One little Linux success story from India ...

[Lakshmipathi]

I'm not sure whether i already shared this story ..anyway here it's ...Linux making big inroads in Windows area.Six months back , I went a netcafe to take a printout of my railway reservation ticket.There was constant power failure in southern part of india during that time. I checked two netcafe ,both have no power.

Decided to try a third and final one , thankfully it was opened. I went into that net cafe , the owner pointed me system ..as i went to the system,someone left his/her resume opened in desktop --it's in openoffice
I seen more people using it in windows envirnoment,when i minimized the windows openoffice,pleasent surprise its Linux machine .
Owner told me take print out from that linux machine (so they configured printer too ) .Out of curiosity , I asked him,why linux -
what's happened to windows? He replied "Virus sir! Every month needed to format windows twice ,now we are using linux - for past six
months no problem with any machine, though we have one windows system at netcafe and remaining is linux" I was delighted to hear that
i tought it will take another ten years for linux to reach my native place. Taken the photograph of netcafe on my way back

But microsoft is doing very good marketing here,on local radio FM's and TV channels,they are producing ads like buy "original Windows" . We need to counter that ads with Linux ads

[b2bwild]

As you see Lakshmipathi, You was familier with Linux, so you got a pleasent surprise when you see Linux running, but when other people come across Linux, they get very confused.

Specially with Indian Comman Man, He will blame the system if anything doesn't go as planned. instead of learning something new or improving himself.

I really get very angry, when people see my Laptop screen and ask me what version of Windows it is...they don't even bother to imagine that another OS than Windows can exists.

So its true, There should be Linux advertises around to improve awareness.

[Lakshmipathi]

I really get very angry, when people see my Laptop screen and ask me what version of Windows it is...

Specially with Indian Comman Man, He will blame the system if anything doesn't go as planned. instead of learning something new or improving himself.

yes,what you said is correct. I think it suits for people(mostly students) already know/worked on windows. Most students got used to C: and D: and it will very hard to convince them.

But I believe netcafe is the best place for linux to begin with (apart from schools/netcafe - getting linux into college is more difficult ,atleast as of now) If more netcafe (where most people use only browser application and write the downloaded files into CD ) started using linux ,then there will more awareness about linux

Atleast they start to realize that system at netcafe won't hang often like windows.

I have few plans to take linux classes for school students (below age of 16)
If we introduce both linux and windows at early stage ...then they will decide which is best ,obvious they will choose linux over windows

[b2bwild]

I have few plans to take linux classes for school students (below age of 16)
If we introduce both linux and windows at early stage ...then they will decide which is best ,obvious they will choose linux over windows

Thats cool,

Don't forget to rename your self as Linux-Pathi, instead of Laxmi-Pathi

[elija]

Specially with Indian Comman Man, He will blame the system if anything doesn't go as planned. instead of learning something new or improving himself.

This is a truly global phenomenon but it is often driven by fear.

People as a gross generalisation do not like change. As far as I can tell this because when something we know changes to something we don't know, our overall knowledge of the universe decreases.

If you consider the amount of knowledge out there even Marilyn vos Savant isn't that distinguishable from a chair leg. And anything that brings your level of knowledge closer to a chair legs is to be feared. Even if it is subconsciously.

What we have to do then is remove that fear and frankly, I am at a loss as to how!

Kudos to your Internet Cafe and good luck with the classes.

Just around the corner from where I live is the Microsoft Academy. A secondary (teenagers) school. You see see them come out after class chanting "Death to Linux! Death to Mac!". Not really, as they will be far more subtle than that but I doubt they are unbiased after all "Try this it is better than our sponsors" isn't going to happen.

[Lakshmipathi]

Don't forget to rename your self as Linux-Pathi, instead of Laxmi-Pathi

Ha Ha That's how one of my close friend often call me

People as a gross generalisation do not like change

elija,you are correct. Just few days back ,I was using Debian got some errors (I tried for few -days ) with apt-get ,then I went back to Fedora with yum
Though I use Debian as my test machine,I decided to stick with fedora for development.

When People got used with something ,it's really hard to change them.
That's why I believe distro like ubuntu and mandriva (which has cool desktop and out of box support for Mp3 and Videos) will reach new users more easily.We should provide a distro that make easy transition for new users.

[b2bwild]

Just around the corner from where I live is the Microsoft Academy. A secondary (teenagers) school. You see see them come out after class chanting "Death to Linux! Death to Mac!". Not really, as they will be far more subtle than that but I doubt they are unbiased after all "Try this it is better than our sponsors" isn't going to happen.

LOL, Thats crazy.

[Tsarevich]

I really get very angry, when people see my Laptop screen and ask me what version of Windows it is...they don't even bother to imagine that another OS than Windows can exists.

That's the case when they do not know the name of Linux. My friends would often question me, Linux is Windows na?

[b2bwild]

That's the case when they do not know the name of Linux. My friends would often question me, Linux is Windows na?

1.5 Years ago I didn't even know what is Linux,
People should know what "OS" is, some people actually think that Microsoft Windows is a persistent part of your computer...

[computerophil]

When People got used with something ,it's really hard to change them.
That's why I believe distro like ubuntu and mandriva (which has cool desktop and out of box support for Mp3 and Videos) will reach new users more easily.We should provide a distro that make easy transition for new users.

I see it also as a big chance for linux.
When with asus eee there started the netbook hipe they came first all with linux
I think there are more and more people who realice the benefits of linux. And linux is developing very fast: See just the changings of the last 4 years.
Don't forget the publicity Microsoft made for Linux offering Vista.