I would agree with Leo for the most part. I work in onsite computer service so I'm working with the "general public" on their home systems mostly. Kids are using computers to chat, email, send pictures, watch videos / DVD's, and mp3's. Parents are using their machines for email, pictures, and general net surfing. Parents like the thought of having MS Office on the machine and will go and spend $299+ on geting MS Office just so they can have MS Word, mainly because they simply don't know any better. Every once in a while I run into someone who actually uses Excel though they don't know much about it so the spreadsheets are simplistic.
A good 75% of my calls deal with virus / adware / spyware issues that are slowing the machine down to a crawl. Most machines that I work on are P-4 Dell's.
Sometimes I think the biggest hurdle Linux has is convincing people that good (great) software CAN BE FREE or low cost. They have this stigma that if it's free, it's probably junk and would rather pay a fantastic amount of money for MS Office because it makes them feel better.
I'm sure there are other angles here. Just my 2-cents.
On 10/2/06, Leo Mauler webgiant@yahoo.com wrote:
This is why I was so interested in getting a PIII-600Mhz to run OpenOffice.org 2.0. I installed Debian Etch using the netinst CD.
I asked around on another forum I'm on and got the following list of things a Linux system should do to get the average user interested:
web browsing instant messaging Email Video and multimedia
Also, has anyone looked into the GIMPShop? I understand it is a little easier for PhotoShop users to get the hang of the GIMP by using GIMPShop.
--- "Monty J. Harder" mjharder@gmail.com wrote:
The closest thing to MS-bashing we should do is to show them that they can take older hardware that has no PRAYER of running Vista, and get a nice, usable Linux desktop, complete with Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP, and other fine tools that can make them productive without having to pay more for hardware that can run the expensive software.
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