What to tell my parents...

[proxima_centauri]

Doesn't sound like there's much you can do. All you can do is try to explain GNU/Linux, the opensource movement, and perhaps demonstrate to them how you can do anything you did in Windows under Mint. It may take time, show your skills.

My parents had a old dell desktop that was running XP. Under XP the computer progressively got slower and slower, and more prone to crashing. They had reinstalled OEM XP several times. I offered to give them a shot with Linux Mint 4.0 after somehow the computer crashed and they lost all their data. My mother, who is not very knowledgable about computers, noticed only slight differences. She liked how I set up an applications bar at the bottom showing the couple of applications that she used. It was slightly more responsive. My dad used it for a while and I got the impression from him that this was simply going to be a backup until they bought a new computer.

They bought a new computer a couple months ago running Vista (I got to keep the old one, finally, a test machine). I accept that they (my dad) prefers to use Windows. In all actuality it is what he is comfortable with, and if it serves his needs, thats fine. If it isn't broke, don't fix it - and I think thats the attitude of a lot of people when it comes to Windows vs. Linux. Linux is a choice, and not everyone will make it. I'm okay with that.

On the flipside, my housemate's laptop was experiencing some strange problems causing him to somehow take down the wireless network (for everyone) when he tried to use it. I asked him if he wanted to try Linux to see if somehow that would make a difference. We fooled around with the Mint LiveCD and the wireless internet worked no problem. He thought it was cool and we installed it. I set him up as best I could as far as software he might need and he never had any problems. We were bashing Windows together beforelong.

Maybe the right answer is to keep persisting and talking to your parents about it, maybe the answer is to keep quiet about it and use it to yourself - I don't know, your call. Some people will never see eye to eye, it doesn't necessarily have to do with your age. It doesn't matter whether we're talking about Linux, politics, sexual orientation, whatever, some people will never change their beliefs - even despite hard evidence. It would however, probably be adviced to keep any Windows bashing to a minimum.

As a recent former teenager myself, I know how frustrating it can get when you know you are right, perhaps even an authority on the subject, only to be disagreed with by your parents.

But the good news in all of this is that at least you can choose what you want for yourself.

I used to think I was a good computer user, back when all I knew was XP. I've learned more in the past year using Linux than I did in 5 years using Windows, exponential growth in terms of the way I understand what an operating system is. There's just something about the whole movement that inspires (at least to me) computer mind-expansion and thirst for knowledge.

[gibbsre]

You sound very intelligent. All I can tell you is I am 62 years old this last November. I won't EVER use windows again, and I am learning more with Linux, than I ever dreamed possible, although I still consider myself sooooooooooooooo far behind the 8 ball when it comes to issues. I have to use the forums to there full advantage, but as far as "convincing" your parents. Only an open mind, and a since of adventure, will ever pry someone from their security blanket. I would say simply to them, you bought the computer for me, I love you for it, but I have to make my own choices in life, and my choice is something new, exciting, and adventuresome. Even 15 year olds have the right to make certain choices, as long as they are legal, LOL.
In time they may come around and except the "new thing", but you owe it to them to be up front and honest. Good luck.

Ron

[hoe]

Just the opposite here ... I'm the father using linux and my son is an IT tech and he things Vista is the greatest ... oh well, his loss my gain

Wayne

[gibbsre]

One quick second thought. Tell Dad you choose to not help by Bill gates a another new corvette, LOL. I say Linux is better simply due to the fact that people are trying to make operating systems that will do what "most" of us want to do, without the user having to buy a replacement OS every time Gates wants to make another billion. You may also do a little research in to how many business's have switched to Linux server systems, due to the astronomical cost to them just to keep updating windoz for their companies. Linux just plain makes sense, in many, many ways. A community keeps it running, updated, and the community solves what ever problems come up, all for the love of the doing, NOT for profit, as Gates, and most software developers do. I just love it because all my computers run faster, with less disk usage, and everything I personally need is available to me simply for the using. Windoz can't make that claim. Windoz is too fat, too slow, and too full of crap I don't want, or need in my PC. As someone else said, you may never be able to convince your parents to use Linux, but you should easily be able to make the case for all the logical reasons YOU wish to use it.

Ron

[kenetics]

Then he said "ok, just don't install it on your hardrive because the Vista warranty will be voided"

Vista warranty? I've never heard of that. Is it guaranteed to crash?

[koss]

Okay, well if they don't use it at all and your the sole user then that usually is enough for most people. I personally don't know your parents... so really think of what my suggestions, and others here, first before approaching your parents.

On your laptop, does it come with a restore disk? Or does it use those restore partitions on the hard drive? If you havn't already of course, back up that restore partition if you have one.

So I guess you already have it installed? Hopefully its a dual boot hehehe. Just saying, if they get angry or something you can always just take out the linux partitions. And that is an important point to make, that linux can reside side by side with windows, and when desired can be deleted in full and windows wouldn't even know it was there. Actually windows never knew it was there to begin with haha.

Honestly though, don't hide anything from them. Trust and responsibility is something that people find important in life no matter what our age is. All you can really do is show them how much you know about this subject by presenting them with information, showing them the layout, discussing how its not damaging to either windows or your laptops hardware... and how any warranty of any kind wont be ruined. And if it makes them happy, tell them you can always... "fall back" on windows. (ugh now I feel dirty saying that )

Good luck!

[beyecixramd]

wow.... this is a nice opportunity to say im 15 too...

well, i readed your history, now let me explain mine.

I received my first computer when i was 7-8 years old (i dont remember) and yes, it was a ******* crappy computer (800 mhz and 512 ram WOW, im still amazed how it survived until 2006) the first OS i used was windows 98, then NT, then ME (lol a bad experience) and finally Windows XP.... the first time i heard of linux was in a small trade show... i saw "Guadalinex" a spanish distro based on debian. I started to become interested i must say... because it was free... it was a Live CD, and i wanted to see how it works... i enter the cd in the drive, boots up and BOOM an amazing desktop comes out... i was confused because things weren't like windows (you know, you have your programs in C:\program files\whatever windows program\) things here were a lot different... then i decided to uninstall it...

just some months after, i hear of red hat (non-free) and fedora (the free version of red hat) so i think "fedora has a large dev team, so fedora is good" i download and install it i see, it's nice, i work a few weeks with it, but i see the same thing: consoles and stuff i dont recognize, so i uninstall it again


when i saw the things i could do with my computer level (0) i decided to turn back and install windows again... then i registered myself in now probably the biggest linux community (http://www.espaciolinux.com) using windows, and asking noob questions (well, i still consider myself a noob in linux, but i can do several things in linux my friends can't, and i want to learn) then vista comes out.... people were saying vista sucks, vista is ****, but does have DX 10, i consider myself a gamer, and that's the main reason and that is the main reason that led me to install Vista 1 year and a half after coming out...

I download Vista (oh, btw, all my MS software is pirate xD from windows 98 to vista, office, motocross madness, halo, and a lot of things) i burn it, i try to install it...

1st time oh.. wow... BSOD... something's wrong in the BIOS...
2nd time nice, restarting... wow... BSOD at start-up
3rd time... well... restarting... ok... and there you are! the vista desktop... now i have like 30 days to activate it

20 days after playing with vista, and trying crysis in DX 10 (i must say, crysis is pirate too xDD) i turn back to windows XP...
then, i start to hear "linux mint: from freedom came elegance" and i say... lol another linux distro...

i try to install Fedora 10, but does not work in my machine.

i hear sbout linux mint again in a forum, i click the link (http://www.linuxmint.com) i see the screenshots and i think... well... looks nice...

so i dowload the 32 bit, the 64 bit and the KDE version of elyssa, i try the KDE version first (i've always thought KDE was better than gnome, as i saw in fedora, then i see there are some bugs in KDE, so i install the 64 version, and after seeing i cant play youtube videos, i install the 32 bit version)

and i think that's all... i forget to mention i bought a new pc (intel core 2 duo 2'66 ghz, 64 bit, 2 gb ram, nvidia 8800 GTS) but i dont know when i buy that pc, so just keep in mind it was between fedora and windows vista xD

well... i actually own this pc, my mother almost never touches it because she knows it's mine...
so i don't have problems about that, my mother adapts herself to whatever i install in this pc ( she asks me to create a user and a password, but everything she uses in the pc is FF) it happened in XP, then Vista, then linux mint: i explain her: click "Elyssa", then internet, then Firefox, that's all.

so... i would recommend you getting a pc for yourself (get a work and save money) because... it will be better for you... and you know, all the "illegal" stuff you could have, you don't need to hide it, just remember to lock the pc after leaving it unattended i hope you know what do i mean by "illegal".

if you can't do this or youre just too "lazy" just try to get the cd from you vendor (in the W$ EULA says you must physically own your windows copy, so they MUST give you a windows installation CD, that way you can try linux, try to make your parents understand is better, and if it doesn't works, install windows again)

well, i hope that helps you lol... sorry for the big post but i'm sure you'll understand xD

and again, sorry for my poor english...

[changturkey]

If you create restore images, or get some OEM disks, then I can't see your parents really complaining about anything. Also, tell them they can shell out the money for Win7 when it comes out. Then they might change their mind. Windows is an alright OS, but the costs of purchasing/upgrading are absurd.

[alun_sundry]

Ah, that's quite a touching post - parents, eh! At 37, mine are sometimes as, er,' overprotective' as they ever were, but luckily they know nothing of computers so I'm on my own there - phew. If you have a restore disk, which you probably do, there's nothing to worry about, you can can just put Vista back if you want or if Dad flips his lid for some reason. But, I am safely dual-booting Linux Mint 6 and Vista (on a Toshiba Equium L40). I like Vista - once its updates and Service Pack 1 is applied it works very well - though I'm aware of unsatisfactory politics behind it, issues. I've kept it becuase there is some music software I need for recording guitar, and because to be fair the Mint DVD-playing codec from VLC is in need of long-overdue work. I have no bias, and Ubuntu 8.10 and Mint 6 _will_ need updates before they're stable. There's no need for all this o.s. zealotry at all.

If you've learnt as much as you have about Linux - a lot more than me anyway, by the sound of things - then why not do a dual-boot installation. Then your parents can see you doing your Vista stuff but you get to enjoy Mint. Your laptop is probably a year at least newer than mine and has an accommodatingly big hard drive, so it's no loss to have both.

Good luck. If it doesn't work out with Dad, why not have him assassinated.

(Of course, if you have no Recovery Disk or Vista DVD - which seems very unlikely - then it's a bit more complicated. Being able to assert yourself is a good skill, but of course we want an easy life when it comes to Mum an Dad. And uninstalling Vista won't have any effect on your warranty.)

I've for various reasons (recent distro-hopping and earlier registry glitches when I got Mobile Broadband) reinstalled Vista about twelve times now....

[Linux n00b]

Well, it is tough. But I'm afraid this is normal for most parents one way or the other. I'm 35/36 but my parents still went to "protective mode" when I see them. The "problem" is parents don't like things they don't understand. Your parents don't understand Linux, therefore they auto think it is some sort of "evil" thing you do to annoy them. There is nothing you can do about it unless they learn Linux themselves. The best thing you can do is to show them what Linux can do, and hopefully they will be interested to learn.

Believe or not, I have similar issue with my parents. Recently I bought electric guitar, I want to learn to play some rock music. I told my parents about it. My father went off saying "what you waste money for". For him, I don't have house yet (still rent), and I will never play guitar good enough to make a living or play like pro. He doesn't like rock music, and he auto sees my money spent as waste. He already talked about this a few times. what can I do? Nothing, parents are always parents.

[beyecixramd]

Well as for the Vista warranty ordeal, I do have a recovery DVD so I see no problem with it having been uninstalled contrary to my dad's beliefs. I will just show them with hard proof that I can do everything in Linux that I can do in Windows. And, at a faster rate too. Linux is snappier and performs better than Vista, and I can customize it and tailor it to my desire in order for me to get around the way I want to. As several of you have mentioned or probably realize, they are parents...and parents can be at times a little too overprotective.

PS: My mom has actually used my laptop a couple of times and she actually likes it (she hadn't even realized that she was using Mint ). I'll let her use it whenever she pleases, and continue to show her cool things such as Compiz Fusion (she loved that). Then, I can finally tell her that Vista has not been used to do anything and she has been using Linux the whole time. Maybe that will help my chances...who knows.

wow, that's really intelligent of you xD, just... dont let her see any console window and i think you will be going the right way (i mean, the first time i used linux i was scared about going into a console because i didn't know what to do, what's more, i thought i could just **** up something xD)

[Lantesh]

Honestly I don't think you really need to convince your parents. Even at 15 you are entitled to your own opinions, and it is not always necessary to over analyze or over discuss each and every decision you make in life with your parents. You are obviously intelligent enough to install and maintain your own operating system. That being the case take ownership of your choice and run with it. Just keep in mind that if you find your butt in a pickle with a non-functional PC you will not have your parents to turn to. Part of growing up and being a man (or woman) is making your own decisions, and accepting the consequences of those decisions. It sounds to me like you are ready to start taking steps in that direction. If you were my child I'd be proud that you felt so passionate about it, and I'd support you even if I disagreed.

[koss]

Woah, chill on the pirated software stuff. That didn't even really have anything to do with the OP's question.

[thetank]

get your parents to watch "revolution os". it explains it all.

not sure what license the movie is under, I found it by accident on a torrent site.

[chowanec]

Wow. This is easily one of my favorite posts in the forums. It sums everything that Linux has been from my perspective: passion, compassion, open-mindedness and intelligence.

OP: I'm with the others -- you are paving your own road here. If you can dual boot -- go for it -- that way your dad can't get pissed and you can continue to build your case. I know with my own parents -- who came from a world without computers, going with the standard is easiest. It's easiest for them to call someone to fix it, it's easiest to find software, it's easiest to think you're making the right decision. And to be honest, WIndows *is right* for most parents. Whether or not Linux matches up to it for the bulk of what they will do (play media, check the web and email), it's totally fine and suitable. They don't respond/notice as much when it slows down -- at least with my parents. They want the ease of knowing that they have the market leader. I don't blame them one bit.

Rest of the Group of Repliers: This is why linux is so wonderful. If you posted the inverse of this ina windows forum, you'd get so much flame mail. Linux users don't seem threatened by Microsoft the way the die-hards of MS feel threatened by linux. I could be wrong on that, but I find that when I read such heart-felt replies it restores my faith in humanity. Whoah, that's heavy..

In my case: I'm a 33 year old linux user of about 2 years. I switched because I got tired of calling the windows activation service because I was reinstalling XP annually. I thought Vista would be this huge step forward and bought Ultimate (let's talk about LIFE MISTAKES) and installed it. It ran slower than XP, was less compatible with the hardware I owned. It felt like a step backward. And compound that with the fact that I have been running a legit (thank you) media server for 4 years now and didn't want to have to upgrade everything at hundreds of dollars a pop... I did a bit of research, downloaded Mint 4 without knowing *a damn thing about linux* and installed it on a spare HDD. I haven't gone back since -- due in large part to the fact that the community here has been so patient and helpful for me that I feel that my usage of mint (and linux in general) is the best way I can support the actual community. I'm in no real place to pass on knowledge. I've got two small children of my own and if they approached this problem the way you have, I'd have no arguments.

Now without sounding old, and it sounds like you are fully respecting your parents... but you live in their house, use their electricity, internet, tv, etc. Just be honest and respect them. They bought you a piece of hardware that they want you to appreciate and just be careful to not let them feel like you are taking it for granted. Boot the LiveCD, show them the analogous apps and try if you can to dual boot the thing... that to me is the bulletproof winner to the argument.

Hang in there.

-Chow