How do you promote Mint?

[ucluglee]

Being in IT, I send many emails every day, both work and personal, from my LM machine. Since I'm also running Thunderbird for email, my email signature is:

___________________
sent using Linux Mint
Thunderbird email

I usually get at least one "why Linux" or "why Linux Mint" question every day. I don't know the success rate, but I give them the address to the site and message boards and ask them to let me know if they have any questions.

[Kevin108]

I seed Mint torrents while sleeping. I suggest Mint on a variety of forums in the general discussion and technology sections. I'd like to have a quality Mint decal for my vehicle and a Mint t-shirt as well.

[chinoto]

So it seems the way I decided to promote is the same way many people have done it, just let interested people come to you, it's so much easier than trying to promote it to people who will never bite. According to many posters here, it also helps just do something related to linux in a public place, such as simply using your computer with a linux distro booted. I'm gonna see if I can get a nice sticker with a url for the backside of my laptop's screen, that should help quite a bit for passive promoting.

The only person I've ever had use Linux daily before was my mom and that's only because her computer was slammed against something and her harddrive stopped working, so I installed Linux Mint onto a thumbdrive and had her use that. Then my dad got a new laptop for himself and gave my mom his old one, so she's using Windows again. I wonder if she would switch back... maybe I'll set it up on a 10GiB partiton as a dual boot option later (I wouldn't install Windows without having at least a 40GiB partition because it bloats so easily)

my bro is a hardcore gamer loves fancy effect->3d aero,transparency etc.when i showed him the compiz effect in linux he was stunned!!!he cudnt utter a word..no virus problem,no computer slowdown,no defrg,regisrty maintanance needed ,he was amused.he bowld me when he asked me "how to install n play assasin's creed?' he was not satisfied with world of goo,osmos or glest.so i sheeled some buck n installed cedega.though games ran slow,but i played igi,age of empires and nfs hp.he aws not dat satiesfied but said ok,i wana install.now he uses linux for all practical purpose n windows for games.most importantly,he is immencely enjoying linux

Interesting, do you think virtualization would have worked? That way he wouldn't ever have to reboot to play games and have many of the Linux advantages while playing games, such as low resource usage and workspaces. I found Garry's Mod to run faster through Wine than through Windows, maybe a new version would run those games faster? Also for testing games why didn't you use Wine instead of Cedega, at least at first? Cedega is based on Wine with some game tweaks, but costs money while Wine is free.
I'll have to remember dual booting if I ever promote to gamers though, especially since I do it myself on my desktop computer. The nice thing about using Windows only for gaming is that it wont accumulate as much cruft and it's easier to defrag since it's partition doesn't get written to much, especially if the games are installed to another partition. For games that refuse to be installed to a non-default location, such as Halo 2, just use a symlink (available with Vista and newer).

He then asked, "Which Windows Operating System do you have? Windows 95, 2000 or XP?"
I told him that, "I don't have any Windows Operating System on the computer, at the moment," I saw a faint smile cross his lips.

Maybe he thought he could sell an Windows install disc to you, it is a store after all.

Edit: After reading some threads I decided to type up a document listing off reasons Linux (Mint) is better than Windows. If anyone want to read or edit it, here's the link: Linux Booklet?

[mysoomro]

I promote mint by few ways.. Some of them are:
I share updates about my Linux Mint Experience on my accounts on Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
And I show cool desktop effects to my friends to arouse their interest in Linux mint..
Most effective is one when I burn DVDs of Linux Mint and gift them to my friends.. And tell them how to install it.. Sometimes I myself install it on their computers.. Some friends on community site advised that burning DVDs is not a good idea as it's not environment friendly, since then I try to make Linux Mint bootable USB, except in cases when my friends come from other cities and they have to leave in some time..

[kurok]

I have only converted one person so far. He was continually under attack from someone in his apartment complex and they finally got into his computer and totaly screwed it up. Since we always were talking about computers and i knew this was going on i had a disc with mint 12 on it ready for him. He installed it and is now an avid linux user and activly promoting it to everyone who will listen. I think i may have created a monster but the more people promoting linux in general and mint in particular the better. I also keep a few discs in the glove box in my car of mint 13 with clam av and a couple of other programs to help people fix their windows based systems or use those discs and show them how to do it them selves. Im always ready to help a friend in need with their computer and always use mint in live mode with them there so they can see what im doing and what this free system can do for them.

[Pierre]

Got a bunch of "powered by linux" stickers - to put on top of those winX logo's

also run a Linux Meet - once a month - for the seniors - in my area
most of them - are very basic users - of winX - so can transfer to 'nix easily.

[dogsolitude_uk]

I'm doing the 'word of mouth' thing.
I'll always mention it if I'm installing Linux Mint on a PC on my Twitter/Facebook accounts.
Also, if Linux ever crops up on RockPaperShotgun or other IT discussion forums I'll always put in a good word for Mint and the wonderful Cinnamon/MATE desktops.
I try not to bang on about it endlessly because I don't want to put anyone off... It's really tempting to get evangelical about something like this, but you attract more bees with honey than with vinegar, and so I always aim to promote Mint in a reasonable manner without being seen as a 'Linux Snob'. I always used to be scared of Linux, and I guess many other non-IT people will feel the same way!

[catilley1092]

Slightly different than in my earlier post in this thread.

I actually show them my installs & allow others to use it, for them to "see & feel" how light, yet solid, Mint is. It's very noticeably faster w/o the security & other utilities bogging it down & what little maintaining that I do (other than bi-weekly backups) takes only a couple of minutes per day. A quick privacy sweep with BleachBit & a scan of my /home folder with ClamTK.

Just this year, I've had at least 15 Mint (mostly Xfce) converts. However, I plan to steer a few of them to the Mate version, as 14 runs so well for me. Most were XP converts, nearly all can run 13 with no issues. This is just my opinion, but I feel that Mate is better than Xfce, & it has most everything that one needs. If it's not on the install DVD or Update Manager, it's in the Software Manager.

Every new user counts.

Cat

[BrowserXL]

Currently I am running a series of articles with my experiences of switching. Additionally I post these experiences in my Diaspora Pod. And then there is always word of the mouth techniques as well.

[smokingbat]

I have used Mint since version 6 but then gave it up until version 9.
Since then I have used it on and off at various times and switch between
mint, ubuntu, and debian, and windows 7.
I must admit that I havent really done much to promote mint until now.
Most offices I have been to that use Linux on a desktop are using Suse.
Recently I am of the opinion that mint has gone a long way toward stabilty,
functionality, ease of use, and user friendliness. I am trying to persuade some
people to use mint as a desktop OS in their offices but it isn't plain sailing.
Mostly I just mention it in forums I visit, if the topic is linux, but there seems to
be an over riding perception amongst others that mint is very entry level and
somehow that means its ok for learners but not pro's nor for office desktops.
I differ on that opinion and think that there are only 2 contenders for the office desktop
Suse and Mint. It's not like I am a mint evangelist but I do believe in the ethos behind it
and say so when appropriate