[SOLVED] mistrust!!

[archimondech]

My older brother is not believed to Linux, he said that Linux is bad, not friendly, and difficult to use . I think that it is not true. how do I convince my brother that linux is good? computer belongs to my family, not mine. so, if I wanted to do something to our computer, I should discuss first. please help me!

[GoustiFruit]

You can install Mint in Dual Boot and then just use it. When they'll see they have problems on their OS that you don't have with Mint, they may start changing their minds.

[archimondech]

but our hard drive capacity only slightly, only 80 GB .. and we were only 1290 MB RAM, 96 MB VGA. whether able to dual boot?

[Aging Technogeek]

You have plenty of ram to run any version of Mint.

As to the hard drive, if you have as little as 12 GB unused, you can install Mint in that space. Of course, more space is better, but 12-15 GB is adequate for a basic Mint installation.

[bobcollard]

Run your Linux from a live CD and let them see how easy it is. That will save HD space. Better yet, get a USB Pen drive and use that. 4GB should be more than enough.

[Robin]

I inherited a really old hand-me-down 'puter (Win98 on it when I got it) and resurrected it with a minimal Ubuntu/LXDE mixture so it was blazing fast - and it looks very "Win98ish" according to my big brother. My parents couldn't tell the difference when I set it up with desktop icons and stuff.

"I got that old 'puter running again," I said, and asked them to "test it" for me. They clicked along merrily, surfing the web, writing some letters, listening to music. "It's faster than when it was brand new," they said. "Easier, too. How did you fix it?"

"Haha, gotchya! It's Linux! You couldn't tell it apart from Win98 could you?"

That ancient old 'puter is at the dance studio I go to now, for kids to use between classes and stuff. Whenever I get compliments on it's speed and simplicity, I say thank-you and offer a LiveCD. I've actually got several other dancers using either "Robin's Remix" or Xubuntu or Linux Mint now. One very enthusiastic "convert" even wrote this article which (hopefully) inspires more people to try it. Send a copy of Amy's article to your skeptical family, lol.

-R

[archimondech]

thanks for the article. but after I install linux mint 10, he immediately re-install windows dark edition again. he's very strong stance that did not want to use linux. somehow he is like that .. He said that the dual boot just spend HD

[bobcollard]

thanks for the article. but after I install linux mint 10, he immediately re-install windows dark edition again. he's very strong stance that did not want to use linux. somehow he is like that .. He said that the dual boot just spend HD

You did not discuss it like you said? No wonder he is mad.

[tdockery97]

You don't have to be a gorgeous hunk of sweet awesomeness like the beautiful boy who brought me to Linux (but it helps!).Just be good at whatever it is ordinarily do as you interact with women and girls in the workplace, the classroom, and even the playground.

And thanks for listening!
Amy

Sure Robin, that's the part you wanted everyone to see.

[utsuwa]

archimondech,

Don't push your brother to use Linux. Use it yourself by booting from USB as others suggested. If someone has a strong opinion of something the worst thing to do is to force them to accept yours. They might resent whatever you are trying to say even more. Just sometimes share your own stories with your brother about how linux distro helped you to accomplish this or that. Find what he is doing with that other OS, what he uses. Is it listening to music? Surfing? Coding? Then find relevant applications on linux, use it, research it, mention their names to him. He will get interested this way.

[Robin]

You don't have to be a gorgeous hunk of sweet awesomeness like the beautiful boy who brought me to Linux (but it helps!).Just be good at whatever it is ordinarily do as you interact with women and girls in the workplace, the classroom, and even the playground.

And thanks for listening!
Amy

Sure Robin, that's the part you wanted everyone to see.

Heh heh heh...

Actually she makes great points about getting people (more specifically women and girls) to start using Linux. Like:

Don't be "working on your Linux machine" all the time. Most folks think you're "working on it" because it's broken, rather than because it's infinitely configurable. And...

People need a reason to change something, especially to move to something unfamiliar. If they're satisfied with what they have, and have no reason to change it, don't push it. And...

Personal experience is a far better motivator than "telling them why yours is better." More often than not, the latter technique just puts people off.

She's smart for a (then) 13 year old, huh? And of course, she has great taste in boys.

-R

[dritzominous]

Hey, my mother and my sister are both converts.

For my mother, it was almost immediate. All she cared about was speed. Faster boot time + No Antivirus software + Firefox opens faster = WIN (for her)

My sister was a bit more skeptical at first. She saw me tinkering, and assumed the worst. (like what was mentioned in the article) But then after sitting down and actually using it, she converted for the same reasons as my mother.

Actually, I have converted more chicks than dudes. (not including my family) Strange ay?

OT : I wonder why we guys like tinkering so much? Not just with computers, but also with cars, and just about all complex gadgets. Why does it give us so much satisfaction? Maybe someone should make a thread about that somewhere...

[archimondech]

thanks all,, I'll try to prove to the family especially to my brother that linux is better! I will boot using the flaskdisk

[Joylove]

if the windows partition gets infected/infested by spyware, and virus then don't bother repairing it.