I need some suggestions about converting my farther who has been using
a microsoft operating system since PC-DOS 2.0
I have tried to show him the benifits of a *nix-based operating System
but my attempts have been vain.... Any Suggestions


John

Hmm... since it's your father, I presume the usual conversion methods used by religious groups over the past 2000 years would not be appropriate?

1. make up a list of things he uses the computer for
2. find the equivalent for Linux
3. configure your laptop to be the "perfect" system for him, then show him how it works

It helps of course if there are features that work much better than the other option.

Then of course there's the "what about ..." like installing the latest non-free software like the Mozilla Flash plugin, Acrobat Reader, Skype. Even with such plugins, you need to visit news sites (or whatever sites your father likes to visit) and check that everything works. Personally I find that the majority of sites are made by MS thralls who have no clue what they're doing - they just use whatever proprietary software they have and assume that everyone on the planet should be able to see what they produce, and if they don't then they can waste money buying all the proprietary software needed to see the web page. I find government departments particularly incompetent (especially the taxation departments and the "you must run WinDuhs Z with Internet Exploiter Y").

People don't care about "it's free" if they think it will be inferior to the garbage they pay for; otherwise MS wouldn't waste millions on its ongoing Get The FUD campaign.

Of course it doesn't matter how good something is, some people just don't like to change.

All I can say is Ubuntu.

Depends on what he uses his machine for, but I suspect it's not worth any more effort.

I just stopped offering MS support to family and friends. Several have transitioned to Linux because they didn't do anything that required Doze. They recognized that they very own technical incompetence required them to do exactly what I told them (muhahaha). A couple have noted that they don't call me nearly as often as they used to. Of course, some are still struggling along on their own with Doze.

The best argument for Linux I've found for technically competent people is the free aspect. Once you've completed pinniped's step #2, they have very little argument against switching. The technically competent usually have something(s) that they've always been interested in trying but never wanted to pay for the software (e.g., brush up on C, learn C++, etc.). No risk with Linux. I converted one of my co-workers simply because he had gobs of data in Excel spreadsheets and Access databases. Moving to Linux allowed him to consolidate all his data into MySQL databases (I didn't tell him he could get MySQL for Windows).

BTW, not all government departments are complete Doze aficionados. My mom works for the U.S. Courts. They're forbidden from using IE (required to use Firefox) and MS Office (they use Open Office). She was easy to transition to Linux when her machine did truly crap out.

In India just about everyone is using pirated Windoze.
All they could be concerned about is the monetary cost, not the freedom.

Actually the situations where licenced Windoze is used are more dismal.
Many Government services are still using Wincrap 95.

Is it really necessary to "convert" someone? If he's happy with his current OS, why should you make him switch into using something else?

Dual-boot him.

If he's happy as he is, I wouldn't bother - you may just end up falling out. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from pointing out that every time he has a nasty virus (or there's an outbreak) that you're not affected. And whenever one bit of software crashes and takes out the entire OS, point out that you're not affected. Just try to avoid looking smug while you tell him

You could always set up a test box for him and ask him to try it to see if he likes it.

if he's happy with his religion why make him switch.

else i would say you would need to play the part of the oem and set it up for him as if you just bought a new pc from the store (nobody wants to be bothered with installing an os anymore). that means you have to waste time making sure that every peice of sotfware and every peripheral device works... (i'll use a dumb cliche)... right out of the box.

The most important commandment, as some comedian said, is to: keep thy faith to thyself!
Let's respect everyone's right to be wrong

If no one was trying to convert other people on their way of thinking (be it religion, or something else) the world would probably be a slightly better place.

(Shrug...) He's your dad. Aren't there more-interesting things to talk about than Microsoft operating systems?

Just give him a live distro CD to play with if he wants.

Suse and lot of courage + Training classes

Its hard to argue against a cheerful live-and-let-live policy, but I'll say just this: I honestly feel I'm qualified in suggesting stuff like operating systems or books to my friends/family because those are areas I've got a decent bit of experience in. And I'd be equally open to somebody trying to convert me in say, cricket or politics, if I got the impression that they knew what they were talking about. Because those are areas in which I have a very limited understanding.
Always be ready to try something out before you make your mind, is what I always say. So I think theunixwizard should definitely try convincing his dad. If he switches back to windows after giving linux a shot, so be it.

So here are my suggestions, mostly echoing what's already said: give a demo with a livecd, nothing to lose there. Show the kind of stuff compiz brings to the desktop, that's always worked for me. Amarok is the greatest music player in human history, that should definitely be in the demo list. Mention lack of spyware etc, and cost+performance benefits therein. Show him the massive software list in the 'add/remove programs' window in Ubuntu or whatever.
It might be nice if you configure mail/browser/IM, a decent DE like KDE, and then showed it to him. For some time my mum was using a setup with 1 workspace, big desktop icons for the above apps, and everything else was just hidden. Seemed to work fairly decent, thunderbird/firefox look the same in any OS.
Actually I guess your approach depends on whether your dad is the geeky types or not. My mum definitely isn't (hah, imagine me telling her to edit xorg.conf ), so I just configured a simple desktop and she managed fine. With my more technically-inclined friends, I show them streaming audio, my squid/privoxy backend, surfraw, emacs, imagemagick, kde education apps, etc.

I showed him a copy of Ubuntu on a Live CD and he liked it but he
said that he didn't think he was ready to run Ubuntu as his only desktop
OS(Fine with me). The main reason that I wanted him to run Linux is that
when he goes to get software for Windows he will go to some off the wall
sites possible(thats why it is infected all the time). I have finally
convinced him that when XP is not supported by microsoft that he can
Install Ubuntu...