Okay, how about another poll with no real purpose other than to entertain and promote discussion…
The question is simple: how many former Windows or OSX users have you converted into Linux users?
I am always slipping LiveCDs to friends and family trying to persuade them to make the switch. Some switch, some don’t, but at least they now know they have a choice.
So how many notches on your belt?
What are some of the craziest reasons you’ve heard for someone not wanting to switch?
How many switched to and switched back …
Mandriva … 15 switched to , 1 stayed with dualboot, 14 left for windose again
Ubuntu / kubuntu … 85 switched to , 15 stayed with dualboot, 3 left for windose, 8 switched to opensuse
Fedora … 19 switched to , 1 stayed with dualboot, 11 returned to windose, 7 switched to opensuse
openSUSE … 61 switched to , 56 stayed with dualboot, 4 left for windose, 1 switched to Ubuntu
most recent April 5/2010 … whole family of 4 converted 2 of 4 machines to openSUSE 11.2 : 1 PC + 1 netbook all machines networked through wireless router for internet access (inter PC networking to be done soon)
L1B3RAT0R wrote:
> Question: How many people have you converted into Linux users?
define “converted”…
i mean, if i wrote about experimenting with Linux in an OS/2 forum in
'97 and somebody thought they whould make a boot floppy and have a
look at it…and did, but didn’t immediately erase their
Win/Mac/Warp/BeOS/Amiga or other systems…
yet today they use Linux on their cell phone, in the TV, in their MP3
player, in the controlling circuit of their refrigerator, or everytime
they use Google, Facebook or nine out of ten supercomputers…
can i count him/her?
what if i don’t know him/her? and s/he never said: Hey, you converted me.
–
palladium
I’m not well at ease with the words “to convert” .
I don’t consider i’m a kind of priest trying to convince my religion is better than another.
The only good argument is when my relatives ask about my computer is :
"- i’ve been using linux, for home and office, for about ten years non-stop,
Don’t know about converting but I’ve personally shipped over a thousand+ openSUSE systems to various clients and they’re all still using them to this day so I guess you could consider them “converts” in a business sense.
I still haven’t gotten a Geeko for it.
I have put Linux (in a multiboot) on both my mother’s PC and my wife’s PC. My wife is a big winXP fan and she rarely boots to Linux. My mother spends about 50-50 in each OS.
Typically both of them boot to Linux when they want multimedia capabilities! Of course I set up the Linux multimedia in their PCs, and neither of their knowledge of MS-Windows is strong enough to setup MS-Windows to come anywhere near the capabililty for multimedia that I have setup in Linux (and trust me when I say I have not set up very much).
I have run across engineers at work who tried Linux and then went back to MS-Windows. From what they have told me, the 2 main reasons for them going back to MS-Windows were: (1) wireless did NOT function under Linux, or (2) sound did not function under Linux. I know for a fact item-2 is mostly solveable (especially given alsa-1.0.21 which IMHO was a signficant improvement over previous alsa versions), but wireless can be challenging in its current state of user friendliness.
Unfortunately, rather than ask for help with Linux, they mostly all just give up on their own and go back to Windows. Possibly pride. Possibly time. Possibly frustration. I don’t know.
In part to try to address this, I have started a Linux User’s Group where I work. The group is very small and barely surviving (only 9 members in a very technical organization of about 700 people) but I’m hoping we can grow. We did have one new user in our group who has converted to Linux. In our first meeting, he had not tried Linux. In our second meeting, he had openSUSE installed on a netbook, albeit not with the best of configurations. In the 3rd meeting, he had re-installed openSUSE into a very good/smart configuration. Possibly if I had not started a Linux User’s Group this would not have happened. But possibly this user would have gone ahead on their own.
We also have Linux engineers (dozens) at the office, where I believe a significant % of them (possibly 50% or more) run MacIntoshes at home. Only a couple of these Linux engineers have joined our user’s group.
I try very hard not to overtly convince people to switch to Linux. I believe one has to actively WANT to switch to Linux and one has to make a comittement.
So instead I hope non-Linux users migrate to Linux independent of my influence.
One, my partner, after I refused to solve her Windoze problems. However, with SuSe her computer use and understanding has broadened considerably.
I gave up trying to “convert” friends long ago. It proved to be a thankless and largely useless task.
Concerning this converting stuff: when I notice people become interested I become hesitant myself. I like to toy around with my PC and try things out. But not everyone is like that.
Perhaps we should start a poll about what converted ourselves in abandoning windows as our main OS and using linux instead. Then perhaps we find people who can be and want to be converted, just by pointing out that there is something around that they wished for.
Perhaps that is enough for the world to be rescued?
What converted me? Eagerness to learn and play, curiosity, not being a customer but a member of a worldwide community, the overwhelming amount of software that means freedom of choice, frustration about windows locking me out of my own PC. Nothing new to you guys and girls out there.
Nice Poll! In ten years using various distributions I “converted” one person who fitted the above profile: my brother.
And courtesy to the Linux community, that helped me “converting” and remaining one troubled, converted individual.
This isn’t scientific, but by converted I meant how many people who formally used Windows or OSX as their main desktop/laptop OS now use a distribution of Linux. I wasn’t referring to those who use a custom Linux OS on their phone or other computerized devices, strictly desktop variants, because most people using Linux on devices other than PCs don’t have a choice to run anything different or don’t even know that what they are running is Linux.
I’ve seen dozens of threads about why Linux users have made the switch, so I thought this would be something a little different.
This converting thing makes me fell like a crusader 
I’ve never tried to convert anyone.
quiet::FIM:
When I say convert, it is to say that someone has relayed a problem with their current method. I have then offered an alternative method through demonstration and example without pushing them to use absolute and they have elected to go with a Linux Distro with my help to get them started. As I noted in my earlier responce not all stayed with Linux or stayed with the original version they had me assist with. I count them as converts when they choose to include a Linux flavor in their day to day life.
I convinced two nephews and a niece to use the opensuse and my wife and my daughter use a dualboot with opensuse. Several colleagues have heard my arguments but I do not know if they migrated to Linux.
I use linux because I have an excuse to never even bother trying to fix other people’s computers, whether I could help or not. It gives me plausible deniability. If I converted someone else to using linux, I would not only have someone asking me for computer help without any such plausible deniability cover, but I might even possibly feel somewhat morally obligated to help them.
Maybe possibly.
Ok, I wouldn’t, but that is entirely beside the point.
Wait where was I going with this again? oh forget it.
Malcolm.
I have got two people using SUSE as their primary system, though both have muti-boot systems I setup for them. Since I carry an external hard drive that boots openSUSE from my work laptop, I often whip it out when I have a chance to show it off. Most, while impressed, don’t understand why they would want to switch or feel it would be too difficult. My two success stories required I do the install and take care of any issues they run in to.
Thank You,
Hey, that’s a good excuse. I once saw a T-shirt bearing the slogan: No I will not fix your computer Meant for engineers and to-be engineers I think.
Maybe it’s time to market a T-shirt saying: No I will not fix your Windows system and in smaller type underneath I use Linux lol!
For me to date 1 for sure & 1 potential.
The for sure is my brother I got sick & tired of fixing his windows PC. Especially since he kept installing needless stuff & not reading the EULA’s he had 6 toolbars & was pissed off because his PC took a full(I know I timed it) 7 minutes to load! I don’t know how much other **** he had but I wasn’t going to fix it any more.
He & his wife didn’t want Linux because they thought it meant they couldn’t get on POGO.com.
I finally showed them they could get on POGO.com & then I installed 11.1 I retained root, to keep him from installing needless stuff. Now they’re happy,they got their POGO & no more weird stuff.
My potential 1 a friend has a lot of games, fortunately all of them single player, unfortunately not usable on wine.
He doesn’t want a dual boot as soon as he gets a 2nd PC he wants me to wipe the new one & install “that one you use” on it.
I guess that makes me 1 for now.
I’ve found that if your friends & relatives see you use it they’ll come to you when they’re ready. Because when they are you’ll get their main reason oftentimes it’s, like in my bro’s case, a trifle that they’ll only see when they’re ready. The main things in his case were the slowness the weird stuff he’d get. That’s what made him ready, his reason for not going Linux,obvious & fixable.
In my friends case it’s the updater trying to get him to go to IE8
& the latest WMP. He uses neither he uses Fx & VLC.
He does love his games! His reason for not also obvious & fixable.
He’s looking at new PC’s today so I can wait.
So Siminin, you don’t need to be a crusader just be a Linux user.
I’m sure I’ve got a whole of people at least interested in it, usually the tech savvy kind who’ll attempt it on their own and most likely succeed.
My father is the only ‘convert’ that I know 100% sure off that will keep on using it, it works perfectly on a Samsung R519 and if he has Firefox installed along with flash / openoffice and a PDF viewer (Okular) I wont hear him complain. To my own amazement he also managed to find the patience card game.
If only all people were satisfied with a Firefox icon on their desktop, would save me a lot of time removing spyware
(He also quite likes the gmail and folder view plasmoids btw)
Something like that? -> No I won’t fix your computer again. Get Linux.
I have not converted anyone since no one seems to be able to get rid of their attachment to Windows. I have to admit I’m not a total 100% user of Linux either.
In saying that, I only use Windows for gaming and Skype. Games work better under Windows and I can’t seem to get Skype working as well in OpenSUSE as it does in Windows. Not Linux’s fault tho 
Hey thanks, that’s great, it also comes as a bumper sticker. Drool…
http://www.cafepress.com.au/+no_fix_computer_bumper_sticker,26514737