I agree with what many people have stated, keep it interesting!
I stick with my first statement though: show them it can do what they expect it to do...
Then, totally blow them away with a simple, yet cool programming language or two, let them have the "hacker-movie" feeling by showing them some network monitoring (wrap it in a "spy" atmosphere) etc. etc. I'd like to hear how your weekend ended!
1)show them the install, IF it's a relatively easy graphic installer, don't want to scare them off with retro-looking text installers (gentoo, whilst a cool distro is definately a no-no here, try RH8 or Mdk9)
2)Show them distributions that "do" what THEY expect a computer to do (run progs in a GUI, office type stuff, some games (that's hard!)) Redhat is so standard, you're almost obliged to show it, Mandrake and SuSe are great for introductions too.
3)Show them the console from WITHIN the gui (merging the advantages of a GUI with the power of a command line) -EXPLAIN what either is good for.
4) tell the parents... before some kid tries his hand at fdisk on a father's Vaio
5)Emphasise the "community" idea that is very much at the heart of Linux, also explain WHY a monopoly position by a single OS is bad. one might consider talking about the whole opensource attitude.
I'd say that you really thought about that...
but seriously, noah and his wife being descendants of adam and eve, we'd still all be coming from that source.
if it fits your paradigm that is...
I was really interested by an article in Wired a few months back where this guy traced all europeans to seven "mothers" (asian and black people have 3 and 4 respectively IIRC)
you'd be amazed how persuasive "chat with friends and family (with cool icons!!!)" is to japanese hyper-culture.
though maybe it's a lesser concern to the govt.
maybe there are more intelligent ways to react to this story that by using over-used stereotypes.
and "me love you long time" is from a vietnam movie...
I'd love to see Japan get into OSS though...
...and hook the gamers!
IMHO Linux is quite capable of doing ye standard boring office work, and despite "die-hard" users' opinions, the bluecurve interface on RedHat is what convinced my boss that I WAS RIGHT about ordering it, and placing it on the 25 new desktop pc's we got here at the office. (and, get this, their DELL computers! oh the blasphemy! but it sure looks good when clients come to visit)
that said, we need gamers, gamers actually have quite a lot of BUYING power, even if a significant amount of games is pirated, I know a whole lot of gamers who WILL buy the products if they like them......most of them profess a distinct distaste for M$ and it's crappy OS and future DRM plans.
But, they CAN'T switch, they WON'T switch because their games just aren't there.
now, I know LOKI went under, but is that reason enough to stop linux game developement? I know good old Q3 runs a lot better when I boot to linux then under windowsXP (which, despite my feelings towards microsoft, REALLY isn't so bad.)
the question is: HOW do we do it? and more precisely, how do we do it without it costing future linux gamers a single dime... (read: no wineX please.)
not too mention the amount of cash serious players blow on top of the line hardware...
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I stick with my first statement though: show them it can do what they expect it to do...
Then, totally blow them away with a simple, yet cool programming language or two, let them have the "hacker-movie" feeling by showing them some network monitoring (wrap it in a "spy" atmosphere) etc. etc. I'd like to hear how your weekend ended!
I fart in your general direction.
yeah, at first look i was wondering how two lines and an add constitutes an article ;)
2)Show them distributions that "do" what THEY expect a computer to do (run progs in a GUI, office type stuff, some games (that's hard!)) Redhat is so standard, you're almost obliged to show it, Mandrake and SuSe are great for introductions too.
3)Show them the console from WITHIN the gui (merging the advantages of a GUI with the power of a command line) -EXPLAIN what either is good for.
4) tell the parents... before some kid tries his hand at fdisk on a father's Vaio
5)Emphasise the "community" idea that is very much at the heart of Linux, also explain WHY a monopoly position by a single OS is bad.
one might consider talking about the whole opensource attitude.
just my thoughts.
Dude, don't joke about such things! ;)
I wonder where that came from... probably some half remembered qoute from the discovery channel...
I'd say that you really thought about that... but seriously, noah and his wife being descendants of adam and eve, we'd still all be coming from that source. if it fits your paradigm that is... I was really interested by an article in Wired a few months back where this guy traced all europeans to seven "mothers" (asian and black people have 3 and 4 respectively IIRC)
you'd be amazed how persuasive "chat with friends and family (with cool icons!!!)" is to japanese hyper-culture. though maybe it's a lesser concern to the govt.
maybe there are more intelligent ways to react to this story that by using over-used stereotypes. and "me love you long time" is from a vietnam movie... I'd love to see Japan get into OSS though...
...and hook the gamers! IMHO Linux is quite capable of doing ye standard boring office work, and despite "die-hard" users' opinions, the bluecurve interface on RedHat is what convinced my boss that I WAS RIGHT about ordering it, and placing it on the 25 new desktop pc's we got here at the office. (and, get this, their DELL computers! oh the blasphemy! but it sure looks good when clients come to visit) that said, we need gamers, gamers actually have quite a lot of BUYING power, even if a significant amount of games is pirated, I know a whole lot of gamers who WILL buy the products if they like them... ...most of them profess a distinct distaste for M$ and it's crappy OS and future DRM plans.
But, they CAN'T switch, they WON'T switch because their games just aren't there.
now, I know LOKI went under, but is that reason enough to stop linux game developement? I know good old Q3 runs a lot better when I boot to linux then under windowsXP (which, despite my feelings towards microsoft, REALLY isn't so bad.)
the question is: HOW do we do it? and more precisely, how do we do it without it costing future linux gamers a single dime... (read: no wineX please.)
not too mention the amount of cash serious players blow on top of the line hardware...