Spreading the good word

[techieMoe]

Those of you who've been on the forum for a while probably know that I'm not really much of an evangelist for operating systems. Sure, if I like something I'll tell people about it, even more likely if I hate it. However I believe a user's choice in software should be just that: a choice. I like to make sure users are informed enough to make an educated choice, but if in the end they decide to use something different from what I like, I'm cool with that.

This weekend I spent the better part of Saturday night and Sunday day attempting to resurrect a Dell Dimension 2200, and eventually gave up when I found out the reason it wasn't booting properly was a faulty RAM slot. The thing was 7 (almost 8) years old and the owner was more than happy to let it retire. We bought her a new one.

Her first question was whether she should get the work-distributed copy of Microsoft Office. After all, it was free and she was comfortable with it. I told her that's certainly an option, but there are other options available as well.

She was intrigued, so I downloaded OpenOffice 3 for her and set it up to open her Word and Excel documents. I felt safe recommending this to her because she isn't the kind of person who delves particularly deeply into the minutiae of Office so her documents likely wouldn't have anything wonky that wouldn't exactly translate.

I opened up a Word document of hers and she said, "Oh, well this is very similar to Word. I can handle this." I smiled inwardly and reminded her that she's more than welcome to try it for a while and if she doesn't care for it she can always install Office from work. I then launched into the benefits of OpenOffice. In her case that includes:

• Not having to wait on the office secretary to dole out the latest disks and license keys
• Not having to pay for anything if she wants the latest and greatest version of the program
• Expanding her horizons with her first dip into the world of free software.

Okay, so that last benefit was my own editorial comment, but it's true whether she realizes it or not. I'll let you all know how it goes in the coming days and if she decided to go with Office after all.

[sdimhoff]

Thanks for the story and insight. I think you bring up a good point about choices and options. Those of us who are deeply entrenched into the linux/foss community often don't realize the apprehension that accompanies large (or small) changes from what a user is used to. (I'm just thinking back to the first time a friend helped me get rid of windows and perform a full gentoo install... yikes) Sometimes that apprehension is unfounded, but in the end it is up to real people to help others make that first leap instead of just throwing a link to openoffice.org at someone and telling them it is all they need.

[Bemk]

That remind me of something I did quite recently.

My friend keeps on telling me that I really need to lean how to use windows because when my grandfather asked me to install his PC the installation appeared to be corrupted on the first boot.

It comes down to me having to install Windows Vista 2 times in one weekend (PLEASE GOD!!! DON'T LET ME GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN!!!!!!). My grandfather gave his notebook (about a year old) to my sister, but the system was really contaminated. My grandfather had 4 disks with Microsoft Office (illegal versions) and I told him there is a free way to do this legal. I downloaded OOO3 (on a 128Kbit internet connection, OMFG!!!) and installed it.

Grandpa was pleased to use it. (I just refuse to do illegal installs) Then I came home and my sister needed a clean system. I formatted the disk (the most easy way to get a clean system in Windows) and reinstalled Windows. We don't have Office disks lying around here (legal ones, bloody parents) so I again used OOO (I was on my home Internet then, thank god that's a bit faster, but I already had it on my memory stick). Both of them seem able to use it. My grandfather who likes photo editing has now even has GIMP installed next to Corel Photo Shop(which one is more powerful, I don't know, GIMP is smaller on the disk though, and a whole lot damn faster).

I just think my grandpa feels a bit sorry for spending 100 Euros on Photo Shop.

[elija]

It's actually not a bad way to do things, get people used to using Open Source software, Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird and The GIMP. Suddenly, the switch to Linux won't seem quite so intimidating as the software will be be familiar.

[bigvoo]

I LOVE ubuntu. I still ues my notebook with *ugg* vista, because i spent so much money on video editing stuff. A while back, I was in a big hurry to edit a 10 minute video, and tha ( windows based ) software, kept interuping me, saying I had signed an agreement to do a survey! :@. it wouldnt let me load the codecs without doing a 10 minute survey online.. bassards. I'm getting the parts together to build my linux video editing box next, gonna try cinelerra. if it works...I will have no excuse to ever use winodows machines ever again...ah the smell of freedom.

[sdimhoff]

I've taken this conversation, but I'm still a little bit conflicted.

Backstory: My dad is a school teacher and really liked the KDE program KStars when I showed it to him. When I made out instructions on how to use it from a live edubuntu cd for class he really started to ask his IT guy why Linux is not an option in the school. Almost without saying, the IT guy had a good opinion of Linux and while he would like to see it done, he was also practical about the feasability concerning getting the district to implement it on any real scale (i.e. more than my dad's use of a livecd).

Due to some issues with the livecd not always working with projectors (and that I'm not around to fix it) I've made up a nice little illustrated instruction set for installing the Win version of KDE for people who have a hard time clicking through normal installers so that it can be used on the normal projector computer. I see this as something more people would be willing to use in the short term if it made good software available.

However, now I'm wondering whether doing that sort of thing on a grander scale would be doing more good or more harm to the cause of spreading the "good word". I'm currently of the opinion that opening people up little by little is a good thing, but what do you guys think? Is it more or less useful to write "for dummy" instructions for the non-linux linux software such as andLinux, the win-kde desktop etc?