Slashdot Mirror


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 :)"

38 of 548 comments (clear)

  1. "the 'weaker' sex?" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Glad to see Germany's just as progressive as it was back in the day. /sarcasm

    1. Re:"the 'weaker' sex?" by orthogonal · · Score: 5, Funny

      Glad to see Germany's just as progressive as it was back in the day. /sarcasm

      Hey, they're making progress!

      At least they didn't finish the demo by invading Poland.

  2. Theres a name for this.... by eddiegee · · Score: 5, Funny

    and it called MARKETING!!!

    1. Re:Theres a name for this.... by spacecowboy420 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I wonder if it would help the decision makers to know that not only does my 8 yr old girl use linux, she prefers mandrake over fedora. Not that it is saying much, but she installed and updated Mandrake 9.2 this weekend with very little guidance. If she can do it, so should any grown man. Man, I beam with pride everytime I see my little girl use the command line.

      --
      ymmv
    2. Re:Theres a name for this.... by arkanes · · Score: 3, Funny

      *sob* She's going to use IE when she grows up!

  3. f'ing brilliant! by JimmytheGeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    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."

    1. Re:f'ing brilliant! by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Linux: Strong enough for a server, GUI balanced for a desktop.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. booth girls by frankmu · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
    1. Re:booth girls by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 3, Funny

      All I can say is for those booth girls is not "Micro" or "Soft" by any means.

      More like a HARD DRIVE.

      --
    2. Re:booth girls by Trigun · · Score: 5, Funny

      Although the term "SCSI" comes to mind as well.

    3. Re:booth girls by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or we can try Alice's (from Dilbert) methodology: Instead of booth babes to attract people to your booth get RMS and/or Linus (Dilbert, Wally) to stand in front of Microsoft's booth wearing nothing but a string of floss.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  5. Male ego driving Linux? by bad+enema · · Score: 4, Funny

    Where have I seen this before? :)

  6. WHAT?!?!? by FortKnox · · Score: 4, Funny

    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!
  7. Geek girl? by kefoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    A woman who uses Linux? I'm in love.

    1. Re:Geek girl? by Our+Man+In+Redmond · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorry, my wife uses Linux and you can't have her. Besides, she already fell for that trick once.

      --
      Someone you trust is one of us.
  8. They forgot to mention... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...that these penguins were stuffed with narcotics.

  9. Hmm.... by MachDelta · · Score: 5, Funny

    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! ;)

    1. Re:Hmm.... by Bostik · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just out of curiosity, what would be the mount options?

      -oremount,rw,async,nodev,nosuid,noauto ?
      --
      There is no such thing as good luck. There is only misfortune and its occasional absence.
  10. Women can use Linux now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's it, I'll switch to hurd.

  11. Deodorant joke, anyone? by Shazow · · Score: 4, Funny

    New linux slogan!

    "Easy enough for a woman, made for a man."

    =8-]

    - shazow

    1. Re:Deodorant joke, anyone? by smack_attack · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Easy enough for a woman, made by boys in their mom's basements." /cliche

  12. Re:Women love Linux too :) by Supp0rtLinux · · Score: 3, Funny

    Package? Ha! No one pre-compiled her for any specific architecture. She was built purely from source and just for *my* architecture. ;)

  13. Amusing by sir_cello · · Score: 4, Funny


    Good to know that Linux wins on technical merit and avoids the kind of gimmicks used by other big name software vendors ...

  14. Re:I hate male ego by pyros · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  15. Well, root, on my Linux box, receives no spam... by mark0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... 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...

  16. Note to Microsoft by ektor · · Score: 3, Funny

    $40 billion would go a long way buying t-shirts and stuffed animals to woo users.

  17. What's black and white with poka-dots? by RLW · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does Tux need a Tuxette? What does a penguin in a bikini look like?

    1. Re:What's black and white with poka-dots? by worst_name_ever · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dude, if there was a "+1 Terrifying" you'd definitely get it from me.

      --

      In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
  18. i would decribe this... by musikit · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

  19. Women... by derphilipp · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  20. Re:It's brilliant by pegr · · Score: 4, Funny

    " 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...

  21. You know what that means? by gosand · · Score: 5, Funny
    That's it, I'll switch to hurd.

    The number of people using hurd just doubled!

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  22. This is a great day by The+Bungi · · Score: 5, Funny
    Someone has just come up with step 2:
    1. Write free software
    2. Promote using techie bimbo and assortment of stuffed toys (was: ???)
    3. Profit!
    A great day indeed.
  23. Re:Sex Sells by GoofyBoy · · Score: 4, Funny

    >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.
  24. Realistic demographic of NYC, actually by lysium · · Score: 4, Funny
    The ratio to good-looking women to men was 2 to 1.

    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:

    • *Half are neurotic. Terribly, terribly neurotic.

    • *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.
  25. No more geek sex jokes ... okay, *one* more by duck_prime · · Score: 3, Funny
    These booth girls... if i'm new to Linux, will they 'mount' my 'hard drive'?
    With an attitude like that, you likely won't get any fast physical I/O without a lot of cache.
  26. The name for this isn't MARKETING. by eugene+ts+wong · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  27. UNIX Lyrics by Boawk · · Score: 3, Funny

    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..."