Best Live Linux For Christmas Giving?

trustedserf writes "This year I am including a bootable Live Linux CD in many of my Christmas cards. As I'll be making the copies myself I may even change the default desktop background to something personal, or Christmasy before running it off on cheap CD-Rs. The objective is to show people the easiest possible route to using a linux desktop so that they will be: A) Aware and B) Pleasantly surprised. About Christmas they may also have more time to try it out too. Naturally, I'm thinking of Gnoppix, but there are other options.. I use KDE, so I have to decide between it and Gnome. Bearing in mind my objectives, what distro would you choose. Also, importantly, is it possible any of them will damage their hardware (monitors with incorrect refresh etc.) I would be *very* unhappy if that happened. How many of them would fail to boot, leaving a bad impression? Which way would you go about it for maximum "WOW"."

Comments

Stuff it with games

[Anonymous Coward]

A linux live CD by itself isn't going to get a normal person to run it. You need to put all sorts of easy to run/access games on it, plus Firefox. Then maybe... possibly... someone will actually use it.

Re:Stuff it with games

[nwbvt]

I'm sorry, but if you are giving these to "normal people", you might as well just be giving them coasters, as that is what they will end up as.

Re:Stuff it with games

[Shaper_pmp]

Yo, bad-asshat, step down off that high horse and think carefully about all that self-righteousness before idiot-casting it to all and sundry, eh?

Somebody's been taking too many marketing classes. "Added value"? What, exactly, is the "added value" of something that's free to begin with?

Well, you know... there's the added value of not having to download the entire distro. And the added value of not having to find and burn a CD. And the added value of not having to take the time to research and worry about choosing the right linux installation to start playing with. Note that (flamebait!) all these are issues which have so far stopped me running my own Linux box, and I'm an IT-literate user on broadband who's actually quite curious about Linux. If you allow for the fact that most family & friends aren't, you get the added value of not having to learn how to download distros, not having to learn how to burn CDs, not having to go out and buy CD-Rs (you'd be amazed how many people own CD-R drives but no CD-Rs). As I said, I'm Linux-curious, but haven't had the time/energy to run my own box. If a mate handed me a pre-set-up CD that was guaranteed to work, no questions asked, I'd try it out tomorrow. No, tonight.

What is this guy actually trying to do?... basically force-feeding it to individual people who are apparently your friends and family...

Christ almighty. He's sticking a free CD in a card, not anally violating them while pouring sugar in their gastank. Get some perspective, really.

It's one thing to say to someone you know and like, "hey, you know this thing Linux? Well, it does the same things as Windows, only better, and it's free, so you should download it."

Funnily enough, I find that approach more irritating, opinionated and unhelpful than simply burning me off a CD and going "here y' go... have a look if you're interested". You're basically instructing them as to how great Linux is, then instructing them to do all the learning and work themselves. He's doing all the work himself, and offering me the chance to try Linux risk-, effort- and pressure-free.

They probably won't, but the next step is not to basically get all up in their face and say "HEY. I TOLD YOU TO DOWNLOAD IT AND YOU DIDN'T SO NOW YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE BECAUSE HERE'S A CHRISTMAS CARD FULL OF LINUX." Honestly, even as someone who runs Linux, I'd be borderline offended by this.

Ok, I'm going to explain something to you now. The reason people probably don't respond well to your approach? It's probably because you lecture them on the benefits of Linux, then leave them to go do all the hard work themselves. Family != nerds. Friends != geeks. Make it as easy as possible, and they'll do it. Lecture then abandon them, and don't be surprised if nobody takes a blind bit of notice.

I guess my concern is that this guy is doing this more for himself than for the people he's giving these cards to, out of a misguided sense of altruism.

Ok, this is just ludicrous. If he's doing it out of altruism (even "misguided"), he can't by definition be doing it "more for himself". Look up the definition of altrusim if you don't believe me:

Altruism: altruism (n.)
1. Unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness.

He's not "adding value" by giving people something they can get themselves just as easily. I mean unless he knows a whole bunch of people stuck on dial-up connections that asked him to do this, which I guess is possible but pretty unlikely.

Ah. Oh. Ah. I apologise. I was under the impression we were talking about family, and friends. I didn't realise we were talking about died-in-the-wool linux geeks. I mean, my 90-year-old granny's a Debian admi

Think Again

[comwiz56]

I would think twice before doing. Seriously, how many people, whether family or friends, wouldn't think of you as a fanatic or total nerd if you went around giving Linux as a christmas gift.

I would suggest pulling some of your more technically inclined relatives/friends aside, and just show them Linux running on your machine.

Re:Think Again

[IntelliTubbie]

I would think twice before doing. Seriously, how many people, whether family or friends, wouldn't think of you as a fanatic or total nerd if you went around giving Linux as a christmas gift.

Seriously ... this reminds me of people who push their favorite book on everyone as a "gift," and then constantly harass them if they haven't read it yet. Rule of thumb: any gift that requires less effort to give than to receive isn't much of a gift at all.

Cheers,
IT

Re:Think Again

[fireboy1919]

I think the poster is talking about sending it along with cards.

So this isn't something you give out to your close friends and family. This is a gift you give out to people you just know well enough for a card.

It does have a message with it. It subtley indicates that the sender knows something about Linux and wants other people to as well.

If you want to make a living in Linux, think of it as a form of networking (the human kind, not the computer kind).

you must be the tech guy in your family

[terrymaster69]

My family wouldn't know what "boot from this cd" means. Good luck!

Re:you must be the tech guy in your family

[bcrowell]

Yeah, and consider how incredibly slow these things run -- well, slow on the latest hardware, and slower than slow on somewhat older hardware. They're just going to think, "Oh yeah, Linux, I tried that, and it was slower than snail poop."

If there's one thing I know...

[Chess_the_cat]

...it's that people hate to be converted and they hate to be preached to. If your friends aren't looking to change their OS then just forget your little crusade because all you're going to do is piss people off.

And the 2004 uber Dork award goes to...

[HockeyPuck]

This is like a relative trying to convert you to Colgate from Crest....

lame gift.

Give em a linux powered media player or something useful...

What about putting photos and music on it and use it as the card itself...

Re:Wow

[MeanMF]

Don't give people these discs, unless everyone in your family is a geek no one will even use it or know what to do with it.

...and the ones that are geeks will already know where to get it if they want it.

What does linux have to do with Christmas

[voidptr]

You're kidding, right?

If one of my relatives tried to use a christmas card to evangelize an operating system, they'd be spending Christmas outside in the barn.

Knoppix Hacks

[krmt]

I've been trying to figure out a decent gift for my Dad, and I was thinking the new O'reilly Knoppix Hacks book would be a good choice. He used to love computers, but he feels like they've gotten too complex for him, and he's totally frustrated from dealing with Windows virus and spyware issues. The book looks like it's got some good info on dealing with those, plus knoppix might be a fun little toy for him to play with that'd make computers simple again. It'd also let him know a bit about what I've been babbling on and off to them about for years now :-)

The idea of giving them just a CD though? Lame. The CD with some decent instructions tailored to their needs, if they actually have them then maybe you've got something there. I'm personally going to go check the book out in the store before I order it for him.

What about free bibles or AOL cds

[adolfojp]

I understand that you are being thoughtfull because you believe that your friends will be better off by running linux instead of windows.

Still, what if you received a bible, coran,scientology book or a Chick Track from a friend that is concerned for your soul. Perhaps even got an AOL CD from a friend that wants you to switch to a "better" service.

Send them something that they like, not something that you think might be good for them. Do not be an evangelist in christmass time. You might have less christmas cards to send next year.

Cheers,
Adolfo

A comment to the whole thread

[zarkzervo]

I'm surprised at how many here say things like: "That's geeky!" and "That's a stupid idea!"

News for nerds indeed!

I like the idea. Why not try it out and give a report back later? This is what I think will happen: They will ask you the next time you visit what you gave them because it didn't work in their cd-player or computer. You sit down and show them and they will think it's a fun idea.

Then. The next time people in the news mentions Linux, they will say something like: "Yeah! I've tried Linux. I'm up-to-date in this computer-place-thingy-stuff. This intur-newt-thing."

It's fun. It's nerdy. I can't see why all you so called "nerds" are so negative. If it doesn't hurt anybody. Why is this such a bad idea?