Background: I work for an IT Shop and have been using SuSE for about 2 years, linux for 3 (1 year disto hopping). We’re a MS shop so everyone there is on Windoze 7. My co-worker thought he’d be funny and made a list of all the things Linux couldn’t do that MS could. So I accepted the challenge and he’s now going on one week using SuSE and he’s like a kid in a candy store!!!
his list:
Exchange connection - running evolution for exchange (doesn’t support exchange 2007 which SUCKS! but I got it working with IMAP plug-in, doesn’t work with RCP/HTTPS.)
We NEED Internet Explorer to run one of our cloud based apps, ie4linux or Wine or Cross Over works like a champ.
Games - I asked what games were clinchers - Counter Strike Source - Steam Version. He got this working on his own using Wine, Very impressed, he said it was easy and pointed out a stop by step guide on the Wine project page.
Login to Active Directory — too easy, showed him the way cool Yast tools for adding SuSE to the domain and clue’d him in on the firewall and which ports to open for this to work.
Instant Messenger – Pidgin works very well.
Movies and Music - he talked about how cool 7 was with how it handles movies and music. I showed him VLC, Boxee, Mythtv, and Banshee. After reviewing them all, he’s building a Myth backend for his movies at home, and looking into possibly using his xbox as a font end.
Phone tethering – way too easy, there’s a step by step process on the forums. Also it auto recognized it and Queued him in.
Currently he’s checking it all out and taking it all in. Each day he adds to the challenge but I think it’s more along the lines of what else can this new toy do? I’ve never converted someone to Linux before and he did admit to using Ubuntu for a week about 2 years ago but didn’t like it all that much. I’m so proud, this must be how Santa Claus feels after he’s dropped off all the cool toys!
Excellent
If he has young children I recommend Gcompris from the Education
repository of lrupp our son who is almost three has a great time on it
with the alphabet and painting, he has also learned which desktop icon
to double click on to fire it up…
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.2 (i586) Kernel 2.6.31.8-0.1-desktop
up 12:42, 2 users, load average: 0.18, 0.18, 0.11
ASUS eeePC 1000HE ATOM N280 1.66GHz | GPU Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME
It does feel good, doesn’t it. The best way to gain converts is to show and tell. Then, back away and let them think about it a bit. A “sales pitch” rarely works.
I’ve helped set up three people with Linux (Ubuntu), two completely switched and one dual boot. I’ve got another person thinking about it. If they choose to give it a try I’ll set them up with PCLinuxOS or openSUSE.
My seven year old daughter has literally seen it growing. She started when she was three, still fires it up once in a while. I feel it gave her a lot of basic skills. At school, where she met her first windu computer (XP), she just started, though moaning it was dull.
@linuxminded: go on. Think about what happens, or use Calc to find out, if only one out of three converts would convert one other person, and so on.
yea, I run a Mint box for the kids and they play all the gcommpris games along with TuxRacer and freeciv. I like the nexus game but don’t have the time to always play it. My youngest likes the painting and the one where you pick the animals and their sounds.
I agree, on this one, I had to build the box for him. I set it up in dual boot mode along with his win 7 PC. After I added everything in and completed all his basic demands (with him standing over my shoulder) he sat down and started playing to dis-prove me. One of his comments were “Wow, you got that setup and going fast!” Linux does install and run a bit faster than Windoze. I think he’ll stay converted, I know I’ve been using Suse for 2 years to do all my work here in the office. I use a virtualbox with XP installed but only b/c I’m a mobile user and evolution doesn’t connect to exchange 07 outside the office. (RCP/HTTPS). so I fire up my virtual xp box just to open exchange while at home. Sad I know. but I’ve read some good reviews on Novell releasing an updated evolution plugin for exchange 07. so hopefully next release we’ll have a working solution.
