Over the past fortnight, some opportunities arose that enabled me to go on a GNU/Linux installing spree. Now i have always believed that the more one "installs" an OS the better the ideas about pre-install and post install bugs and idiocies become. However what i'd not bargained for, much less imagined would be possible was that the install blast would provide an insight into the hearts and minds of the folks keen to try out the "Free OS". Now the sample included a range of age groups but roughly the one that gave me the most insightful questions were those between 18-20 and 45-55 years. The installation machines were different, as were the environment in which they were supposed to work. And thus burdened with RedHat v. 7.0 & 7.3, PCQLinux, Mandrake v8.0 the journey began. i am really not putting out the queries in any order of detail but what comes to mind first comes first in the list. But before i begin, the process showed one thing with clarity. Given enough time and patience and of course illustrations, it is possible to explain to non-geeks or folks with Win9x install experience the basics of the Linux partitions and the usage and the space allocation thumbrules for each. So the eternal gripe about the mumbo-jumbo "hd - what ??" is basically untrue !!
Guess what the first things people - mostly my first age group ask - "what do i do with the mp3/music library that i have ?" well it seems that music after all does unite users across platforms !
Then there was the question about "i tend to do some photo/image editing - show me stuff that i can use to attain the same level of proficiency"
Of course how could i forget "Is OpenOffice & StarOffice one and the same ?"
Or this one - "we use StarOffice at our office, the guy who got it says it is a pirated version for windows - so how can you provide me with a licensed version ?"
Check this one : "Can you get me the GPL document - a hard copy along with a book that ships with Windows ?" [the book in question was the Getting started with...]
Then there is this young programmer with "what do i do with my c++ programs ? they were all in bloodshed dev !!" the young fellow took sometime to get acquainted with the programming toolsets in his new environment and now swears that Linux rocks..
Or this young lady who freelances and thus surfs the net night and day " eeshh !! netscape is so uncool.. can i run IE here ?" Well i could only point her out towards Mozilla and suggested the same in her windows platform
And the list goes on.. with the spreadsheets, the doc files, pdfs and what not. sometimes i never imagined that people work under so many different applications all in one day.
Yet at the end of it all, what was left was the secure knowledge that somewhere a little had been achieved. These are not complete converts, they probably will never be. Yet they have had their first fling with the heady wine of "Free Software", even though for the most of them the freedom is immaterial. More could be done with short introductory courses under the aegis of the local LUGS. If *reputed* institutes can charge a lot for Introduction to Windows, then a token amount would suffice for the LUGs to start taking classes. Show them the way and they will find their own path. Be a star not a race horse. Some will stumble, some will falter, we all do. Yet in the end we all do find our own destiny.
Like they say, don't look at the finger or else the glory of the moon will be lost. In the end the movement will be stronger and more vibrant and those are the days we all dream about.