How many people did you convert to Mint??

[caris_mere]

I converted my workplace (an elementary school) to Mint. We dual boot now (with Windows), and will soon my the full switch to Mint. I only know of one other person I've convinced.

[Aevum]

Since today, I may add 2 best friends to the list!!

[Aging Technogeek]

I agree with several other posters that actively trying to "convert" people to Linux is not productive. Most people I know are so deeply mired in the Microsoft trap that they can't or won't try anything new. They have spent hundreds of dollars for a computer and then spent more on software to make it do what they want than the original price of the hardware. These people see moving to Linux as throwing away all the time and money they have invested in Windows (or Mac OS).

I have shown several friends Linux Mint. One has adopted it almost completely (he still uses Windows to access several on-line poker sites he can't get to in Mint). One dual booted Mint and XP for a while and even admitted that Mint was superior to XP in almost all areas but he eventually returned to XP because it was what he was comfortable with. A third uses Puppy Linux as a troubleshooting tool on computers with crashed OS or failed hard drives. For all else he uses XP because he is familiar with it.

I would say this is a fair cross section of what you run into in trying to promote Linux. You will, of course, also find that small percentage that is just too lazy to try anything different.

That's why I don't recruit users. I will help anyone who asks to install and use Linux but they must ask for help. It must be their decision or they will not put out the required effort.

[hinto]

I think you're taking this way too seriously. I think the intent was how many people did you show Linux Mint to who later adopted it.

[Aevum]

Yeah, agree with Hinto

[vger7]

I sold a friend on Mint/LXDE this week!

I take an engineering course at a local community college a couple nights a week. It's mostly young kids, some 40'ish people, and an old guy, me. I kinda teamed up one of the young guys and we help each other out.
We work on XP box's with IE on it to download files we need. I cringe and complain how I don't like IE, much less using BING! (I go to google and search from there). My friend ask me what I use. I told him I have a couple linux installs. He said he just got a laptop with Vista and hates it. I suggest he investigate linux, download some ISO's and give it a shot.
The next week he told me he dumped Vista for Ubuntu and like it better. I told him about different distros and desktops to try also. This was a couple of months ago.
Last Tuesday I brought him some CD's with ISO's to try. I suggested trying Mint with LXDE since he was concerned about resources. I told him it was RC1, but updates would bring it up to speed.
Last night he told me he had dumped Ubuntu for Mint/LXDE. He really really liked it.
He liked that it was very fast, and kept going on about how everything worked out of the box to his surprised. He didn't need to add anything. Even his printer worked! I said it was Ubuntu done right.
Another happy Mint user!

[chipps61]

I wouldn't say "convert", but so far exactly 2 - my son and a guy at work. Both were looking for the "right" Linux to try in the first place, and both had heard that I'd chosen Mint 8 main edition after doing a lot of research. Both are now running same, and as far as I know are perfectly happy with it... or at least they're still running it and I haven't had to provide any support.

I'm not going to go out of my way to get anyone to switch over, especially as I'm still learning myself - but if asked I'll certainly give my opinion.

[myspacecommassergio]

1 1/2 people lol

[Pranaone]

I've been using mint since Gloria, although not actively participated in the community,I always monitored its development and stay updated But I been doing alot of outside work by promoting Linux mint in my country.As you all know, not many people know about Linux and its goodness.Many think that MS Windows is only OS out there but I've been changing that slowly by downloading the Main Edition,then loading them up with more useful Open Source apps and games (I mean alot of them)..Yea you know, making a custom spin of the Distro,but I always gave credit to the mint team by lieing to my friends by saying that Linux Mint always come preloaded with tons of neat apps and its all for free, I'm not guilty about it in anyway
so in my journey through mint I've managed to convert 6 people fully over to Linux, I've noticed that many of them changed because
1.Free Software
2.No worries from viruses and malware
3.Look
4.Good Hardware support
5.Learn something new
Hell yea its that why we all love linux!!
I'm gonna stop now before I get over-emotional and hug my pc

[inhuman4]

I have converted 5 people:

At work 2 people were ubuntu fans that I got converted over to Mint. I recommended it to the one day and found out about a month later they had converted.

I also converted 3 of my family members:

First was my sister/roommate. Her laptop was running slow and having all kinds of problems. I told I could reinstall windows but that the problems would come back eventually. The permanent solution was to give linux mint a try. I showed her what Mint was like on my machine and she said "I want that!". I Install Linux Mint 6 on her laptop and she has been a happy camper since. It's gotten to the point now that she hates non-linux stuff, especially Mac for some reason.

Second was my brother, he got a laptop for school and said "I want that linux thing [our sister] has". I installed it dual boot with windows in case he changed his mind. About a month later he came back and asked me to delete windows so he could have more space for movies.

Finally my father/step-mom got a laptop for the house. The sales rep was trying to sell them anti-virus, I told them to wait give Mint a try, and if it doesn't work out they could come back and get the anti-virus. My father fought for two hours with all the stupid pre-installed crap. I then walked him though installing Mint 9 in 30mins. They don't boot into windows anymore. The problem is that they don't install updates because "We like it the way it is, we don't want to change anything".

Linux is not for everyone but if you can help people set it up, and make sure they have the option of going back to windows most home users will be both happier and better off. I have also found that installing it for people when they first get the computer is helpful, that way they don't have all of their settings in place. Having to redo all of their bookmarks and accounts turns people off.

[LarryP]

Can't say that I have actually converted anyone but my former roommate dual boots with mint 9 on a persistant usb she needs MS office for school and has limited hard drive space available xp is strictly for school now everything else is mint and her father by extension i guess he picked up an older pc with xp that was kind of slow she showed him mint on the usb he liked it. he now dualboots he keeps xp 'just in case' .but he and his grandkids pretty do everthing in mint.HE loves the idea twins elementary school age can't pick up viruses or malware by accident. I had to set it up for him much easier to do than triy and talk him trough it over the phone he say the twins love supertux tuxracer and alien arena

[colyn]

After using one of my Mint laptops my daughter bought a Dell Inspiron 1545 and brought it to me for conversion to Mint. As a result I had to wipe her desktop and install Mint too.

Needless to say she is now a Linux user. Like me her only Windoze use is at work now.

Dad's are good for something afterall..

[linmint777]

¿ convert ? I do not think the correct term would be to change. linux is not a religion.
on the other hand, my respect for people who got a few people switch to linux, why?
because Linux requires that the user of windows, sacrificing comfort than usual and start to get interested in what is computer science all over the expression of the word.

[ibm450]

2

one at work on a mine site, who was sick and tired of vista being slow and virus prone (didnt even want to install a trial version of win7 i had ready at hand.
he was blown away how everything worked out of the box on his laptop and how responsive it has become.

he has fully wiped his hd and has mint9 as his primary OS. he only wanted something that fulfilled his basic needs on the laptop (Internet, music, movie s and basic office usage(doesn't like open office one bit - don't blame him on that one)). ATM he is absolutely loving it and we tend to talk a fair bit about the pro and cons of linux in general.

the other one in Sydney as he also had similar issues like the above story.

but in general, many of my work colleagues have asked what os i use as im the mine sites IT support and only 1 was interested to make the transition over to linuxmint

so i have learnt that one should not preach out randomly as they wont listen. only preach to those who are interested and leave it to that. if and when they are ready, they will approach and make the final transition them selves.

[Susu]

None. And I don't plan to convert anyone.

[tdockery97]

None. And I don't plan to convert anyone.

+1

[mzsade]

Nary a one okay! Not my closest friends, not even my own brother..i showed them the advantages, demonstrated to them the freedom, the flexibility, the security benefits, the wonderful softwares available freely..i tried everything including calling them stupid automatons..it's the 'comfort zone' that they settle into, what can i say..just get off my case will ya?

I think that this has something to do with the archetypes of this age, or, the way a person is genetically inclined, there is the Windoze person, then there is the "Apple store genius" and then there is the Linux guy..and they shall never meet.

[Angtagapagligt]

I agree on the point that most Windows users don't have a clue about Linux OS', for example my girlfriend bought a new Netbook and she's always being using Windows before, I suggested her to try Linux Mint and now she's loving the difference, I didn't convince many people as I also agree with the fact that every person has his own taste and his kind of using a computer, but a couple of close friends of mine after seeing my computer decided to move to Linux as well, one chose Mint while the other went for Ubuntu 9.10

Just like me...

[frozenstuff]

None, sadly. They're happy with their Windows/Mac so it doesn't really matter. I'd only step in if they had a broken xp filled with viruses.

[dritzominous]

6, at least. I don't know if you can count your people's people though. If that's the case, I have no idea.