Wanted: Linux success stories

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exploder
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by exploder »

When I see folks claim superb performance on creaky Pentium IV's or Athlon XP's...I just assume they have Windows on their newer rigs and Linux is relegated to the role of "quaint and amusing hobby".
Actually, my other computers are running Manjaro with Xfce.

Edit: A picture is worth a thousand words. :)

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coffee412
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by coffee412 »

My client Tom was having a terrible time. You see he was always getting infected with viruses and having software issues. My business is computer repair. So I would spend a lot of time cleaning out his system and making everything right. These service calls where becoming more and more frequent however. Therefore, It was time to take action and take control of the situation. I told Tom about Linux Mint and offered to install it instead of windows. He of course was quite skeptical because he had never heard of it. However, He agreed as long as I backed up his windows and could reinstall it. I installed linux Mint on his HP computer. Now, It had been a few weeks and I had not heard anything from him. So, It was time to give him a follow up call to see how things are doing. You guessed it, Tom didnt even wait for me to ask. He was gushing with excitement as he could do all his work with no interruption and everything really did "just work" for him. Even his older inkjet printer worked right from the start. Let me tell you about Tom. Tom is not anywhere near computer literate. Tom does a lot of trading on Ebay and makes some good money doing it. I was curious about what Tom sells on ebay and thought I would ask him. So, I was over for a service call that was hardware related on his wifes laptop and I asked Tom: "Tom, What exactly do you sell on ebay?". Tom looked at me with a grin and said he sells cars. Then he handed me a matchbox Ford Mustang. I replied "You must have to sell a lot of these to make a living?" He then took me out back to his extensive garage filled with vintage Mustangs from 1964 to present. He had all the parts and all in original condition. Tom still calls when he has an issue but you have to understand that Tom does not know that much about computers but Linux Mint does everything he needs and he is one happy camper.
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jimallyn
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by jimallyn »

Good one, coffee412! Thanks. I shared it on my Facebook page.
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
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z31fanatic
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by z31fanatic »

This Coffee guy is hilarious. The Mint team should hire him. He sounds like he would be a good salesman. :lol:
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Ranthe
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by Ranthe »

Well it all started with my installing Mint 17 Qiana on my home PC because I could see the writing on the wall for Windows Vista and didn't like the look of Windows 8.

Then my wife - who had been seeing all the PC trouble I wasn't having compared to her - on Christmas Eve decided to give Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca (Cinnamon) a go on her Dell laptop because it was choking under Windows 7. She's now such a fan of Linux that she really HATES having to go back to Windows for the odd thing and would love nothing more than to be able to do all her proofreading business work and video-on-demand stuff under Linux. According to her, getting Linux Mint was like getting a new machine because everything was FAST!

Then my father - who saw both my PC and my wife's laptop happily running Linux Mint over Christmas - decides to give Linux a go as well, installing Mint 17.1 off a Live DVD I gave him during his visit. That's working really well too... unlike his Windows installation these days. He also says Linux Mint is so much faster than Windows.

And to cap it all off, my father apparently has converted my uncle to getting Linux Mint installed on his laptop off the Live DVD I gave my father.
Man, I'm good at this! :mrgreen:

All this happened off simply installing Mint and demoing it to people - no pushing, just a "Well I like it, this is how it works." Linux MInt really seems to sell itself!
exploder
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by exploder »

Ranthe, really like your success story! I had similar luck with family and people I used to work with. My Father-In-Law was a die hard Windows user but he kept bringing me his virus infected computer every few months. Finally he agreed to let me install Ubuntu on it because he had heard people he worked with talking about it. To make a long story short, he has been a Linux user for about two and a half years now!

Some people are just afraid of what they don't know. The best advice I ever got was from my brother Ken, he said,"It's only software;" Ken was referring to Windows back in the early 90s but what he said still holds true.

My friend Sam kept bringing his computer that his grandchildren kept messing up. Sam just does simple tasks with his computer, web surfing, e-mail, etc. I asked him if he might be interested in Ubuntu because it had a guest account and his grandchildren would not be able to mess up his computer anymore, he said he would like to try it. Sam has not bought me his computer to fix for a long time now! Sam thought he was still running Windows!

My friend Rick recycles computers and gives them to needy kids, he has done this for years. Rick spends hours installing Windows and I had been telling him how little time it takes to install Linux. Rick asked me to come over and install Mint KDE on one of his recycled computers. The first machine we tried it on had too many problems but he pulled out another one and everything went just fine after that. Rick said he wanted to learn Linux but he still wanted the Windows sort of look KDE uses. Rick will probably always run Windows on his own PC but he might just start using it in computers he recycles.

I have switched a lot of people over to Linux. The thing all of them have in common is they were all tired of their computer being infected with viruses and malware. Once they understand that Linux is just point and click they seem real happy with it.
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jimallyn
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by jimallyn »

Ranthe and exploder, thank you both for your success stories. I have posted both of them on my Facebook page. Thanks to all who have posted their success stories here. Keep 'em coming!
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
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Derek_S
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by Derek_S »

Hello jimallyn - Here is a link to another convert's story:

https://medium.com/@frankiesshattunen/w ... bfa8e3b64d
"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself." - Tecumseh
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jimallyn
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by jimallyn »

Another good one! Thanks, Derek_S.
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
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z31fanatic
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by z31fanatic »

Derek_S wrote:Hello jimallyn - Here is a link to another convert's story:

https://medium.com/@frankiesshattunen/w ... bfa8e3b64d
It sounded to me like he was the idiot user.
You don't have to use a Microsoft account with Win8. You can choose to make a local account only.
And the typical user stupidity about how updates interrupted things he was doing. What a bunch of BS.
MS releases updates every second Tuesday of the month. Updates don't just suddenly appear.
Good for him that he likes Linux, but he is misinformed and a typical stupid user.
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MartyMint
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by MartyMint »

z31fanatic wrote:
Derek_S wrote:Hello jimallyn - Here is a link to another convert's story:

https://medium.com/@frankiesshattunen/w ... bfa8e3b64d
It sounded to me like he was the idiot user.
You don't have to use a Microsoft account with Win8. You can choose to make a local account only.
And the typical user stupidity about how updates interrupted things he was doing. What a bunch of BS.
MS releases updates every second Tuesday of the month. Updates don't just suddenly appear.
Good for him that he likes Linux, but he is misinformed and a typical stupid user.

That's possibly the most misanthropic thing I've read all week.
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by SC23 »

A year or so ago, I had a friend who bought a mini-pc from a flea market. It was the cutest little box I had seen in a while. Unfortunately, the hard drive was wiped clean, as I would have as well, and it was basically useless. You've got 2 choices I told her.. go and spend $100 on windows, or I can install Linux on it. Free it is then... I had a copy of Mint handy, and in less than 30 minutes had installed, set up, and got it on the internet. She left a proud and happy Linux fan with her "new" $25 find.
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Derek_S
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by Derek_S »

Hello jimallyn - Have you ever visited goodbyemicrosoft.net? The website doesn't get updated very often, but some of the articles are very good. Also, there's a list of groups who recycle/refurbish donated machines, install open source software, then either sell them to the public at a discount or donate them to other organizations. Have a look, you might find some of it interesting.

Link to the main page: http://www.goodbyemicrosoft.net/news.php

Link to the list of refurbishing/recycling groups: http://www.goodbyemicrosoft.net/e107_pl ... php?cat.21
"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself." - Tecumseh
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jimallyn
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by jimallyn »

Thanks for the link, Derek_S.
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by InkKnife »

z31fanatic wrote:
Derek_S wrote:Hello jimallyn - Here is a link to another convert's story:

https://medium.com/@frankiesshattunen/w ... bfa8e3b64d
It sounded to me like he was the idiot user.
You don't have to use a Microsoft account with Win8. You can choose to make a local account only.
And the typical user stupidity about how updates interrupted things he was doing. What a bunch of BS.
MS releases updates every second Tuesday of the month. Updates don't just suddenly appear.
Good for him that he likes Linux, but he is misinformed and a typical stupid user.
While it is true that MS does only release updates monthly, many Windows applications have very badly behaved self updaters that do seem to pop up randomly. While this is not Microsoft's fault per se, this is behavior not found in either OSX or any Linux I have ever used.
It is an annoyance that is uniquely part of the Windows experience.
Linux uses the update manager for everything so no pop ups and on OSX self updating applications will give you an update notice only when you launch that application so, again, no pop ups.
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by jeflikesmint »

My level shows how new I am to Linux, and surprisingly I had to find it on my own. I hadn't touched a machine since I was a senior in hi school and we were introduced to "trash 80's" for entry programming!( '83). 15 years ago I was given a pentium machine and battled with windows and their new OS's. Jump ahead to present. Being pissed that win7 gave me the ability to choose drivers when ultimate didn't ( I even own a HP! ) I had bought my last of copy of windows. My first try was Ubuntu, which was the correct choice with my crashed HP tower, and after making an ISO image with a free program, I was on my way. Hooked to the web via cat5, I didn't find it hard to straighten the machine out. That machine with a 2 Tb drive is the workhorse now. I managed to make a flash drive with Mint17.1 on it,(same manner with a free ISO flash drive program) and turned my 1545 inspiron laptop into a legit machine! So for 2 months now I've been forcefully changing any win7 machine to Linux! I partitioned the only machine with 8.1 on it( funny how it's like a complicated mint 17!) just for the xbox live membership! I've gone as far as buying a 10 pack of 2 gig flash drives and rolled Mint 17 on them! One stays in my pocket at all times, and I've given my 1st 10 away. I also say that you have to give a donation to a Linux project!( For real)

I'm still baffled that more people don't know, and how many people are capable of getting on to "Terminal". I'm a carpenter by trade, but computers keep me in touch with the other world, and Linux has opened doors to the bigger half of the binary world. Myself, I could never get enough, but in the last few years I had put my machine down because I thought there was only one way to get cool programs.( via the other guys) Now I've built a SSD mini machine that’s as big as an apple tv, and holds 100 libraries! Maybe Linux isn't for the lazy, but it seems to me anything great takes some work, and this work is FUN. thanks for the time, Jeff
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by Welly Wu »

My best friend Robert W. has two notebook PCs: 1. ASUS A53E-AS31 and 2. System76 Lemur Ultra Thin (lemu4). His ASUS notebook PC came with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP-1 64 bit and he clicks and downloads almost anything that has free content so it got infected with a nasty TDS malware which wiped out Windows 7 64 bit. I tried to reinstall Windows 7 64 bit using the ASUS system recovery discs, but it failed on disc two of three consistently. So, I told him about Ubuntu 14.04.x 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux and he gave me permission to install it. It worked! Now, he dislikes Microsoft Windows and he prefers Ubuntu GNU/Linux. Great success!

Myself, I have a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P high end gaming notebook PC. It came with Microsoft Windows 8.1 64 bit and it crashed ten times in less than one year due to various mistakes I made. So, I installed Ubuntu 14.04.2 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux and it worked! Ubuntu GNU/Linux is much faster and easier to learn how to use because I have several years of experience using it.

My friend Veronica C. has a very old Hewlett Packard desktop PC. I don't remember the specific model. Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP-1 64 bit crashed and it killed her PC. I installed Ubuntu 14.04.2 64 bit LTS GNU/Linux and she's getting the hang of it, but it works! She barely uses her computer and she is technology illiterate, but she is getting the hang of Ubuntu GNU/Linux. Success!
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jimallyn
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by jimallyn »

Thanks, Welly Wu!
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by RacerBG »

I guess I can tell you about my friend's success story:

About 2 years ago when I just discovered the world of Linux Mint, my friend's laptop was very tired of Windows 7. And because my friend was an adventure guy he also tried Linux Mint (back then Nadya). Together with him we discovered trivial things: how to change your DE, how to create desktop shortcuts, how to burn discs and so on... It was a real adventure and he liked Mint so much that even today he have 1 laptop specially for it. He also have Windows 8.1 on another machine if I'm correct but he hates it so...guess which OS he is using more? :D I also flipped my OS's a lot in the past but lately I'm only distro-hopping and waiting for Debian 8, LMDE 2 and probably Mageia 5 because I like it. ;)
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jimallyn
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Re: Wanted: Linux success stories

Post by jimallyn »

Thanks, RacerBG!
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
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