Converting "Dozies" (was Re: [ale] OT: winxp upgrade...)

[David S. Jackson]

On Mon, Jan 06, 2003 at 08:36:03AM -0500 James P. Kinney III <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com> wrote:
> <begin soapbox rant mode>
> 
> Wipe the drive, repartition, slap on a RedHat 8 (no distro wars, please)
> for him and show how easy it is to do things and hit the Internet. Show
> him how much he can get for the money and time investment. Show _your_
> Linux box uptime report. Preach to him about subversive nature of the
> controls and "bug fixes" that Microsoft uses.

I guess "converting" or "preaching" to others is pretty hard for me to
do.  But perhaps that has more to do with my personal emotional baggage
than with reality.  Rationally, friends shouldn't let friends drive
drunk.  So, perhaps friends also shouldn't allow friends to compute
stupidly.  

However, none of us has the power to make up another's mind for him.
Unless it's by force or by trickery.  So I haven't pushed too hard when
people (friends) appear to ignorantly follow the M$ herd of lemmings
over the cliff.  I guess it comes down to, "How stupid do I really
believe my friends are, and how much of their delusion is actually due
to force and trickery?"  

If they refuse to listen to rational arguments for forsaking M$, then I
can do nothing (ethically speaking).  But if they are innocent captives
then I should try my hardest to explain reasonably and dispassionately
why they are on a collision course by continuing to use M$ crap.

So, I'm thinking this whole discussion comes down to:

1. How do you identify whether your friends are either genuine victimes
or are too stupid or indifferent to care what they use?

2. How best do you advocate Linux without seeming like a zealot?  (Is it
too zealous to install only *nix and not dual boot their machine?)

> Convert that person and show them the ALE list. 

This is truly an enormous "selling" point.

> Tell them to save their money by NOT giving it to Bill.  Have him give
> it to you instead to setup and teach him how to use the new found
> freedom of an computer system that puts the box owner IN CHARGE
> instead of the corporate interests in Redmond.

This is a little tougher one, I think.  I mean, I've used the "hood
welded shut" argument time and again, and people look at me with glazed
eyes.  I think it's because they don't work on their cars either, so
they have no concept of how bad the M$ situation truly is.   I keep
expecting them to call me Mulder and look around for The Smoking Man.

> Show him how wonderful it is to be able not have to have an extra $70 a
> year just to keep from getting email viruses. Show him the elegant
> simplicity and excellent functionality of OpenOffice.org installed WITH
> the operating system, not a separate purchase and installation headache.

I switched over to Linux in about early 1995. Since then I've paid once
for 98se for my wife/daughter's machine as a dual boot.  That's the last
"purchase" I ever made for any OS.  Meanwhile I've upgraded all my
machines at no cost and burned new CDs of any distro I have wanted for
all these years.  All with the reliability and sensibility that is *nix.
It's hard to get people to even conceive of what I'm talking about here
if they've never experienced it.

I guess all one can do is find the *one* reason that *will convince
them* to try 'nix out.  For me it was that I hate to be made an ass of
by M$.  I was tired of being Microsoft's bitch.

:-)

-- 
David S. Jackson                        dsj at dsj.net
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
When I woke up this morning, my girlfriend asked if I
had slept well.  I said, "No, I made a few mistakes."
		-- Steven Wright

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