Asus was practically the first to popularize netbooks with Linux on them back in late 2007. However, times have changed. It seems as though Asus really has turned its back on Linux. Why? It’s because the people preferred Windows XP. That is why there aren’t many machines with Linux.

They said that it was a business decision to lessen the models with Linux on their netbooks. Other manufacturers like HP and Dell were said to have triggered the change. The Asus notebooks with smaller hard drives paled in comparison thus losing marketshare. I hope that they won’t totally eradicate Linux. After all, they have helped create a community around their EEE PC and they have created ways for us netbook users to use Linux without much trouble.

Sad to say decisions like that are based on business and income. It’s not a matter of advocacy. I’d like to hope that there will be companies that will really have their decisions considering the principles of free and open source software.

It takes an awesome parent to raise kids who have a healthy appreciation of technology. They will not be afraid to let their children know more technology and they will even teach them how to become responsible as they use various technologies in their lives. It does not mean that they will just let their children run wild among the many internet forums or let them use technology irresponsibly.

Sometimes my co-workers joke around about how they will raise their children. They joke that they will teach them how to program even when they’re just babies. Sometimes they say that they will teach them how to fight against boys (if they have female children) so that they will not get boyfriends right away. (Haha. I think that this could actually backfire. But, as one of them said, at least she’d grow up knowing how to defend herself against jerks.)

But I like it more when they say that they’d teach their children about Linux, aside from Windows and Mac OSX, etc. I like it that they want their children to be more well-rounded in terms of their perspectives. They want their children to grow up not limiting themselves to only a specific technology and that’s something inspiring. It’s not just a matter of growing up with a good set of values but a healthy appreciation of technology we are exposed to. Hopefully they will also have this attitude towards other technologies that are not necessarily related to computers.

I heard that one of my co-workers plans to take a picture of his daughter with a penguin plushie. I wonder how he’d introduce her to Linux and programming when she’s older. I’m pretty sure it will be very interesting.

Sometimes we forget that Linux has a social aspect. Being part of the community that uses and/or maintains Linux distros, packages and specific applications make us learn new things from other people and more often than not we end up communicating with them online and if possible, offline. Some people get scared and intimidated of the ones who love saying “Read the manual” or “Search for the answers first before asking us. There’s plenty of information online that’s been written already.” But aside from that there really are friendly people in the world of free and open source software.

Online, there are many forums and mailing lists. There are also feed aggregators that let us know more about the people behind communities of developers and users. It can’t be helped that they are visible online because of their passion for free and open source software. As for those who are in the forums and mailing lists, sometimes discussions could get heated because of that. Differences in opinion arise. But at the end of the day, there are people who become friends because of the discussions that they have — whether it’s people who help each other learn, whether it’s people who argue with each other who still maintain a healthy respect for their differences, etc. there are friendships being developed. That’s why sometimes you could probably see them joking with each other online.

And then there are local communities. If you’re a part of a local community, you could join launch parties of the distro you’re using, and/or advocating, etc. Sometimes you meet up with each other, just because you want to hang out. The geographic location does help during times like that. Sometimes you start becoming good friends after a couple of times of hanging out because of learning sessions of Linux. It’s your common interest that starts the friendship and it’s the commitment with each other that makes it go on.

I’ve met (and still meet) people because of Linux and some of them are my good friends up to now. I learn technical stuff with them but I also joke with them and hang out with them just because and it’s really enjoyable. There’s nothing like friendship to help you enjoy your life.

There are users who are totally resistant to change. Why? Because it disrupts their workflow. It makes them less productive. Change makes them cranky. However, there are times when change is needed and we have to lobby for it no matter what. If you think about your own home and your budget, sometimes you might think: Heck, the money spent on a license for a certain application could have been used for books of my child. I could have used an open source software of good quality and donated money to that project. I could donate small increments of money to that project instead of a one-time payment which could affect my cashflow in a great way. Or I could even contribute to that project, aside from giving something financial in return.

However, not all people think that way. Most people would still prefer to pay for licenses. Well, or download the application for free. So how now?

At home, it’s more manageable, in a way. You have less users to deal with but they could be more stubborn than 10 other users combined. In any case, it’s easier to study the habits of your family and/or housemates compared to an entire organization. Studying them will take time and interaction with them too. But then you get to have a better grasp of what software they need, what tasks they need to accomplish etc. In an office, it gets trickier because each person has different needs and there’s a whole lot of them so you have to study them a lot.

But here are some ideas that might help you:
1. Give them training time. Sometimes this is all what is needed but it is often neglected because we sometimes assume too much.
2. Show them that there are really awesome software for their tasks and make sure that the software you tell them does answer their needs. Else, they might not like it either.
3. Guide them if possible. Some people might have tasks that are critical and the tools they use are too specialized. New software might take some getting used to and so patience is a must! If they get too frustrated right away they might give up altogether.
4. Force them to use Linux. Sometimes people learn because they have no other choice. This could backfire. But on some people it does work. Just make sure that their tasks are not highly specialized or else: they will just complain.
5. Show them that the software works. This convinces people a lot. If the application has a good user interface, the better. People do not just care if it works — they also care about how they’re supposed to be using it.

I want to know other ways to show to others that FOSS and Linux in particular are awesome. It’s just that there are people who are very difficult to convince. How have you convinced others about Linux?

Trying out Moblin got me interested because I found the user interface interesting enough and it seemed to make sense for a netbook user such as myself. The screen real estate is maximized with such a user interface instead of the regular GNOME or KDE with panels and stuff. I found the panel of Moblin nifty because it’s automatically hidden when it’s not needed.

So, yeah, I think it would be cool if Moblin and Ubuntu joined forces and have an Ubuntu Moblin Remix. Turns out that there will be one such experiment which we will see when Karmic Koala or Ubuntu 9.10 is released this October. You could even check the wiki page about Mobile Karmic Moblin Remix.

One of the issues though is that Moblin uses RPM packages and not DEBs. So how now, right? And there are no migration plans for those who want to use Ubuntu Moblin Remix. This is a release that’s made for demonstration purposes. Oh well. I’d still like to try out anyway! Especially when I saw the screenshot on the internetnews.com blog. Of course the screenshot had the usual brown Human theme of Ubuntu, that’s why I am hoping for the best!

Maybe it’s time for a new desktop environment geared towards netbook users. There are a lot of combinations of window managers and docking apps but wouldn’t it be easier if by default, there is an easy to use interface for newbies who happen to be netbook users? Ubuntu Moblin Remix might show that a new interface might be better and this could be the beginning of an awesome netbook future ahead of us.

Whether you are Linux newbie or a veteran, you have a perception of Linux and why you find it easy or difficult to use it, right? Trying to advocate Linux to others would take some knowledge about Linux, the free and open source software world and the philosophies involved, as well as understanding what the users’ needs are. This is especially true for those who want to advocate it to their work place. You can’t just force everyone to migrate to Linux one day just because. It takes quite a lot of work and research!

Perspectives could be as anti-Linux as the following:

• Nothing I use will work on Linux.
• There’s nothing on Linux. It’s boring.
• It’s all command-line and you expect me to use that?
• Using Linux is like going into a new religion or cult.

With the first one, it could be true for someone who uses highly-specialized software. If all the software he/she needs is all on Windows or Mac and he/she is fine with paying for the software, etc. then trying to convince this person to switch to Linux will be quite difficult because of the productivity issues he/she will encounter. However, there could be free and open source software counterparts of the specialized software needed by this user. But you have to take a look at the counterparts well if all the needs are met. If so, maybe you could give your friend or colleague some help in trying out the software you found.

If the person tells you that there’s nothing on Linux and that it’s boring, maybe the person only encountered it briefly and did not give it a try. Also, it could be that the desktop environment or window manager and package manager on the distro he/she tried seemed to restrict him/her from exploring the software available. Some window managers might not feel as intuitive as using Windows, Mac OSX, or another distro with KDE, GNOME or XFCE. Why? In most desktop managers, there’s a menu for the user to select an application. It also has the menu where in the user could check out the package manager. These things may not be as obvious to users who are encountering a Linux distro with Openbox for the first time. In most desktop environments I’ve encountered, a package manager could be seen in the menu as “Add/remove software” or something with a similar wording. Even if you don’t know what a package manager is, at least you still know what you’re going to do and that’s something new users would probably be looking for.

For the command line argument, yes, you could still encounter Linux in a totally command-line kind of environment but a lot of distros give you the option to choose anyway. Most distros have a window manager or a desktop environment that could help users navigate throughout the system. You could counter this by showing your Linux setup and letting your friend use it. There’s nothing like an actual demonstration of what it’s like to use Linux. At least you could answer your friend’s questions by showing actual applications and tools to use. It would be educational and it could convince your friend more. On the spot you could look for the kinds of apps your friend needs/is looking for.

For the last one: Being a Linux user is not like getting into a religion or cult. It might feel like it to some who hear so many talks about the philosophy of Linux and free and open source software. Maybe it’s time to balance it out by showing how the community interacts. If you’re active in the Linux community maybe you could introduce your friend/colleague to other Linux users locally just so your friend knows who else are using Linux and what they think about it personally. It’s not just all about the intellectual stuff, after all.

One could easily get software for Linux through various repositories available to users. Most distros would have repositories which could be accessed via package managers. However, Novell thinks about opening a store dedicated to making open source software available to users — wouldn’t that be redundant?

Matt Asay’s blog entry challenges this idea of an open-source apps store. He pointed out:

But this almost seems counterproductive for Novell. For years open-source companies have had to combat the idea that “open source” is synonymous with “free.”

So with that, would a store be really helpful to new users who have been used to Windows and buying software from online stores?

I think that the pressing issue here is how do we address the mentality of users. Opening a store with totally free software might be counterproductive indeed, as pointed out by Asay. If you have a store with everything on its shelf is free, would that lead to users always thinking about software being free as in free beer? Well, repositories do have free for download and installation software so people could think that it’s free as in free beer and that’s that.

Will Novell be selling software eventually? I wonder. What do they see that repositories do not address well?

I think that repositories are good enough to meet the needs of users. A store might get confusing because the analogy is skewed if they will offer only free (as in free beer) software. Some stores do offer freebies but they still have something to sell that is their specialty.

Also, this store and repositories issue is a reminder that as advocates of free and open source software, we should find ways to teach others about it well. If it involves making better analogies for the new users, then we should do that. We cannot let people be confused these things.

Looking out for a lightweight distro for the heck of it is interesting. If you look at Distrowatch there are a lot of distros there and the name Crunch Bang just stood out for me so I had to click the link to its page. It is described as a faster Ubuntu.

What is interesting about Crunch Bang?

• It happened to be based on Ubuntu so you have access to repositories. And the forums, as well. But of course there might be things that won’t apply to Crunch Bang because it is not an official fork of Ubuntu. At least you’ve got access to more applications.
• The Crunch Bang site also claims that you should be able to play various kinds of media right away. That includes mp3s, DVDs and Flash videos. This is something a lot of users might be wondering about because not all distros support these media due to legal issues related to the proprietary formats.
• Lightweight apps by default. It uses some lightweight apps by default which makes it feel faster than your regular Ubuntu install. For one thing it does not use the GNOME desktop environment by default, nor is it using KDE. It uses Openbox as a window manager and if you’re wondering if it has a file manager, there’s the nifty PCManFM.
• You might miss OpenOffice.org but you’ve got Gnumeric and Abiword. However, if you have to make presentations, looks like you’ve got no other choice but to install OOo anyway.
• Crunch Bang has a Lite edition and an Asus EEE edition. I think that the main difference lies in the applications each of them has by default. CrunchBang Lite seems to have a lot of command line interface apps such as irssi and newsbeuter. The ones in the EEE edition are graphical.

I might download the EEE edition just to see if it would be alright on my Aspire One. Why not, right?

Schools taking the initiative to wean students away from Windows is already starting in California. As the article Linux Makes the Grade in California Schools points out, this is taking place in Santa Rosa after a pilot program in Petaluma, California.

Their setup is basically:
Ubuntu LTSP + thin clients + servers

Their applications:
OpenOffice.org
Firefox
Typing Tutor
Virtual Machines for Windows-based classroom learning applications

Not all of their software are already free/open source but still, I think that this is awesome anyway. At least they are starting with something within their school district. The schools’ needs are being overseen by Logical Networking Solutions so that they could have a transition that’s as smooth as possible.

I hope that this project will become very successful and that their transition will become smoother as the months go by. Aside from that I hope that projects like this would encourage others to write learning software that students can benefit from. It would take the cooperation between educators and software developers and I hope to see more learning software that is free and open source in the years to come.

Personally I find this question difficult to answer because I cannot generalize for the public. What would be the criteria for readiness? In the same manner, what kind of usage are we talking about? It’s that wide in variety that is why I don’t think it will ever be easy to define. Many comments have spawned from this blog entry: Don’t Get Me Wrong, Linux Sucks as Much as Windows. There are arguments that say that Linux is not ready for the desktop yet because of issues concerning hardware and drivers, installation issues, etc. There are also those who point out having to fix their screen resolution and dealing with the command line just sucks, in their opinion.

In any case, using Linux does have its pros and cons. The thing is, I think it boils down to personal choice and preferences. What might be pros and cons for me may not apply to you. If I don’t need Photoshop for my image manipulation tasks, then for me it’s one thing I don’t consider in terms of the usability of Linux. However, some of you might think of it as an essential application. And there might be others who are very familiar with Photoshop that using another application is unthinkable.

Maybe some Windows users don’t see the relevance of Linux because they are already too used to it and the applications that they run on it daily. And maybe some of us who are used to Linux cannot see the perspective other users might have so we could say that it is ready for the desktop — but we don’t really say what kind of desktop usage.

Convincing people is not an easy task. We can argue all we want but for people to really know what Linux is about and if it is indeed something they could already use, they have to experience it and decide for themselves. If they give up easily, it’s their choice. I guess that in my experience the people who decide to stick with using Linux have their reasons. But the most of important thing is that they saw how Linux and free/open source software meet their needs. No amount of arguments could dissuade them from believing in Linux because they have really felt its relevance.