How do you promote Mint?

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Mangar

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by Mangar »

I am a moderator and member of a game mods group on an independent website. (Threads 19,587 Posts 207,527 Members 17,940 )
I know some use Linux and many members create their own game codes for a few of the game engines.

I know that many members are stuck on XP and can not play some of the later higher demanding 3d game engines.
I have started some threads to see how many Linux users we have and if any actually code in Linux

If it grows I hope that Linux MInt 17 will be a good fit for those stuck on older XP hardware and also those members who might go for the new Linux game engine.
Who knows, maybe if we have enough freelance coder to mess around on one of Linux older game engines.

I will update if the consensus is a go or member support, but either way I have already made posts for members that Linux Mint is great alternative.

I also have websites that I will put Linux mint banners on if that is ok to do? and point them back to your down load and support page?

Does Mint 17 have official script or banner images to use and landing url directs locations?
apemanx

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by apemanx »

I show them that I do everyday stuff on it. I show them the alternatives. Thus I propote by setting as example - and i try to have the answers ready with regard to programs that do not work on Linux, etc...

Then I give them the installation disk - I offer my 24h support and even to install it for them.

But I mostly promote it by doing work or jobs for people that you cannot do in Windows... Especially scripting for easy file handling and quick repetitive jobs.

The only thing you really need to do is open people's eyes. And then they come.
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capivara
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Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by capivara »

Promoting Linux wasn't really on my mind, until Windows XP's EOL. Questions, more questions, from scared users in my neighborhood. Complaints about their computers becoming painfully slow was a standard part of the conversation. I explained that their computer was as fast as the day they bought it, but that the operating system had slowed down to a crawl.

I picked one of the XP users, an older Brazilian woman living in my street, and introduced Linux Mint to her. Mint 13 MATE to be exact, which looks enough like Windows to make Windows users feel reasonably comfortable. I let her play with one of my notebooks for a while, and got back to her a few days later. She LOVED it, and we agreed to backup her data and convert her ACER notebook from Windows to Mint 13. Free phone support, of course. She never called, which worried me at first.

After talking to her again, she explained that she never ran into issues, hence never called. As far as I was concerned it could have ended here, but it didn't. 15 systems converted to date and counting, and the last person on the list (incidentally female too) insisted that she wanted to buy my test notebook. I have no idea where it will end.

To be honest I didn't do much myself; it's all mouth-to mouth.

Hans
All my computers are in Mint condition.
Shunjoss

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by Shunjoss »

I promote mint by using it everyday ! In general, I'm not for an all open-source system. It doesn't matter if this is a closed software or non-free, because only the quality matter. I prefer choice to an all open-source system, if you can't choose to install what you want/or need it's a closed system again.
Hopefully we have choice and Linux open-source apps are great (some greater than the windows version, kile is awesome in Linux)!

So I promote what fit the best for me, and what I use/know.
Maik

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by Maik »

As EOL approached I mentioned Linux / Linux Mint to several XP users I know, including several who moan about Windows (mostly to excuse their own PC ineptitude). The response was underwhelming. Some would continue to use XP, some would buy a new PC, some a new tablet.

Whatever, it's their choice and no loss to me.

I do wonder, though, whether Mint could promote itself a little better.

Anyone considering Mint would probably land, at some stage, on linuxmint.com. Maybe JMO but I don't think it's the most newbie-attractive main page. IMO, various other distro websites, such as LXLE, Peppermint, Zorin, are more eye-pleasing and more likely to appeal to anyone considering the latest version of Windows or moving to an Apple Mac.

If they ventured as far as the forums they'd probably take a look at the Newbies Questions forum and What are your top tips for a Newbie?. Some good advice to wade through and the comment “Read, read, read” is undoubtedly one of them, but it might suggest that Mint isn't intuitive to use. How many will have read, read, read before using their Windows PC or Android tablet? I'd suggest that most people will read the essential bits they can easily find and then jump in and get on with it.

They might also notice, in Newbies Questions, “If you compile – remember build essential” and other questions – and answers / replies – that might make them feel that they just aren't ready to be a Linux (Mint) newbie.

Congratulations to those who manage to demonstrate Mint hands-on, it's probably the best way to promote it and get it on to users' PCs (with their permission!).
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Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by nathanjh13 »

I promoted Linux and Mint by creating this document that I made available to some students that I teach Cad to. They are naturally inquisitive about Linux.

It's part of a migration I think, the XP users mentioned above will slowly come on board when they see a (likely younger) family member using it.

Adoption of anything new tends to be a marathon, not a sprint :)
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id ... p=sharing

I also install it on colleague and family machines too to help them out, at least 10 installs now from one download.
sanity rising

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by sanity rising »

I really enjoy Linux and use it everyday, but i would love a t-shirt with a penguin stomping on the windows logo. It may seem childish but thats my sense of humour lol. But other than that i go out my way to praise Mint where i can and try to mention the advantages. All that are comfortable with windows find it a learning curve that is too much hastle ( i did for a while). But when i can acually show people how to use it (and i'm a total noob) there is interest, especially as the price is right lol
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Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by curtvaughan »

When I got Mint Cinnamon 17.1 installed on my old MacBook Pro (2006 model that Apple no longer supports for software updates), I posted that to my friends on Facebook - many of whom are Apple fans (increasingly frustrated, btw). My hope is that I can get users of expensive Apple laptops, which have been increasingly sidelined in support since Jobs' death, to take the plunge. When I am in a public place with wifi and bring my Mac along, I make sure that other Mac users notice that OSX is no longer the driver on my 9 year old.
Move from rim to hub: know the wheel.

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xinu
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Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by xinu »

We do our best.

Though people are usually habit animals.
Last edited by xinu on Fri May 29, 2015 5:55 am, edited 4 times in total.
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z31fanatic
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Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by z31fanatic »

I take my Dell laptop with me sometimes at school and boot into Mint instead of Windows to see if anyone would show interest. When students ask what it is and I tell them it's Linux, they just say, "oh" and go back to whatever they were doing. None of them have showed any interest.

Now when I bring in my Macbook Pro or Air, it seems most students will show interest and say, "nice." Some are Apple fans and will start talking about it, while others just admire the design of the Macbooks.

I have yet to convert anyone to Linux and frankly I don't see that changing in the future.
xinu
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Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by xinu »

z31fanatic wrote:I have yet to convert anyone to Linux and frankly I don't see that changing in the future.
Let them see the

Image

;-)
Last edited by xinu on Fri May 29, 2015 5:54 am, edited 3 times in total.
parul

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by parul »

Oh I see your point now :D I have been using Linux Mint for a long time and I use the government websites on a daily basis and I have never had anything like that :D :D I never use windows at all, i will promote it on Gov and Educational sites to increase its search engine visibility.
ESD

Re: How do you promote Mint? Re-cycling computer with Linux

Post by ESD »

I am embarking on a pilot program at my church in the Boston area. We are getting many laptops donated to the church and we will be installing LM and re-selling them at our annual rummage sale. I have installed LM on the computers of 4 friends already and they are doing very well with it (these are all older people with very little knowledge of computers; two were XP, one was W7 and one was W8.1 UEFI), so I figured if we get 15-20 of these donated this year we can sell them - recycling, promoting LM and getting some money for our charitable activities (my plan is also to donate to LM based on how many of these we put out there).

Has anybody tried something like this? Any ideas would be appreciated. I would have Mint stickers, printed (and PDF on the desktop) instructions on changing users/passwords, doing updates and other basic stuff, but I would like to give the tools to anyone who buys these that they never need my help.

(BTW I am a refugee from Windows XP and came to LM last year, but I am not very well versed in computer stuff myself. Fortunately figuring out LM is so much easier than figuring out any Windows issue. I have very rudimentary abilities with the terminal, but not much of that is needed to succeed with LM. I've standardized on LM 17 Mate line as many of the computers I have are older and Mate seems to work very well on old 32-bit laptops.)
brainout

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by brainout »

Well, there are some simpler things you can do:

1. Put the Linuxmint distro on a stick via regular install, as if the stick were a hard drive, don't need LiveUSB or Unetbootin. The regular 'Install Mint' works real well on external hard drives and sticks, full persistence. I've been using them like that for over a year now. Just did it three weeks ago again, with Mint Mate 17. There are 10 essential steps, written here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=197956

2. Customize the stick with lots of pictures to make a slide show for screensaver, red glass for mouse, lots of tweaking to make it into a turnkey package (be sure StickyNotes, Clonezilla, G Parted DOSbox Kazam or recordmydesktop or other screen recording, and Xfce Midnight Commander File managers are on there).

3. Clone the customized stick as many times as you want (Clonezilla clones stick to stick, takes 30 minutes at 3.0, longer at 2.0 usb).

SELL or GIFT or RAFFLE the sticks as 'a computer in your pocket', 'Windows best friend', 'XP Protector', or other catchy name. Instead of Girl Scout Cookies or the annual church bake-off.

If the sticks are customized correctly, then an elderly person can just plug and go. You don't need to refurbish computers, the new ones are cheaper anyway. Plug and go is better, because there's little to learn. Mint is best suited to this, it needs the least amount of tweaking. But it does need some. The directory names are confusing, so if you give names to disk drives they show up with the names, but that 'filesystem' structure will be a hurdle to overcome. Then again, if you're giving them to people you'll SERVICE, that's a great gift. Or, charge for the service. (Software might be free by license terms, but your labor need not be.)

I wrote here two years ago I'd pay $150 for such a stick. I've made many since, and each costs me much more than $200 in labor (more like $1,500, takes all day to customize, just as for a Windows installation).

Above all, they need to see it in action. People don't realize how much Windows NEEDS Linux for basic file management, cloning, DVD writing, partitioning, surfing, mail, protection from prying eyes. They think it's all TERMINAL TERMINAL TERMINAL and the jargon is offputting. But that's not Linuxmint.

Gonna make a video on it, but the ONE THING no one seems to realize is you do not need complicated virtual boxes or dual boots. JUST INSTALL TO A STICK (or external hard drive). Easy peasy.

I sound preachy, gonna shut up now. Been working on my Mint 17 installation tweaks all day and am kinda pushy. Yikes.
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Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by OhioJB »

People definitely don't like change. My company allows me to work from home, and when support for Windows XP ended I researched this 'thing' I heard about, Linux, that I could use instead of Windows. Ended up installing Ubuntu first, then a short time later Mint as a dual boot. A lady I work with, Barb, also works from home and had XP. She couldn't afford to pay to upgrade Windows any more than I could, so I mentioned Linux and how easy it was for me to install. She was reluctant and said she would just continue using XP despite my warnings she would probably get a virus before long. Well, she ended up getting a virus, and started asking me about Linux. I told her I found it easy and she could come over and I'd show her how it works on my laptop and that I could install it on her PC or show her how to do it, if doing a factory reset worked at getting rid of the virus. Well, she talked to her daughter who knows more than I do about things like this, and also her son-in-law who's an IT professional. Her daughter talked her out of it saying, "Mom, you don't like change so you wouldn't like Linux.", Her daughter and son-in-law ended up buying her the parts and built a computer for her using Windows as the OS. To each his or her own, I guess. I wasn't pushing it on her, just letting her know she could get it for free if she couldn't afford to donate, and that it was a viable option.

I was going to install it on my mother's laptop but my niece spilled something high up on the keyboard that rendered the F keys useless. You can tell something was spilled on it. So I was unable to change the boot sequence. She didn't like Windows 8 or 8.1 so I thought Mint would be a better option for her. She's gotten use to 8.1 so not an issue any longer. But if I ever come across an old laptop a friend or relative is giving or throwing away, I may try to set Mint up on it for her. She's a senior citizen and enjoys playing games on it more than anything else.

The one thing I believe might turn a senior off from using Mint is the fact there isn't an option for automatic updates. I personally don't mind doing the updates and like the fact I can see what's being updated, only thing I'd like to see changed is not needing to type my password when doing updates.
coder123

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by coder123 »

900i wrote:Only ever had 1 convert to Mint as I have mentioned before, in my experience nobody seems to be interested beyond the initial curiosity as the computers they buy come pre installed with Windows and they are quite happy to use that and moan when they don't work. They also know not to ask me when the things don't work, I have been on Linux long enough not to know or care how windows PC's work or not as the case may be.
I'm looking forward to getting to that point in my life. (where you don't know or care about windows issues because you've become such a Linux user)
dogsolitude_uk wrote: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!
I was scared of Linux for the longest time as well. In the years past before I was convinced to try Linux I knew about it but considered it to be a very unstable OS and feared hardware compatibility issues and especially finding software alternatives to stuff which I just recently solved completely for myself at least. (this was long before I knew what a virtual machine was)

It's very inspiring to me to see how all of you guys are promoting Linux. I wish I converted a friend of mine who's a very general user and his laptop got VERY slow from using windows and had a bunch of other issues. His major one was that windows update kept "reverting changes" 3 out of 4 times he'd try to boot. It was an IT paradise trying to fix up but had such a little time that I couldn't do it all. To this day I wish I just loaded Linux on his machine wiping windows. Unfortunately I would've had to teach him the Unity UI because I was using Ubuntu at the time not Mint which has much friendlier UIs for windows users to make the conversion.
brainout

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by brainout »

My sales pitch, which I firmly believe to the death :mrgreen:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ ... ?p=3770674
Cage

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by Cage »

I don't push Linux how ever my friends who did use Windows who had problems with they're computers because of Viruses and Ransom ware were amazed to see Linux removing those problems. Even though they had Virus protection, Malware protection they were still having problems. One friend had Ransom ware on his system and could not get rid of it, so he called me. I came over and used Linux Mint and inside of 15 minutes the Ransom ware was gone. I also did a virus scan and found a few hundred viruses on the computer. This really perked his interest in Linux, but was reluctant to convert to Linux. When I showed him that the things he use Windows for he could do in Linux. So I set up a dual boot system for him so he could play around with Linux. One month later when his Windows system got reinfected and found that everything he did in Windows he could do in Linux. He decided to remove Windows from his computer. He's been with Linux ever since, and Windows is a bad word in his home LOL. Many people I know have a curiosity when it comes to Linux, and once Linux is installed they find there is not much difference between Windows and Linux as far as a non-technical average user is concerned. As one 84 year old woman stated, she liked Linux OS because it just works.
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z31fanatic
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Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by z31fanatic »

If your friend is getting viruses and malware that often, he should not be using a computer. He is the problem.
gunvolt

Re: How do you promote Mint?

Post by gunvolt »

Been considering starting a Linux distribution choice assistant service.
I'm getting a bunch of Live DVDs and am planning to help people choose a distro. I also want to help people decisively choose an operating system. Windows is for people who want compatibility, Macs are good at (not) crashing, and Linux is good at everything else, or at least that is my view. And if they don't really care about compatibility and reliability as they do other factors, I promote Linux.
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