Dinner-time conversations about Linux

[TheCatMan]

Last week I found myself at a conference run by a company that sells scientific instruments (usually controlled by Windows software, as it happens). At dinner the first evening, one of their sales bods told what must be a fairly common story: he'd just bought a Linux netbook, having previously thought of Linux as just something he'd seen on a magazine, and really liked the price. He then described the hour-long battle with a Windows machine to get the drivers working for his printer & scanner, compared to plugging the device into the Linux netbook and having all the functions Just Work. Someone else replied he had a friend who knew computers, and who would "only use Linux." At that point I chipped in, bringing the pro-Linux votes at the table to 50%.

Possibly because I'm more used to discussing Linux on various forums, I found it refreshing that nobody felt compelled to say how You Have To Use The Command Line(tm), It Won't Run Your Software(tm), or (as I keep seeing lately) Linux just Isn't As Solid As Windows(tm). I've long suspected there was a yawning gap between between real-life grassroots and Win 7 astroturf, and it was nice to see it first-hand.

[Quake3DeathGod]

Great! I do a lot of computer repairs in Ky, and I will not put windows on a system. Stopped about a year ago. I lost a few people, but the word of mouth has really spread. I've gotten some of them back where they had to go to a neighbors house to use their computer due to spyware or virus, and you know what the neighbors are running? LINUX! Its a slow moving revolution, but its still moving in the right direction.