LebGeeks

abouelchich

Member

needed persons to promote linux.

Hello there, i have an idea to promote any linux distribution for newbies .. Are there any members interested in promoting and introducing people to any distro " ubuntu, fedora...".
The requirements :
- presentable
- good communication skills
- don't feel nervous in front of a camera
- age : 20- 30
- motivated to do presentations
- definitely good background in linux os

It 's still an idea for a project, however i 'm trying to find interested persons ! :)

Joe

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

What is your idea exactly?

samer

Admin

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

Moved to appropriate section.

Aj_BlaZ

Banned

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

What is your idea exactly? hmm abouelchich if you are a girl i would love to help just ask  and ya i have good background in using linux booting linux (grub ,ubuntu) fedora never tried it before but if its ubuntu,linux based no problem

rolf

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

I guess I fit but I would like to know more.

Joe

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

Promoting linux is not an easy job and it's easy to do it wrong (I should know). I am profoundly convinced that it is the best OS out there, because it comes with different flavors (suiting each's needs).

It is very easy to show Windows shortcomings. Still, I noticed, people would admit the failures and still refuse the switch.

If someone would come up with a revolutionary idea that would convince people to use it I'm willing to help!

rolf

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

From what I see at Apple, to promote an system to end users (the people who will pay money for it) you need:
- Usability
- Technical superiority
- Fun factor

Good luck promoting Linux. Point #2 is what linux activists usually put forth, Linux has some of it, but even then, it is debateable. And oh, stupid me, I forgot, its free!

So this is what you have running in favor of Linux, for "regular people": Its kinda better then windows, in some situations, and its free! (or, if you are a user of pirated software, its legal!)

Although i like *nix and really like working in bash, and the open source stack, I'm not motivated about advetizing linux distros to the general public, unless it is a new distro tailored to a particular audience (like jukebok, media box, etc...) - which does not seem to be the case here.

I might consider doing it, if I feel that I'm doing good to the open source community (eg: use linux to support open source - like a political statement), but I simply do not want to join the hordes of "geeks" who claim that "linux rocks, window$ sucks" and "GIMP is as good as / better then Photoshop" or "Linux kicks A.." or "if something is wrong I can fix it myself" or "I do not need Word, I use LaTex" (of course that's exagerated, but you get the idea). These statements are unrealistic, all of them, and they're only a couple of randomly picked examples.

Last edited by rolf (February 6 2010)

elzalem

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

i second rolf
Linux is not for everybody.
if someone needs a push to use Linux, why bother...

J4D

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

interesting idea , but i guess we need to know more about it if that is possible . abouelchich , good effort :)

Joe

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

Uhhhh... where to start?

Technical superiority is too vague, and sounds too much like promoting a business solution rather than a home desktop/laptop system. But when it comes to being faster, safer, stabler and less needy in resources there are no debates whatsoever. Linux won. And it's free.

Usability: The main difficulty of using a system like Linux Mint or Ubuntu is installing the system. I installed it on my mum's laptop and I know so many people who's done the same. Turns out our moms (less tech people on earth) manage to use them perfectly. After all Firefox is Firefox whether on Windows or Ubuntu. Plus maintaining the system is easier than Windows: No registries whatsoever, no bizarre GUI utilities you have to work on, ... only text conf files (usually heavily commented) you just need to modify.

Fun factor: This is the main reason why people do not shift. I have been using Linux for the past two years and I'm having a blast. But that's me! By switching to a Linux-based the average user will loose his favorites apps (most likely). He'll have to go through a learning curve...

But wait. Isn't it the same with Mac? Apps, learning curve, different, ... And Mac IS a UNIX! Two reasons why more people switch to Macs:

- Apple is great at marketing. Everyone knows about their products, and they send the exact image of luxury, taste, etc, that they want. Everyone wants a Mac. Fuck I want a Mac.

- Mac ... is NOT free. This hurts a lot in Linux's credibility.

"How can a product that is that good be distributed freely? Aww here comes the cute story of volunteers working together over the internet. That's never gonna be as good as Windows 7, a product Microsoft itself has developed using the best engineers in the world!"

Sure that's not true. Linux development is a multi-billion industry in which all the big names have pitched in: IBM, Google, HP, Novell, Red Hat, ... Except none has ownership over it.

To sum it up, Linux is fun for geeks imho. Development, administration, learning, being part of a community, IRC meetings, forums, blogs, ... it's fun. And free.

However by next year Linux is hitting the desktop/laptop/netbook/... big time. Google's Chrome OS is a Linux distro, and when a marketing giant sets its mind on something it's gonna happen.

Last couple of thing:

- Gimp is not as good as Photoshop. But Gimp not only demonstrates the power of free software, but also gives a strong image manipulation program for 0 cost. I am pretty confident that no one here in Lebanon has paid the 1000$+ license for Photoshop CS4, and I can guarantee the day piracy will be stopped, no one will be so quick at insulting Gimp.

- @rolf: No offense, but helping Linux simply because it's open source is not understanding what open source is about.

In 1998, people of the Free Software community were tired of rms' speech. They were tired of asking people to change because of the moral values of Free Software, and were convinced that shared development produced better, faster, stronger softwares. They created Open Source. (You can check out the open source initiative for more info).

Anyway, promoting linux because it's morally better is really not what the creators had in mind. They want to promote linux as the best Unix around (in the first place) and as the best OS in the second place.

euryale

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

hail to that rahmu! unfortunately the quote "el chi li bbalesh katter meno" doesn't apply here and won't until piracy ends

xterm

Moderator

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

The entire "Piracy ends, Linux shines" excuse is old. Operating systems are like food, to each his own preference.

elzalem

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

pirated or not, companies (i'm gna talk about Lebanon since I don't know about it elsewhere) do not care about linux, microsoft, google or apple. they simply want to boost the productivity of their employees with the minimum cost.
when i say cost i don't mean free stuff are better, i mean things that help the employee focus on doing his job faster and better. for companies time is money.
i'm pretty sure that an engineering office that uses autocad or 3ds max, when forced to chose either paying for a license or switching to open source products will sacrifice a couple of thousand dollars.

out of experience:
when msft lawyers approached a company here in Lebanon telling them they should buy licenses, i switched 3 computer to linux for them to test it, three days later every pc had a msft license. the management couldn't handle the decrease of efficiency and trouble the employees had.
the majority of today's employees that "use" a pc at work haven't even heard of linux and think that windows comes "inside" the "big hard disk" (they mean the case), and are actually afraid of the pc.

I've heard all comments like: if someone was there to help them maybe they would eventually used it... well it's cheaper to pay 300$/user than to bring people to train and waste employees times and risk that the employees still won't know how to live with linux.

u can't deny that:
- most people don't know linux
- most people are faster doing anything on windows than linux, i dont' care if linux is faster than windows, it comes to the end user
- most IT people don't know how to use linux
anyone that thinks that these statements are incorrect, must meet other people than his friends that can be described (with respect) as geeks.

PS: msft has built a user oriented os, having in mind (excuse me) the dumbest users.

Aj_BlaZ

Banned

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

how about virtual machine :)

elzalem

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

how about virtual machine :)

what about it? is running xp in a virtual machine solves the problem?

Aj_BlaZ

Banned

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

lol you can run xp windows 7 mac linux all in one machine at the same time ;)

elzalem

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

lol you can run xp windows 7 mac linux all in one machine at the same time ;)

'im aware of that, but i don't understand what does it have to do with this topic

Aj_BlaZ

Banned

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

im talking about all in one here ,arguing about only using linux is pointless so you need to use another os for your needs and who uses Vmware machines? well actually most companies use them for example solider

elzalem

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

do they use linux (and why??)? or windows 7 and xp in a VM?

Aj_BlaZ

Banned

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

http://www.vmware.com/appliances/

rolf

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

Uhhhh... where to start?

Technical superiority is too vague, and sounds too much like promoting a business solution rather than a home desktop/laptop system. But when it comes to being faster, safer, stabler and less needy in resources there are no debates whatsoever. Linux won. And it's free.

Yeah? On what hardware? Because the quality of linux kernel code varies a lot depending on the hardware. Running Ubuntu on my macbook, for example, was really bad. CPU usage was very inefficient, and the system froze relatively often.

Usability: The main difficulty of using a system like Linux Mint or Ubuntu is installing the system. I installed it on my mum's laptop and I know so many people who's done the same. Turns out our moms (less tech people on earth) manage to use them perfectly. After all Firefox is Firefox whether on Windows or Ubuntu. Plus maintaining the system is easier than Windows: No registries whatsoever, no bizarre GUI utilities you have to work on, ... only text conf files (usually heavily commented) you just need to modify.

Lots of PC users do not even grasp the concept of conf files. They think its an application called terminal. They came to associate every window with an application.
But what really bothers me here, is, oh first "no registries whatsoever"... what do you call GConf? And what about MP3 playback? DVD playback? You have to install packages and their dependencies for that.
Of course linux can handle Firefox, but then you might as well strip the whole OS and reduce it to the kernel + firefox.
I wont defend windows. I came to give up any idea of "maintenance" on windows. You dont maintain window. you periodically reinstall it. That's it, full stop (and that is the main reason I stick to OSX)

Fun factor: This is the main reason why people do not shift. I have been using Linux for the past two years and I'm having a blast. But that's me! By switching to a Linux-based the average user will loose his favorites apps (most likely). He'll have to go through a learning curve...

I dont know how anyone could consider dependency-hunting, manpage reading and all that as fun, but I'm glad you understand my perspective.

But wait. Isn't it the same with Mac? Apps, learning curve, different, ... And Mac IS a UNIX! Two reasons why more people switch to Macs:

The OSX interface is less buggy, and generally better quality, in my humble opinion.
I think it is easier to install and maintain an OSX system then a linux one. There are exceptions, OSX is less friendly to command line users, but I can live with that.

- Apple is great at marketing. Everyone knows about their products, and they send the exact image of luxury, taste, etc, that they want. Everyone wants a Mac. Fuck I want a Mac.

Their success is not only based on marketing.
Marketing is just part of the process

- Mac ... is NOT free. This hurts a lot in Linux's credibility.

It is far from free, but if that's the price to pay, be it.
Its too bad thought that OSX is based on BSD, which is open source. I think its' kinda unfair, that the system would be built upon something that they did not have to develop or pay for, but at least end users get to enjoy a good quality kernel.
It is unfair though....

"How can a product that is that good be distributed freely? Aww here comes the cute story of volunteers working together over the internet. That's never gonna be as good as Windows 7, a product Microsoft itself has developed using the best engineers in the world!"

Sure that's not true. Linux development is a multi-billion industry in which all the big names have pitched in: IBM, Google, HP, Novell, Red Hat, ... Except none has ownership over it.

To sum it up, Linux is fun for geeks imho. Development, administration, learning, being part of a community, IRC meetings, forums, blogs, ... it's fun. And free.

No major disagreement here

However by next year Linux is hitting the desktop/laptop/netbook/... big time. Google's Chrome OS is a Linux distro, and when a marketing giant sets its mind on something it's gonna happen.

That remains to be seen

Last couple of thing:

- Gimp is not as good as Photoshop. But Gimp not only demonstrates the power of free software, but also gives a strong image manipulation program for 0 cost. I am pretty confident that no one here in Lebanon has paid the 1000$+ license for Photoshop CS4, and I can guarantee the day piracy will be stopped, no one will be so quick at insulting Gimp.

I'm not insulting GIMP, I'm insulting (kinda) the people who falsely advertise it as being better then Photoshop.

- @rolf: No offense, but helping Linux simply because it's open source is not understanding what open source is about.

In 1998, people of the Free Software community were tired of rms' speech. They were tired of asking people to change because of the moral values of Free Software, and were convinced that shared development produced better, faster, stronger softwares. They created Open Source. (You can check out the open source initiative for more info).

Anyway, promoting linux because it's morally better is really not what the creators had in mind. They want to promote linux as the best Unix around (in the first place) and as the best OS in the second place.

And what is open source about? Personally, I dont know what it's about, but I think that I am using some if its products (kernel, apache, php among others...) so I might as well support it, since these look like good quality products to me. I do use linux distros too, as boot cds sometimes, when needed, but not as primary OS.

Last edited by rolf (February 10 2010)

abouelchich

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

Thanka a lot !!! for your valuable input. Honestly, i didn't think that i 'll get so much people involved in this topic. You all have great ideas, afterall that's why i posted this topic in lebgeeks not in any other forum.

Well the idea is : having a tv show mainly a program that talks about the latest technologies, introduce new software ( mainly free and/or open source). Have a complete section for linux ( mainly it's to educate ppl on the usability and what they can benefit from running a linux os). " It's not easy to make people change from win to linux , that's very true, however most ppl have more than 1 pc in their homes. So someone who is being exposed to the functionality of any linux distro's would be motivated to try it and ( like me keep using it).

that's mainly the idea,still there are many things i'm thinking to add in the show. ( product reviews: LED, digital cam, pda ...)

if anybody is interested send me your contact info on abouelchich@gmail.com to talk further.

patrick

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

I think the most user that represents the normal masses around here is me.

I use windows, as windows has been implemented in my head for over ever since my father had the windows dos version. So I grew up with windows. I tried a mac, and I noticed it was very bizarre to use.

It's just very hard to convince us to change , however, why don t you try your presentations on me , and convince me to use ubuntu ? I am ready to listen and I am very curious

Last edited by patrick (February 14 2010)

rolf

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

I think the most user that represents the normal masses around here is me.

I use windows, as windows has been implemented in my head for over ever since my father had the windows dos version. So I grew up with windows. I tried a mac, and I noticed it was very bizarre to use.

It is bizarre. They have some weird habits, but once you get used to it (it takes some time) you wont want to go back to windows. When you're on mac, "Wow! It does what I tell it to do" (quoting someone :) ).

rolf

Member

Re: needed persons to promote linux.

Thanka a lot !!! for your valuable input. Honestly, i didn't think that i 'll get so much people involved in this topic. You all have great ideas, afterall that's why i posted this topic in lebgeeks not in any other forum.

Well the idea is : having a tv show mainly a program that talks about the latest technologies, introduce new software ( mainly free and/or open source). Have a complete section for linux ( mainly it's to educate ppl on the usability and what they can benefit from running a linux os). " It's not easy to make people change from win to linux , that's very true, however most ppl have more than 1 pc in their homes. So someone who is being exposed to the functionality of any linux distro's would be motivated to try it and ( like me keep using it).

that's mainly the idea,still there are many things i'm thinking to add in the show. ( product reviews: LED, digital cam, pda ...)

if anybody is interested send me your contact info on abouelchich@gmail.com to talk further.

I am interested in the whole educative stuff. I am starting to like it. In the following weeks, I'll be giving a whole day of computer and programming initiation (with games and other challenges) to little boy scouts.
Just dont count me in for "selling" linux, or making linux propaganda (note: i said linux, not open source, I'm not going to complain when I get all my money from working with open source tools - apache, php, mysql, nullsoft installer, virtualbox and others).
I like educating people about all the principles in the world of computing (high-level, low level language, CPU, RAM, packet networking, RGB pixels, virtual machines, conditional loops in programming, and these are just some examples, there are endless of other interesting things to explain)
I'll send you an email, then, when I'm ready, unless I get feedback here.