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Toy Penguins and Male Egos Drove Linux Acceptance
An anonymous reader writes "Germany's local and city councils have been pioneering the migration from Windows to Linux. Now, one of the IT staff behind one move has revealed how they persuaded workers to accept the changes. Stuffed toy penguins and Linux t-shirts helped to create an open-source love-in at the council offices, and they got a senior chairwoman to demonstrate the new system to the troops. Male ego stopped anyone claiming that Linux was difficult to use, once they'd seen that the 'weaker sex' could master it :)"
Glad to see Germany's just as progressive as it was back in the day. /sarcasm
and it called MARKETING!!!
Not that it's a great sales tactic: "You don't need that wimpy ease-of-use"
Gotta keep the spin "Easy enough for *her*, so you can certainly handle it."
so we need to send out troops of booth girls with Knoppix in hand to shame the microsofties into submission. they can stop by my office first.
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Where have I seen this before? :)
Never underestimate the power of the booth babe. :)
You mean you converted a group of people to Linux without shouting things like "RTFM!!!"???
Maybe we should rethink our strategies...
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Toy penguins and males egos drove the agricultural revolution. Just another victory for the testosterone-fueled-penguin progress that's going to get us to Mars!
A woman who uses Linux? I'm in love.
So all we have to do is replace the teddybear with the teddy penguin and the world will be ours!
...that these penguins were stuffed with narcotics.
These booth girls... if i'm new to Linux, will they 'mount' my 'hard drive'? ;)
I'd be sure to try switching to Linux then!
That's it, I'll switch to hurd.
I went back to college after taking a few years off. I was amazed at the number of women using men they didn't even know to move their furniture. Women that would otherwise not have anything to do with these guys would just smile and ask, and it would be done.
They were a bit miffed when I told them no.
t
Obviously a joke, but is the new line for marketing Linux in the mainstream going to be: Linux -- so easy to use, even a woman can do it! Or better yet: If it's your hardware, ask your teenager for support. If it's your OS, as your wife.
New linux slogan!
"Easy enough for a woman, made for a man."
=8-]
- shazow
Package? Ha! No one pre-compiled her for any specific architecture. She was built purely from source and just for *my* architecture. ;)
Good to know that Linux wins on technical merit and avoids the kind of gimmicks used by other big name software vendors
A few years ago they gave away beanie babies with Happy Meals: I just had to get the penguin one :-) (Actually, I got two as I had a SMP box at the time!)
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
I had a similar experience, only it was with two people: a tatooed woman and a midget. The midget didn't last too long, but he surprised me. I felt pretty relieved when the woman got off the treadmill. I quickly got off my cross-trainer and felt even more relieved when I saw that she had merely moved to a cycle after getting off the treadmill. Then I realised I was secretly competing with a tatooed lady and a midget. I promptly shrunk my hands, bathed in cabbage, and joined a carnival.
And people wonder where sexism in technology comes from.
Different perception and perspective based on different evolutionary pressures combined with structural differences in the brain due to prenatal influence of sex hormones?
... so no penis enlargement ads... Therefore, when I'm using Linux, I know my penis is not in need of enlargement. Reason enough for adoption for me...
$40 billion would go a long way buying t-shirts and stuffed animals to woo users.
Does Tux need a Tuxette? What does a penguin in a bikini look like?
i would describe this in the same manor i would describe there being few waitors.
women trust women. and men like to look at breast.
Imagine Carly in a bathing suit on the side of every HP/Compaq shipping box.. I don't think that would help sales much.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Male ego stopped anyone claiming that Linux was difficult to use, once they'd seen that the 'weaker sex' could master it :)"
My Malibu G.I. Joe tells me "Linux is Hard."
Women...
harder to understand than klingon,
harder to handle than SAP,
harder to resist than an open telnet port...
Ain't women what we all do this for ?
Spelling mistakes: My is english spoken not tongue of mother.
I hate to say it but...
In soviet russia, the package comes in her.
ouch, I had to.
A blog about stuff.
" Appeal to her inner feminist by telling her "women are superior men in every way" and she'll eat right out of your hand."
Yup, sincerity is the hardest part. Once you can fake that, you're golden...
The number of people using hurd just doubled!
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
- Write free software
- Promote using techie bimbo and assortment of stuffed toys (was: ???)
- Profit!
A great day indeed.>The most amazing thing about that show is that it almost perfectly mirrors the modern workplace.
The ratio to good-looking women to men was 2 to 1.
I, for one, welcome our new modern workplace....
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
suss? Don't you mean SuSE?
Well,
do we need a how to edit adult pics with gimp tutorial?
Do we need a naked Linux Torvalds in order to promote Sauna - Linux?
If only Dean would have spent all that money on stuffed animals instead.
30% off web hosting. Coupon code "SLASHDOT".
Welcome to New York City! I am one of six straight men in an office of 400 (Facilities staff not taken into account). It truly is refreshing working with so many women.
However, two points worth taking into account:
*Most of the rest are killers looking for someone far above your earning potential.
So come on over! You'll have a great time dating around here.
==---------==
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
"when I'm out running along a well used path in my town, there is no fucking way I can live with a woman running infront of me."
/P
I can -- the view is better.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
What were you looking for that you zoomed that far in?
back to your cave, slave.
It's EMBARRASSING.
Just a few minutes ago, Aunt Tilley taught me how to compile my 1st kernel, & when I asked her a question, she refused to answer. I can't remember what she said exactly, but was something to do with man pages, howtos & Google.
testing out my trending skills
In the early 90's I worked at a company that had a technical writer who was responsible for editing our Intro to UNIX course. One day he was waltzing down the hall singing:
"Going to grep my pipe and chown my sticky bits, yea..."
And you were zooming into her panties why??
1. Honesty. This is a challenge: the most important thing is to be honest with yourself which is _really_ difficult. I'm lucky enough to have been with women who've told me honestly what I needed to improve on. I'm still working on it ;)
Dude, I can help you, today I received this GREAT email that has PROVEN techniques for enlarging your penis! Seriously, just give me your email and I'll forward it to you!