How many people in your household use linux?
 

Hi linux fans,

Of the six people in my household, I'm the only one who uses linux. Everyone uses windows xp and vista. At home I'm also the technically inclined individual, I fix and build computers for them. So, if you are the computer geek or hobbiest in your household, are you most likely a linux user?

To test this notion, I asked my friends and co-workers about their interest in computers. Only three people have an extra interest in computers and have linux dual booted with windows.

So, my guess is if you are a computer enthusiast, you most likely know what linux is and most likely to use it. If you're just a casual computer user, most likely you never heard of linux or don't care to bother with it.

This is just an opinion based on the people I asked about their level of computer usage.

What do you think?

I'm the only one:
Mah dad: I'm to old to figure out anything new. (fair enough)
mah mom: confusion

In my household, we both use linux, but mostly because both computers only have linux on them. The wife couldn't tell you what os she uses, as long as there's an icon to get to a card game, she's happy. Occasionally, she'll use Opera to get to the web, but that's fairly rare.

I've worked in the computer field for 25 years or so, and my wife is one of the most computer illiterate people you'll ever meet. I use linux because at work I mostly support 'nix and Netware (Netware makes a lousy desktop solution - heh heh). She uses linux because that's what was on my old computer. I got rid of most of the desktop icons, and put the icons for a couple of games and Opera in the middle of the screen for her.

This is probably a rather common situation, especially for those of us that are a little older (We're in our 50's). When we first got a computer, it was because it was a tool for my career, and my wife had little to no interest in that. She has about as much interest in (non-card game) computing as I have in her sewing machine.

>> "... if you're just a casual computer user, most likely you never heard of linux or don't care to bother with it."

not totally correct ... my son knows about linux , at least he knows that he is using linux to play his games on the internet but i doubt that he tell his friends about that ...

when he is playing games his younger brother will sit(but on top of a side table) right beside him watching ... the youngest one also play kids game with linux from bob the builder web sites for example and some other simpler flash(probably java too) games ...

as for office stuffs ... so far i have only tested with one excel document which needed to be sent over to other party by email but a success nonetheless ...


//so ... so far so good , at least at the moment ...


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Same here Chuckbuhler.

Wife has absolutely no interest in what operating system she is using. She gets quite upset if I install something new or if something changes. I'm always careful to set everything up for her. She does like linux now - only because I make sure the eye candy is there. A pretty desktop is all she needs ... lol.

Most people do not share our interest in operating systems or want to know how things work. Most of my family, friends, and co-workers, have NO interest in linux and glaze over if I mention it.

Many years ago, I set up a dual boot for my daughter with Mandrake 8.1. She has long since moved out but as far as I know the Mandrake install is still pristine.

Because I'm a blue-collar worker, most of my peers consider me a geek, because I'm not into hockey and swilling beer.

It's kinda sad being alone. It would be nice to share the linux experience with people but it is not going to happen in my circle.

co-worker dont even have to know we have pc at home ... can save a lot of troubles ... ^_^


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Thanks everyone for your replies on who uses linux in your household and your circle of friends and co-workers.

In my household only me. I'm also the only person in my household. ;)

My godmother uses Ubuntu 6.06 which I kinda forced on her computer despite the usual "oh I'm afraid it's difficult and won't work for me" blabberish, since her Windows was so broken and dysfunctional I pitied her and I also wanted to slip from fixing it every second week.
So, now she has stable Linux and all the programs she needs and couldn't be happier. Most interesting is that she has been encouraging other +50-years people to try it. :)

EDIT: took only ~5 hours to install, setup everything (just VLC+flash to add), move stuff from Windos backups AND teach her the basics of Gnome, Evolution, GAIM, OOo, Nautilus, Rhythmbox & VLC. She is completely computer illiterate so I'm surprised how easy it was. Ubuntu is really the OS for any computer n00b.

In my immediate household there are 3 people...2 of us use Linux, but my wife is a gamer. She uses Windows XP exclusively. Our 3 year old "uses" Linux primarily because it's harder for her to break stuff on my Linux box...though she's been known to sneak over to my wife's machine to move her toons around while my wife is AFK haha.

In my household of 4 (3 who can actually use a computer), I'm the only one. My primary is Linux, and I have my XP box to run IIS. My wife, though I don't think she would mind running Linux, is mandated by her employer to run a Windows-based PC. My 5 year old just plays kids games, but I haven't gotten them to work on Wine yet.

I've only got 1 Linux PC, this one. The lovely Linda. :) (Computers should always have names ;P)

My sister uses Windows 2000... And I'll probably leave it until Wine can handle all my games and I can find a full copy of Office 97/2000. (I've only got Word & Excel at the 'mo, but that's good enough for me, because Impress kicks PPT's ass.) My other PCs... well one isn't really working, I'll have to go fix it or kill it... And another is too old to be really all that useful, I just set it up in the basement with Win98 because my little sister wanted to feel cool. ;P

Most of my friends... I haven't tried convincing. I have a friend who's got Fedora & Kubuntu on his laptop, another two who tried but failed at the installer (One of them can't reach the BIOS, dunno why) and I've distributed a good 10 or so Kubuntu (Figured they'd like KDE more than GNOME because of the default looks...) CDs...

Of the three people in my household, I'm the techie one - I use Linux and so does my wife (if only to try to share my interests.) She doesn't use Linux to the extent that I do, merely to surf the Internet and maybe play games. Our roommate apparently doesn't use computers at home at all - I triple boot with WinXP and have an account set up for her use, but it isn't used. No Linux accounts either in her case.

So, in my case, it's a 2/3 majority.

Right now its just me. My wife doesn't care if she has Windows, Linux, or anything in particular. She just wants to have a browser and the ability to video chat using Skype, so that's the only reason she uses Windows right now, since Skype for Linux doesn't do video yet.

Just me and the dog. She's doing Linux From Scratch.

Four of us here,all use MEPIS 6.5,all seem happy with Linux except 12 year old granddaughter,she thinks MS Windows is cooler,but I am trying to undo the brainwashing from school and her friends:) BTW 76 year old mom uses MEPIS 6.5 at her house too.I guess you can call us a Linux family,we have windows,just not on our computers.Wayne

heh nice. Well said.

As a Professional Computer Geek (;)) my system runs Linux. My wife is "comfortable" with Windows, and doesn't want to have to change. (But, she recently bought a new desktop system, which came with Vista Home Basic. She's tearing her hair out over things it won't do, and things it does differently than 2000/XP. I may convince her to try Linux, yet. :))

My grandkids (age 14, 10, and 7) play on either, interchangably. They started out just using my wife's system, but then realized they could access the internet from mine, as easily. They can't play Windows-only games on it, but they have found that there are a *lot* of Linux games on my system. The youngest likes Tux .. er ..ppracer, and the other two love Westnoth, Glest, etc.

None of us use it at home anymore. Cablemodem was too expensive so I dropped back to dialup. Getting Solaris or Linux to work over dialup was a no-go (not sure why, I did it in years past, maybe they're dropping support for that now?) so had to switch everything over to Windows. :(

I'm currently the only person using Linux in my house. But soon as I get enough money for my next box, my current one is going to my mother so that she can do her work. (It's kind of a peace offering after I Hulk-smashed her previous craputer. :p )

So that will make two...

eventually...

All three of us 100%, even though there is an (unused) Vista still available on the new laptop recently lent to my son.

Yves.

External modems still work fine, but they're more expensive than internal modems.

I am the only person who uses the PC and I use Linux.The other person in the house does not care about technology !

Why couldn't you just configure a single Windows box as the Internet server, and share your connection to Linux?

Had a bad technology day?

One day I had it with a computer I was working on, picked it up over my head and threw it to the floor as hard as I could. Tweaked the chassis into a diamond-ish shape. Funny though, I reseated the cards and the thing booted! This was in the old times, when computers were made out of thick metal, and weighed about 40 lbs.

All three of us in this household, that includes:
Me
Myself
& I

I wasn't able to get that going. For some reason when I try to setup Windows to do that it insists on making a mess of my LAN settings.

One of the places I used to work had an analog router (for backup purposes) that essentially did that... Would have been really cool except it was kind of flaky and would lose connections a LOT (individually dialing up a machine on the same lines would stay up all day long, so it wasn't the inherent unreliability of dialup...)

two of two, my son uses edubuntu 6. and I use CentOS 4.5 acting as SMB/CIFS-Fileserver,NFS Install Server, FTP Server and a Notebook with Fedora 7 for development. And an other Desktop PC using Fedora 7 for World of Warcraft, private Email and Office stuff.

Yeah. (It was mocking me...)
When I threw it onto the floor I only managed to slightly twist the frame near the PSU, and the CPU heatsink became disconnected.

The case frame (not the panels) is made from 1mm thick steel. So I didn't do much to it. However, it did slice my hand open. It got it's revenge.

Windows, Linux, OSX - what do you use?
 

Hi there,

Well there are 4 people in my house, 2 of us use Linux. I personally have 1 PC dual boot with XP Pro and Vista Ultimate. I have Vista from a IT perspective, I would never have bought it if I had it my way but to stay on top of things you have to. My XP PRO has VMware Server 1.0.3 installed for testing and playing around purposes, like testing out the new Fedora Core 7. My second machine is a box running Fedora Core 6 with VMware Server 1.0.3 also. I use the VMware to host my other FC6 machine which I use a web server for my clients. The VM-machine uses Plesk Control Panel 8.2 (most current version) to run the web services I provide. As for the OSX OS well I used it in school while learning web design, graphic manipulation, video editing, etc, etc. I like OSX and am planning on buying a MAC. No I won't use it as my main PC but simply to have all the platforms out there and to understand all that I can, obtaining knowledge is just what I like to do.....

I can build a custom computer which I personally think is the way to go becuase:
1) you get the Windows Disk not a crappy restore CD, or you don't get anything and have to make the restore CD
2) you are more likely able to upgrade in the future rather than purchase a whole new system regardless of OS
3) you don't get the POS manufactured PC which doesn't come with a dedicated video card and low power psu thus causing you to spend more than necessary when the time comes to upgrade.

If you are a Windows user and want to use Linux because it is free than I suggest you do a little reading, try a live CD of any distribution that offers one. If you want to use Linux because you have heard great things well get on it. If have no clue in the world how to use a computer well get help now! If your thinking about using a MAC well I don't know why you would, they really aren't that much different than a PC other than the PRICE TAG and lack of upgradability (<-- my new word) but they are pretty to look at!

As for the other 2 users well one of them doesn't know anything about them and the second well is my gf and she uses Windows for checking her online banking, Facebook, etc. She has used the Linux box a few times and thinks it similar to Windows. She doesn't really like Vista because it is different and she is not used to it. Plus the security pop ups are annoying her, have to turn that CRAP off.

Thats my little blurb for this post.... hope it means something to someone! Cheers!

I'm just about the only one in the house that uses Linux, my older brother I know has ubuntu installed on his laptop and I've have seen him mess about with it and I've shown him some cool stuff but I am really the only one in the house that uses linux.

I could get my dad in-to it, but he knows that "Windows" isn't the best out there.

The dog's given up Linux From Scratch, admits she'd bitten off more than she could chew. I think she might have been doing it to make me feel inferior, but I could be barking up the wrong tree.

In our household...it's only me!

everyone, i do not allow them access to anything but for now. might be bringing home an iMAC for them when the cash is right.

Five in my household, and I'm the only one who uses Linux (Slackware). Same thing as above though - wfe and kids probably couldn't care less about operating systems, as long as the games work!
I'm the one who 'mends' Windows and hardware probs for the extended family too!