Recently my friends and I got to together and played a few LAN Games. I of course was using Linux. During the first stages of play I said something to the regards of, "This is Linux" or something not that dry. Flat out both of them said that's stupid they stole that(GUI) from Microsoft. After I said what's the difference, MS stole it too. Unfortunately they weren't amazed as I had hoped they'd be. After thinking about it I did notice that I did seem similar to the GUI MS uses. I do realize thats not the only GUI to use in XF86. This was KDE by the way.

What I would really like is a compelling response to there observation. I would had showed them an OS X type GUI but I had forgotten how do that.

The point of this thread is, How do you convince a non-Linux user to see something in Linux? Putting the expected statement aside of that maybe there not ready to use Linux yet. I think they would be if'd stop putting Linux down the second I mention it, I could get them interested.

Any thought? I forget what I was trying to ask.



--tarballedtux

You'll have to show them more of the cosmetic stuff, as you pointed out in your post. Try showing them different window managers and explain how each WM is suited to a different sort of person. Good ones to show are GNOME, KDE, Enlightenment, and Blackbox. Each of these is geared toward a certain type of person, those who like eye-candy, minimilism, ease of use, and so on. Explain that with Linux the user is in control of how he or she interacts with the computer and is not limited by only what Explorer allows. If they show more interest show them the full range of applications that can do everything Windows applications do, notibly OpenOffice, Grip, Mozilla. The most important part you need to mention about the applications, though, is that the users pay no money unlike in Windows. Hopefully they will start to ask more questions and maybe you could convince them to try Knoppix which doesn't have to be installed on their computer to try.

show them screen shots, iv seen some very nice ones around, and you can also tell them that tehy can make it look like whatever they want (ok not realy, but theres like 1000% more customation in linux then in MS at least, if all else fails you can try to see if you can find somone to make somthing for you or do it yourself), if ya want an example of how flexable the linux gui can be take a look at teh ion WM i use it cuse right now iv put linux on a laptop to learn about it, and sence it manages space like hell, and keyboad friendly and not that hard to add more shortcuts, it seems perfect for laptop, u got enlightmentment, blackbox, fvwm, and like 5 others that look good (excluding somea the hacked versons) for desktop (kde and gone dont count cuse tehy aint WM's)

edit: i 4got that little program called gkrleam is it?, if tehy play games you should tell tehm u can get stuff that looks like its from wolfenstien 3d in your gui

KDE was here before windows 95

Good point Joey! Too bad my Linux box isn't at their house more often I could show them the other WMs. I did try to show them Knoppix, they were like No! I mentioned that it didn't need to be installed. Bah!

I'll at least mention it too them about KDE. I have Revolution OS now, so maybe I'll slip that in somehow. Personally I thought it was pretty good. Except for that "Free Software Song" I've made better sounds in my sleep. Sounds like a group of American Idosl rejects. IMO. I'll bet they condemn Linux based on that deadly 3 min FS Song.

--tarballedtux

Most people fear what they don't understand
You will understand only what learn
You will Love only what you understand
You will conserve only what you Love
And you will teach only what you conserve
FVWM95, doesent that look alot like Win?

quote:
The point of this thread is, How do you convince a non-Linux user to see something in Linux? Putting the expected statement aside of that maybe there not ready to use Linux yet.

You just asked and answered your own question. With the attitude that you say they have, why try? Let them use what they are comfortable with and you use what you are comfortable with. So what if they put linux down, you have used both systems and know the differences. Just laugh at them for being too stubborn to know the difference.

Ooh does this mean that the KDE "Start Applications" button came before the Windows Start button? Same thing with the KDE Panel before the Taskbar?

twilli, I was saying don't say "Maybe there not ready for Linux yet." Put that comment aside.


They were stubborn. I equated them to Al Sharpton as the couldn't even listen but instead interrupted with "It's stupid."


--tarballedtux

What I would do is show how powerful Linux is - this means - make use of the command-line. Use something like fluxbox/blackbox run some network analysing software and tell them why they have soo many ports open while you don't have any etc.
The command line with it's raw power is very attracting to these kinds of guys. Whenever I'm on a lan, I'm mostly in fluxbox

You can't convince them. All you can do is show them the door. They can choose to open it or not. For me, if they can't see the door, then they are not ready for what's behind it.

I'm more concerned about those that have choosen to open the door, and if they need help finding the light switch once inside I will point them in the right direction.



Netizen

Well, if you don't want to use my other suggestion, then just kick their butts in the games you play, and blame it on linux.

Unfortunately I didn't get any Linux gaming in. I had installed Quake 3 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. No one wanted to play Q3, RTCW freaked out when it could not find some Internet server, No connection on the LAN. If I had though about it at the time I would have made a localhost entry to solve it but I didn't realize until I got home. I had to boot back in to Windows to play Jedi Knight 2 and Serious Sam 2. I know Jedi Knight can be played natively, I found some German installer but it was configured for the German version of the game and I didn't feel like hacking the script. I didn't think we would play Serious Sam 2 so that got shot.


I should have run some nmap scans against them. Just to mess with them. Cause they know nothing about common ports and such.


--tarballedtux

I don't think you should worry about who did what GUI features first its not really important even if Linux was first.

some things you could try telling your friends;
-The Linux shell is way more customizable even though theres things like light step ( all seem pretty instable in my experience )
-Linux is stronger, without using as many resources.
-Alot of installations come pre-packed with pretty much any program you will need.
-Its free, ya don't have to steal it.
-Linux can run Win32 applications.
-Look at all my different desktops.
-Theres no argument for supporting Windows.

have fun.
Ben.

Try this:
Have your windows buddies rip a bunch of cds (at least 5 or ten) and encode them into mp3 or ogg or whatever. Have them surf the net at the same time. Maybe, if they have photoshop open, they should could look at some pictures.

Then do the same on your computer. Granted, both will be very sluggish during operations. However, what are the chances that the windows boxes' ram is full, and everything remains sluggish to the point of rebooting. And what does your linux box do? Just keep plugging right along, with no need to reboot. Forget the gui--look at the performance.