🚀 go-pugleaf

klaatu wrote:
> 
> David Lesher wrote:
> >        <---Excerpt...>
> >
> > Come to the DC-LUG/NOVALUG InstallFest and prove that *your*
> > OS does not need Internet Explorer to work!
> >
> >       <---Excerpt...>
> >
> > <http://www.tux.org/fest> has all the details. No subpoena
> > needed.....
> 

> Tres cute! But aren't you hitting the law of diminishing returns yet? Seems to
> me that everyone with the intelligence to see the need for a free open-source
> operating system, complete with source code and compiler, has already got a
> Linux box, while everyone who doesn't see the need is working for or selling
> to the DC government and could not be pursuaded to give up their Windows3.1 or
> NT machines if you stuck a gun to their head and buried them in gold pieces.
>  <---Excerpt...>

Not so.  I work in a large company, and there are lots of DBA's and
Programmers and application administrators that work with software
on commercial UN*X's.  These individuals may know boatloads about
programming, but just enough of the OS specific things like file i/o
and network i/o to get by.

When I hear/see them getting frustrated with their flaky, instable,
unpredictable MS WinXX  PC, (many of them have had Sun or IRIX
workstations in the past).  I suggest that they try LINUX.

Almost all of them know what Linux is, namely a free UNIX for PC's.
But they don't know squat about partitions and MBR's and
/etc/printcap<s>  and /etc/resolv.conf<s> and some of them don't 
know a thing about DNS servers or IP networks or netmasks.

However I offer to set them up with an old 400MB second IDE hard-drive
that has RH5.2 and KDE set up to init-default level 5 and I set up 
the networking and configure Netscape and Xterm Icons for them.
I set up a Gimp Icon. I install plugger-3.0 and xanim and mtv and
such. I enable dir-color and create an Icon on their desk for 
"helptool".  I configure their printers and set up SMBA shares for
them.

There are now 8-9 people in my office who eschew their NT/95 PC
except for when they are sent some bloated document in a proprietary
MS-Office format.  These newbie users *LOVE* their stable reliable
predictable documented open OS!!!

Linux can be on the desktop.  WinXX is actually harder to install and
configure, it's just that most people get their WinXX machine with 
the OS preinstalled.

-Ben.