thelinuxlink.net

http://www.manucornet.net/pcjacking/index.php
That is sweet next time I go to BestBuy I might try it. I think its legal. If not it would only be a minor misdemeanor.

I've thought about doing that. I usually leave some machines at Circuit City with various Linux distro sites set as the homepage as a way of letting people know about Linux.

yes, very responsible, lets hassle the evil under-paid salesmen and get them in trouble with their superiors.

thetza wrote:yes, very responsible, lets hassle the evil under-paid salesmen and get them in trouble with their superiors.

I haven't run into a computer salesman yet that's worth a plug nickel. Just for fun I go to computer stores and ask salsmen what a "K" is and the difference between that, a megabyte and a gigabyte. Then I tell them I was sent for an 80 meg disk drive because I need more memory. I like to see if I can get them to correct me (and get it right).

Linc wrote:

thetza wrote:yes, very responsible, lets hassle the evil under-paid salesmen and get them in trouble with their superiors.

I haven't run into a computer salesman yet that's worth a plug nickel. Just for fun I go to computer stores and ask salsmen what a "K" is and the difference between that, a megabyte and a gigabyte. Then I tell them I was sent for an 80 meg disk drive because I need more memory. I like to see if I can get them to correct me (and get it right).

Well I've actually been a computer salesmen (albeit for a smaller retail not the huge ones like best buy), and I can tell you that communication skills and courtesy are much more important than knowing technical details.

When you work at one of those places, you're dealing with people who are only vaguely aware of the difference between Macs and PC's. Therefore, you use words like "fast", "faster", and "fastest" instead of "megabytes", "megahertz" and "flops".

If you said to a customer "you're going to pay for office? your a fucking idiot! use openoffice" you'd get fired in two seconds. And this is sadly the attitude most linux users hold towards non-technical windows users. And I sure as well would be pissed off if I have to go around restarting 2 dozen machines because some 12 year old with a grandular problem decided show off how superior & leet he is because he can burn a knoppix cd.

If you worked as, say, a car salesman, and one day all the cars you were trying to sell had been spray painted "OIL KILLS STOP DRIVING RIDE A BIKE" or some hippy bullshit like that, how would you feel? Is it your fault oil is bad for the environment?

Because Linux users in the consumer-computing world are analogous to hippies in the political world; we have to be very careful how we convey our message, and immature pranks are not the right answer.

[/rant]

I'd just hang around it and see who's eye it caught and if people actually like it. Maybe find an answer to the age old question "Is linux really ready for mainstream?"

CptnObvious999 wrote:I'd just hang around it and see who's eye it caught and if people actually like it. Maybe find an answer to the age old question "Is linux really ready for mainstream?"

People will walk by, wonder what the hell it is, and keep on walking.

If I'm ever in a FutureShop (a Canadian version of Best Buy), I ain't there to speak to the sales people anyway - I'll go there for DVDs and that's it. My PC hardware comes from my neighbourhood local computer shop. They know who I am and sell me what I'm looking for... nothing more or less.

If I get some PFSP (pimply faced sales person) hounding me to buy something I don't want at FutureShop, I'll ask him/her if it can run under Linux. That shuts them up each and every time.

"Sir, did you see our sale on MP3 players this week?"

"Oh, no I didn't. Are they compatible with the Linux operating system?"

"Uh.... Linux? Oh.... uh...... not.... sure...... let's see what it says here. Uh... doesn't say."

"Oh well. Nice try. Bye."

People who shop at those places usually deserve the world of MicroShaft anyway. I say, let 'em live their life of never ending rip-offs in peace.

If I'm asked, I tell people point blank what I think of their proprietary world. Otherwise, I pretty much keep to myself. In fact, people at the office pretty much know not to come to me and complain about e-mail viruses, system crashes, and crappy, over priced software. Everyone who has pretty much has heard me tell them they stupidly put up with that crap by choice, getting no sympathy from me.

Do I make them feel stupid? I bloody well hope so.

I guess a few people at the office have gotten tired of feeling stupid, as I've converted four of their home PCs over to Linux.

The number of smug Linux users in our office is on the rise.

I live in the middle of nowhere and I had to drive 30min to get to bestbuy and thats one of the only tech stores even remotely close to me. For most of the people around me all they know about computers is that the word starts with a 'C'. I usually buy most of my hardware from NewEgg though.

Judland wrote:If I'm asked, I tell people point blank what I think of their proprietary world. Otherwise, I pretty much keep to myself. In fact, people at the office pretty much know not to come to me and complain about e-mail viruses, system crashes, and crappy, over priced software. Everyone who has pretty much has heard me tell them they stupidly put up with that crap by choice, getting no sympathy from me.

My usual response is something like "i don't know how to use windows," "excel? is that an emacs extension?," or my personal fav, "whats spyware?"

CptnObvious999 wrote:I live in the middle of nowhere and I had to drive 30min to get to bestbuy and thats one of the only tech stores even remotely close to me. For most of the people around me all they know about computers is that the word starts with a 'C'. I usually buy most of my hardware from NewEgg though.

Yeah, sometimes location makes all the difference.

thetza wrote:My usual response is something like "i don't know how to use windows," "excel? is that an emacs extension?," or my personal fav, "whats spyware?"

I like doing that too, from time to time. I also save all the documents I create in OpenOffice format.

Although we must comply with our clients needs, internally I e-mail all of my documents in OpenOffice format and inform the recipient that a M$-Office version is available on the network drive if needed. I make it a point that OpenOffice formatted files are 1/4 (or less) the size of M$-Office files, therefore they are less taxing on the corporate e-mail servers.