Changing the World, One Penguin at a Time
Tip #2 is tie your hands behind your back. Watching someone else play with a computer is boring and often uncomfortable, because there usually is not a comfortable way to sit or stand behind a computer user. Sit them down in front of your Linux PC and let them control the mouse and keyboard. Then you can easily point out how any graphical desktop interface is pretty much like another-- system menu, click icon, use application. Nothing weird or scary at all. Play Penguin Planet Racer, or for us old people with no reflexes, solitaire or Mah Johngg. Keep your ears open for what is interesting to your new baby Penguin. Ask questions. Listen. Let them engage themselves. They don't care what you like, they care what they like.
Master the use of slick showoff tools like Linux LiveCDs and USB sticks. Linux on a bootable USB stick is the coolest of all; it's a lot faster than a CD, and people always like cute toys.
Be kind and patient. Getting grumpy chases people away. If you don't want to help new users then don't.
Look for existing projects that you can join, such as a local LUG, community computer lab, what-have-you. Going it alone can be hard, and finding kindred spirits keeps you energized.
Invest your time and energy into people that will pay off. In other words, don't waste your time on people who are not receptive. Using a well-set up computer isn't very hard for even the greenest Linux greenpea, despite all the propaganda and FUD to the contrary. But no matter how easy it is, there will always be people who have mental blocks against even trying, so don't waste your time.
Plan for the long-term-- you will be the system administrator and guru for your new Linux users. You can't just give them a CD and then walk away. However, you can put one very powerful tool in their hands that will save you both hours of pain-- a good howto book. I like "Ubuntu For Non-Geeks" by Rickford Grant; I think it's the best Ubuntu book for beginners. You may have your own favorite book. Your new Penguin should pay for their book because when they put out some of their own money they'll try harder.
Remind yourself how much work it is to learn Mac and Windows. Linux is not unusual in requiring some actual learning; "intuitive" is an evil pernicious myth. "Intuitive" really means "the same way I've been doing it all these years." Depending on which graphical desktop you choose, Linux and Windows interfaces are lot closer than Mac is to any other operating system. Yet Macs are lauded as "easy, intuitive, elegant, never in your way!" Baloney. The learning curve for all three is similar.
If this all sounds like too much work, that's fine, the idea is to find a niche that is a good fit. Such as dropping in on your favorite Linux forum and helping occasionally, or improving some documentation. Everyone pitching in a little bit makes big jobs small.
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¿Te pone nervioso la idea de convertir a alguien? Suena un poco atemorizador, casi como esos molestos evangelizadores religiosos que van de puerta en puerta. Pero no es así. Si te interesa ayudar a la gente a que aprenda cómo usar Linux, aquí hay algun... Read More
About two and a half years ago I had a friend over you asked if he could use my computer to check something on line. I don't even remember what it was. At the time I was running KDE3.5 on some Debian distro. I had tricked it out and customized the GUI until it looked nothing close to the default KDE, and yeah I had beryl going and all the bling, why because I could:) Anyway he was merrily going along have fun surfing, listing to my music collection and basically have not trouble at all using it. The hole time I sat there watching. At then end you turns to be and says, damn this Vista really is cool, I want to upgrade now. Well you can imagine my reaction. I explained to him that he had been using Linux for the past 2 hours. This guy was under the impression that Linux was way over his head. Unfortunately about 6 months later he bought a new PC with you guessed it, Vista pre installed. His words were "I hate it". I offered to help install Linux but he raised the objection that his games would not install on it. I explained wine and the limitations of going that route. In the end he went with the devil he knew as opposed to the one he didn't. Yes I know Linux is no devil! He is not the only individual I have come across that self imposes windows on them selfs. Well your post reminded me of that day, think I'll check in on him and politely ask again if he wants to switch, who knows maybe he plays all his games on his xbox now?
ugh, looking over my post, seeing the grammatical mistakes, I remember now why it is not a good idea to drink and post at the same time. Proof read.... My apologies.
You are dead right when it comes to choosing to whom to present Linux.
I think all those articles on which is the best distro for a newbie are mostly a waste of time and cpu cycles. It makes much more sense to choose the user.
Chris
Justin, there are so many ways to get around the games issue with Linux.
1. Dual boot Linux and Windows. With drive sizes as large as they are these days its quite easy to reserve an area of a hard drive for each operating system. Simply run Windows based games in a Windows partition.
2. Drive tray/racks are another way to leave an easy way to get to Windows for gaming. Shutdown the system, switch trays to a drive with Windows and game on.
3. Many modern motherboard Bios' include the ability to choose which device to boot from. Install a Linux drive and a Windows drive in the same system and just choose the one you want to use.
4. Use Wine and the various variants for gaming in Linux. While not all Windows based games will work this way many will and quite well.
5. Use Linux itself for gaming. These days there are plenty og games available for Linux. The old Linux isn't suitable for gaming myth was "fragged" a long time ago. Even though you won't find a huge number of commercial titles available who cares? There are plenty of great Linux games out there and communities are growing up and increasing around them.
As a fellow gamer I have not used Windows for years and yet I am still able to participate in online gaming with Linux. Windows is simply not needed for this anymore but as I have mentioned above there are many easy solutions for those still deluded into thinking that Windows is the only way to do this. A little extra education can make a Linux convert even if they are a "gamer".
Although I am on a Mac most of the time I wrote my masters thesis with LaTeX, make my music with Ardour etc.
When I was recording my band with a Linux PC and Ardour I barely mentioned that I was using Linux. Some months after that recording our bass player told me he switched all his computers to Linux since he stumbled upon Ubuntu after seeing what I was doing with it and was apparently loving it.
This was the most non-intrusive advocacy for Linux and Open Source I can remember doing, and this is a guy I never thought would touch Linux, so I didn't even try. The only help I gave was some tips where to look for good audio software.
I also switched my parents to Ubuntu, since they do nothing more than writing mails and storing photos. My mum was always afraid to use the internet because she feared to break something by catching spyware or a virus. With Ubuntu she reakky started to take advantage of the computer and was improving her computer skills significantly. Well, she has to use a laptop with XP for her work now, but she really improved by using Linux, and that's what counts, I think.