Getting people into Linux (was: donated computers lab setup)

[Dave Sampson]

Hey folks,

The chat about this subject is pretty good. I will share some thoughts 
and experiences.

First and foremost I am an open source geographer, so instead of 
convincing people to move to Linux as a rebuke against the system I try 
to expose other geographers and neo-geographers (all the folks that like 
google earth and google maps etc) to the world of free software and free 
data for that software. Now the projects I am interested in are all 
cross platform, but their ancestors are from the Linux world.

In my journeys I have helped organize users groups and helped two like 
groups in Ottawa merge into one.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Ottawa_Chapter  the success of the merge 
was based on the Open Geospatial foundation www.osgeo.org . the benefit 
of this foundation is means to rally with other people and share 
resources to promote open source geomatics tools.  We focus on projects, 
not necessarily OS's as we promote cross platform.

Also I found that a good way to get people interested in what you're 
doing is spread the word through media streams that cover large sectors.
luckily we were approached by someone who heard about what we were doing 
in our first users group. Check out the article here: 
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=1413&bSearch=True

Conferences are great places to network.

To get in with the schools and such... well that is a political game.... 
one that has to relate to money in the pocket...

get together with your local trustee and ask them how much surplus your 
local board has.  Then ask them to find out how much they pay in 
licensing software and then they might be interested din hearing about 
locost alternatives... The next big goal is marketability. If someone is 
brainwashed into Linux and open source "how could they ever work in the 
real world" so you need to draw parralells between software and how 
concepts are shared.

getting in with a professor at a College or University is a great way to 
get things going. Often you'll find a professor or two who use linux for 
their reasearch (saves of Grant money) and sometimes some research 
students also use it for their projects.

I was fortunate enough to come across a professor who used a lot of open 
source GIS (geography geek stuff). Working with him and through our 
users group het lead the charge to get a 30 seat Open Source GIS lab 
going. Dual boot machines...  The we ran clinics and workshops ofr the 
general public, professional Geographers, students and others interested 
in open source GIS.  In Canada one third of the University mandate is to 
foster community connections. A local users group is a perfect way to do 
this... and if the prof doesn't have to do everything then you may find 
they are willing to give access to space and machines.

 From the practical standpoint supporting ubiquitous projects like 
Firefox can demo how people may already be using open source tech. Then 
they can become more familiar with other projects.  The way i think 
about it is look at every day activities. I don't know stats but I know 
in my social and family circle people use powerful PC's to surf the web 
and download music. So why not get people using Firefox and Gnutella.

then after they like those, teach people how to access their web mail 
through POP3 addresses using Thunderbird. heck, Gmail provides those 
instructions for you, I was impressed.

next they like listening to their music so why not one or two of the 
open source media plugins (mplayer) and applications (Amarok)

Right their lets say 90% of their activities are not open source 
supported by 5 projects... and they didn't even have to switch to a new OS.

Then expose them to other programs that still support their every day 
activities.

1. DVD: whatever really
2. Banking: GNU Cash
3. Graphics: GIMP
4. Something for their digital camera.

Still no OS switch and they find programs that do what they are looking for.

THEN... a slow exposure to a new way of thinking.... maybe starting them 
with
1. CYGWIN,
2. A live CD of sorts...
3. EASY dual boot setups

They they move over to Linux on their own because they don't need Windows.

All that to say that you can always think globally, but don't 
underestimate what local involvement can accomplish.
 
And that's enough to say right there...




Guillermo Garron wrote:
> On 12/31/06, Norm <maillist at sios.ca> wrote:
>>
>> Guillermo.
>> Good to see that you are doing your part.  I don't have any recycled PC
>> available at this time and none "promised".  If I acquire  several
>> (enough to make shipping them worth while) are you in a position to
>> distribute them?
> Sure I can, I can work together with Universities, to make them help
> me distribute them.
> thanks a lot, and if you can that will be appreciated
>> Recently I found a well written howto on SSL certificates at
>> http://www.eclectica.ca/howto/ssl-cert-howto.php, He does have a Spanish
>> version on line already but it may be a good quick add to your site.
> Thank you a lot, I will add both the English and the Spanish versions.
>
> regards,
>