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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 :)"
http://www.nccomp.com/images/linux-girl.jpg
pic
If BSD weren't dying it'd be presented by this chick
Anyone watch that "The Apprentice" show. Two groups of 8 people, men on one side, women on the other. The first four tasks, the women stumbled around like lost puppies for 3 of them and yet won every time. The catch, they gave out thier phone number, while selling Lemonade for 10 bucks a cup. The guys couldn't sell jack.
It's not surprizing that having a woman demo Linux, people are interested in learning.
Post: Sigged, for your pleasure.
I do too...
I don't like that if a girl can do it, any man can...I can do a lot of things with a computer that many men can't do. I work hard to learn all that I can and I don't like that when I am up against a man, everyone automatically listens to what he says over me. I know what I'm talking about, I've been using computers longer than everyone that I know. When I go into a computer store all the clerks swarm to help the poor, defenseless, dumb girl buy expensive things for her computer. It really bugs me. Don't question my intelligence, I know what I'm doing.
I think its an excellent way to market linux to a bunch of men, but it still bugs me that people think like that.
"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the life-long attempt to acquire it." -Albert Einstein
Gotta keep the spin "Easy enough for *her*, so you can certainly handle it."
Yeah, well despite all the lipservice for equality, there's still plenty of cavemen who think only a man can do such-and-such. A remarkable comment on futuristic magazine ads, back in the 50's, projected the lady of the house still doing all the work, just with more high-tech, work-saving tools. Watch day-time TV and the message that men and women have the same roles from back then is still there.
Good leverage. Works with racism as a motivator, too. "Hey, that (insert ethnicity here) can do pretty good with a (insert tool here), guess I better be able to do as well or my arguments of everyone being inferior to (insert own ethnic group here) falls flat."
Americans tend to have a lot of levers, thanks to lingering puritanical attitudes (watch the super bowl half time show? ;-) Careful how you try to apply them at work, though. The spin that "she can do it, so anyone should be" could land your butt on the sidewalk.
PHB's OTOH could probably care less. Hit them with the true TCO and they're half in the pocket. Problem I've run into is most have this dinosaur attitude that Microsoft makes everything easier. If only...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
But if you can't lift more than they can, by all means send them along to somebody that can.
Oh, and just because they are using a trick on you doesn't mean they don't need your help. Just smile and say "Sure, but next time just ask instead of playing the mind games." Being a jerk doesn't allow you to change behaviour -- or get dates for that matter.
For a long time, I've been a huge proponent of ease-of-use. While I respected Linux from a technical perspective, I've long been dissapointed in it from an ease-of-use perspective.
That all changed the last time I tried Linux. Knoppix, to be exact. It was jaw-droppingly impressive to me: the hardware recognition; the ease-of-use; the clean interface (KDE, in this case, though I suspect GNOME is just as nice); everything was polished and smooth.
And then it hit me, there are only two things stopping Linux from making deep inroads into the desktop market these days:
1. Drivers, drivers, drivers. Not enough hardware makers are bothering with drivers for Linux. Kudos to all the Linux folks writing drivers, but Linux is always at least a step or two behind. However, this problem may be solved if the project that allows Windows drivers to work under Linux is successful.
2. Inertia. Everyone uses Windows, therefore...everyone keeps using Windows.
My hope is that the low cost of Linux will keep driving people into its loving arms.
So...how does this post apply to the topic at hand? Simple: anyone who has given modern distributions of Linux a chance already knows what I know: Linux is just as easy to use as Windows these days (or close enough that it doesn't matter), and the only thing holding Linux back now are the two items I listed above. Anyone who claims modern distributions of Linux are too hard to use probably shouldn't be using computers at all.
-Teckla
Deciphering all the typos in that post was an interesting experience...
Regardless, the main point - that a corporation is a dictatorship - is factually correct. However, if you treat your employees as if they have no valuable opinions on the tools they will be using to do their jobs, then you will lose buy in, and have a revolt.
The employees aren't exactly going to be turning up at their manager's door with pitch-forks and flaming torches, but they are going to be grumbling, moaning, bitching, whining, and likely looking for another job. Successful companies retain staff by ensuring they feel valued.
Basically, treating your employees like shit gets you nothing but shit employees. Acting in a dictatorial manner simply because you can simply creates more problems than it solves. It is vital in large scale change projects to ensure that people at least feel like they've been consulted, even if you end up ignoring everything they've said.
The productivity lost in replacing numbers of employees would be far more costly than simply throwing some toy penguins and a blonde bimbo into the equation.
I am, of course, assuming that once the buy in was created by the "weaker sex" and toy penguin strategy there is sufficient training and backup in place - without which the entire project is doomed to failure anyway.
A similar strategy was used in WW2 to get pilots to accept the B29 bomber, which was considered difficult to fly.
The male pilots decided that it was flyable when a crew of female pilots were trained to fly it.