the0wl Says Hello!

[the0wl]

Hi Folks!

I'm probably an intermediate user in the Linux world, having only come on-board about 18 months ago. For a living, I teach CompTIA A+ Certification, M$ Sharepoint, and TIA/EIA Cabling courses for a local community college's adult continuing education department.

I felt literally driven to Linux at home by M$'s nefarious practices of forced updates, determining for me what I could run on my computer, having my applications "report home to mama," and forcing me to upgrade my hardware with each new OS release. I'm not illegal, by any means, but I value privacy and choice, and M$ is steadily moving away from both. F/OSS is a much more enjoyable community.

A proud user of Ubuntu Linux 7.10, my li'l Acer 3050 laptop runs my old Lexmark z35 printer, my old HP 2308 flat scanner, connects to wireless networks, and handles digital photos from my Canon PowerShot camera without even breathing hard. Most of these are no longer supported under Windoze.

I'm also running Ubuntu on an old Dell Optiplex GX-110 tower with a 1GHz CPU and 256MB RAM. Admittedly, it runs a bit slower than my Acer, but is still quite functional.

All that said, I'm no longer "just a user," but an activist. I've joined my local LUG, and even given a public presentation for them on using Linux and OpenOffice Present to create and show PowerPoint presentations.

Cheers!

Ed Tillman
Instructor, I/T Corporate and Community Education
CompTIA Network+, A+ Certified; IT Pro Mentor
TIA/EIA HTI Instructor, Cabling Instructor Certified
Affiliate Member, IEEE Computer Society
Registered Linux user 449064

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

Glad you've joined us and hope you will continue to enjoy the Linux experience.

[the0wl]

Welcome to the forums!

Glad you've joined us and hope you will continue to enjoy the Linux experience.

I don't see myself leaving any time soon. There's just too much to do and too far to go in the F/OSS world. I'm sure I've only scraped the tip of the iceberg, but I've dived in for the duration.

Cheers;

[Manchunian]

Great to see you here, theOwl! Nice to hear about your experiences and your motivations. We need people like you to help get the message across. If we all do our little bit, we might just get there. My initial reasons for making the move were very similar to yours; now I'm motivated towards the idea that Linux and Open Source computing can help the poor to get on their feet.
Hope to see you around.

[the0wl]

Great to see you here, theOwl!

Great to be here. Thanks.

Nice to hear about your experiences and your motivations. We need people like you to help get the message across. If we all do our little bit, we might just get there.

What would you recommend? I expose my students somewhat, but its not always welcome. Otherwise, I participate in LUGs and fora, but that seems more preaching to the choir. I usually hit fora with questions (or answers), as I likely will here, but, what to do to get Linux more wide recognition and acceptance?

My initial reasons for making the move were very similar to yours; now I'm motivated towards the idea that Linux and Open Source computing can help the poor to get on their feet.
Hope to see you around.

That seems a worthy cause, and I've been following similar efforts to some degree. However, M$, our biggest competitor, still has such widespread name recognition (not to mention billions of dollars in advertising and arm-twisting budgets), that its still quite a strain to get out the word. have you had any successes to speak of?

Cheers;

[elija]

Welcome to the forums theOwl!

I often find myself in the deepest darkest Windowsland trying to
convert the natives

It's odd but rational arguments about cost, security and freedom
usually fall on deaf ears. A quick demo of Compiz Fusion however,
and you often have to do two things.

1. Help put their eyes back in their sockets
2. Hand over a live CD*.

So far I have four converts and a maybe. Which doesn't sound
that many, then I think about where I live and it doesn't seem
so bad!

* It amazes me how many people can't get their head around running an
OS with no installation. Oh and that it is free.

[bigtomrodney]

Welcome the0wl!

Look forward to seeing you around the forum, sounds like you're already hooked

[the0wl]

Welcome to the forums theOwl!

I often find myself in the deepest darkest Windowsland trying to
convert the natives

Such is life, I suppose. Its an uphill battle any way we look at it.

It's odd but rational arguments about cost, security and freedom
usually fall on deaf ears.

People aren't rational. I think there was a movie quote (Tommy Lee Jones) about them being herd-minded." Individuals, however...

...A quick demo of Compiz Fusion however, and you often have to do two things.

1. Help put their eyes back in their sockets
2. Hand over a live CD*.

In my case, it was demonstrating Linux/OO/Present as a free and powerful alternative to M$ PowerPoint. Our LUG did several Live CDs that day...

So far I have four converts and a maybe. Which doesn't sound
that many, then I think about where I live and it doesn't seem
so bad!

I have a few converts, and my kids are looking real close at it.

* It amazes me how many people can't get their head around running an OS with no installation. Oh, and that it is free.

A prevailing mentality to overcome, especially in the US, is that a free thing must not be worth anything, and conversely, to be meaningful, it must cost something. We're so enamored of our 0/1 mentality that there's little room for change that isn't accompanied by a club... <sigh>

[the0wl]

Welcome the0wl!

Look forward to seeing you around the forum, sounds like you're already hooked

Thanks for your warm welcome. I'm definitely hooked and looking for more!

Cheers!

[Manchunian]

A prevailing mentality to overcome, especially in the US, is that a free thing must not be worth anything, and conversely, to be meaningful, it must cost something.

Yes, I've met this a few times - the exasperated newbie, realising he's going to need to adapt, who screams "No wonder Linux is free!"
Actually, I was saying to Elija the other day, that I have my hopes pinned on Google to a certain extent. Google has now entered the fray against Microsoft (with the latter's attempt at purchasing Yahoo) and have put together a little laptop running Linux. Maybe Google muscle will reassure...

What would you recommend?

Nothing! Just to keep doing the good work you're doing trying to convnice. And when we do get converts, we have to be on forums like this one, ready to help them adapt before they get too frustrated by the differences between Linux and Windows.