems that the software requires meticulous maintainance unless the user is already fairly skilled.
Before I hand out ANY laptops or PCs to new staff (with Windows on) I make absolutely certain that they're locked down and have what we require installed, what we don't require removed and get pretty narky with them if they decide "ooh! I'll install AOL and smilie central!!".
The number of ways you can easily screw a Windows install is fairly epic.
So yes, you could say Windows works. For about two weeks.
Then they complain for a few months as it becomes gradually less and less responsive before finally giving in and either calling a techy friend or sending the damn thing for maintainance. - Flamekebab, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I *hate* Windows wireless drivers.
I like how when I installed linux on my laptop I installed an accelerated graphics driver, for my nVidia graphics card and NOTHING else. I didn't need to screw around with bluetooth drivers, audio drivers, etc. etc.. - NJHewitt, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I'd never heard of Tikibar til reading this, but I can confirm it's playing just fine for me in Linux... over my wireless connection :)
- tulsapoke, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8People are missing the point of this article. He was ALREADY supporting his family's PC issues. Switching them to Linux reduced his support time. I am in this same position and I switched my parents and in-laws to Ubuntu from their fragile XP systems a few months ago. My father-in-law can get his xp system pwned by malware in under a month, every time I would reinstall it, even with 2 different scanning programs installed. On Linux my "help me with my PC problem calls" have disappeared. It is as if they got new PCs (much faster too) for free as far as they are concerned. Also I can SSH into their boxes to help them out in the case that they do ever need any help. BTW.. All the issues with drivers and stuff mean nothing to my family members... they don't deal with them in Windows and they don't deal with them in Ubuntu.
- ScreaminIke, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7i grabbed a scanner out of my aunt's office today. plugged it into my box. worked fine. didn't even have to install drivers.
Later, she asked me about her wifi security. set it up for her (wpa) ... then connected via my box.
i don't have a bluetooth card. i don't have a webcam. but i do have an os that has literally done everything for me i've ever asked. - ScreaminIke, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6yea. i looked that up, too. it's all in the meta data. some app called S5. google knows where you can find
S5 presentation software
:) - carl0ski, on 10/11/2007, -6/+12Have you ever looked at a Windows PC owned and maintained by someone other than you?
Cleaning and Protecting Windows XP is a losing battle
They disable or Uninstall Anti Virus Software
They install Win32scan or some other plague malware that pops up.
The Firewall has no effect when the user follows links and single clicks the wrong thing
I have seen some extremely bizarre things even on a month old windows install.
*Wallpaper is a Spyware Warning (can not be changed)
*Entire system administrator Access removed (nothing could be changed by power users or admins)
*All Network Connections hidden from Network Connections
*Mass Mailing Worms,
*Printers all hidden (Add New Printer Disabled)
*Taskmgr deleted and or replaced with iexplore webaddress (popup)
*even with anti virus a PC resently got hit with an .ANI based malware
*CTRL+ALT+DEL disabled or replaced
PS ive never known any one to install drivers themselves anyway. - Kavok, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6How exactly are you throwing away your hardware?
- mrfrosti, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Kinda off topic, but what software was used to adapt a presentation to web format? That is pretty cool...
- Aliarse, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7This is the biggest problem, getting people to switch.
Instead, what "we" (meaning the linux community, computer resellers etc) should be doing, is getting all the beginners using linux from the outset, instead of trying to convince x number of people who are already set in their ways to use linux. Switching from linux to windows is easy, switching the other way is not so easy. - BlackAdderIII, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6"""You have to love how ignorant Linux users are."""
You know nothing about who is and isn't a Linux user.
Congratulations - you managed to make your comment worthless by the end of the first line. - dogatemycompute, on 10/11/2007, -4/+10Let's use common sense here. Most of us have *free* access to Microsoft products. In my job I can download *any* version of Windows that I want from technet and I have dozens of ISOs for dozens of different versions of 3.11, Win98, XP, Vista (including Ultimate) including both the clients and servers. I still use use linux.
The only reason linux guys want you to convert is because we really do understand how evil Microsoft really is. Microsoft is working with various vendors to write software into their O/S that will lock down content, block access to alternative products and continue to encourage its monopoly. Vista is the beginning. Its the first O/S that actually has the ability to stop you from even downloading a competing product and blocking its installation if Microsoft sees fit. Microsoft already charges vendors million for windows certification and the "windows tax" will only get worse.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
two true stories:
- I converted my girlfriend's laptop to Opensuse 10.2 and she is actually happier with it than Windows because its faster, doesn't require constant antivirus updates and has zero spyware issues.
- one of my coworkers brought in his daughter's laptop after she spilled water on it. XP wouldn't even load. After rebuilding the machine from scratch using the restore CDs the machine would just start rebooting sporadically. Ironically Kubuntu loaded and registered a problem with the USB port but it works. Kubuntu was even capable of working around the hardware problem well enough that the USB port is still usable and the machine is stable.
Really though.. there is no marketing campaign and there is no win or loss to anyone who does, or does not, convert to linux. You don't want to convert then that's fine? Its really your pocketbook. It raises the prices on everything you buy and eats into your wages. My company alone raises its price by $2,000,000/year just to pay Microsoft's Windows Tax and those costs are paid by you.
Why pay it? - zmigliozzi, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7I have switched my sisters(17yrs old) pc over to feisty, because I was tired of fixing/deleting spyware every freaking month (thank you myspace). She has been running it for 2weeks and she hasn't complained yet and she is what you would fit into the "ditzy/blonde" category.
Getting my dad to switch will be lil more difficult cause he thinks he knows computers and has a thick head lol. Mom, lol she knows how to turn it on, log in read email and thats about it, so switching her wouldn't be to hard. - Megatog615, on 10/11/2007, -5/+11Why are you being dugg down?
I guess people think Linux distros haven't changed for years... - jsusanka, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6I won't fix people's PC anymore that has windows on it. Just not enough time in the day and do my real job.
what I do tell them though that I would be glad to install Linux on it for them. practically everyone I support took me up on it and I haven't had one trouble call since and if they do have a question on how to do something I can ssh in or use vnc to show them how to do it on the desktop while they are sitting at their computer.
a lot of comments have been so far is that it is a lot simpler than windows and they love it. the menus make more sense like applications actually mean applications. they don't have to hit start to log off.
but of course all these folks count as windows licenses sold so windows must be doing good. - ScreaminIke, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6i watch t3h tikibar just fine on ubuntu
- KillerJ59J, on 10/11/2007, -3/+9*sigh* Are you completely retarded? A company will never "swoop in and pick up Linux license for their own." Linux is free and open source. It will always remain free and open source. It will never be just a one-company deal. If you don't like it, don't use it. Linux freaks, don't force it. Linux is good and one day will evolve for stupid people to use, but it isn't there now. More hardware and software support must come first. It attracts more people everyday, and major companies are taking a glance in Linux's direction, be patient. One day I hope Linux will have a relatively larger user base and companies support it as they support Windows, and I believe it will happen within the next ten or so years. Still, don't expect everyone to use Linux, it's foolish. IE still has about a 80% hold on browser usage, and I can only hope one day Windows will fall below 90% of the marketshare. That(and the ease of cross-platform development) will give companies incentive to develop for _all_ available platforms.
- SeattleGaucho, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6By suggestion of my currently 12 year old son, I've been running Linux in my home computers for 2 years now. I install it, never touch it again. My kids do their homework in Open Office. My whole family browses the web, including more than 90% of multimedia sites out there, does email, IMs with at 4 different systems, downloads the pics from their cameras, upload them to flickr, edit them in Gimp ... and on and on and on. Everything running on 800MHz PIIIs, one w/ 256M of memory and the other one w/ 384M. It's so trouble free, that my wife (the least technical person you can find) wants to convince my neighbor to switch from XP to Linux. With Ubuntu feisty the time for Linux on the desktop has arrived. Currently I'm only missing iTunes, not because of its features, but because its the only way to get to the iTunes store.
- Spr0k3t, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5My entire family switched, even the extended family. At first I had quite a few questions from the family members, but as time went on the questions got down to maybe one each week. I didn't do this as a "surprise, you're running linux now!" that would have been evil. What I did, I installed a distro on my main computer system and went cold turkey for a whole month. I haven't looked back. My mom likes to create movies and music where as my dad just wants internet. I started with my dad who was already familiar with quite a few open source software packages. We installed Ubuntu Dapper LTS on his system and after about a week of nightly one-on-ones he was familiar enough to work on his own. My mom was tough to convert over, albeit she was willing to make the switch. The tough part was trying to get her over the "it's just not Windows" hill. Took about a month to get her switched. She opted for Kubuntu LTS as it was more familiar to how she worked. About the time I got my mom updated, the kids had already converted themselves over enjoying CTF rounds of Unreal. My wife slowly moved over... I let her make the switch on her own though and left Windows on her system as a dual-boot.
I made sure everyone in the family tried different distributions. My wife is the only one running something besides an Ubuntu flavored distro... Debian Etch was her preferred system. The key to making such a switch with the family is to make sure everyone involved is aware of the issues. Also, if everyone is on the same page, they tend to help each other out. - Technopundit, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Those carbon footprints are ruining our nice clean carpet.
- ptFoe, on 10/11/2007, -5/+9Don't switch your family over, ever little problem they will ask you. If they are on windows and they have a problem you can say "Haha" and then get a favour in return. But with Linux it will be your duty to help them out.
- jlebrech, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5fsck'ing tab browsin in digg comment. digg me down
- arbulus, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6The masochist says "Spank me! Spank me!" and the sadist says :"Nooo."
- dominasian, on 10/11/2007, -13/+17@borninda1818
i agree. I introduced one of my friends to Linux. He has called me no less than 27 times in order to get my help just installing linux. I dread the day that he decides to install something - salinemist, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7I tell everyone to buy a Mac.
I blissfully know almost nothing about OSX. - Kavok, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7Which programs do you rely on specifically?
- ELCid, on 10/11/2007, -4/+8"It used to be that my family and friends would only call me occasionally with computer problems. Now they're completely dependent on me to keep all of their machines up and running all of the time!"
I don't think so.
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