[wellylug] WellyLUG rekindling

Daniel Reurich daniel at centurion.net.nz
Mon Mar 18 09:44:32 NZDT 2013


On 18/03/13 09:03, Colin Templeman wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: RIPEMD160
>
> on 17/03/2013 19:22 Mark Foster said:
>
>> Something i've seen a lot of in recent years is people who're simply 'sick'
>> of Windows and want a change. They are often at the 18month-3year mark
>> (where Windows is getting a bit bogged) and there's interest in the
>> openness that Linux presents.  Admittedly this is often more prevalent in
>> the slightly-more-technical types but I hold a little more optimism. :-)
>
> Other than the use cases I've already mentioned, my experience of
> non-technical users is they would rather gnaw off their own arms than change
> the way they access their PC's.  They know just enough in order to turn on the
> pc, get to the tools they regularly use and where their "stuff" is kept.
> Change the slightest detail and they are all at sea, prompting the support
> calls we've all received (no doubt).  Optimism definitely has it's place,
> though :)
>
Your experience doesn't reflect mine.  Sure their are some users that 
just don't want to go there, and they'd have difficulty changing 
versions of MS office or MS Windows.  I've had to deal with many very 
angry and frustrated users when they changed from office 2003 to 2007 as 
well as windows XP to Vista or 7.

Conversely, I have successfully migrated a number of users from windows 
to linux, and Debian at that with little more then a few questions and a 
follow up phone call or visit.  As long as their is a bit of forward 
preparation and explanation about the differences, and training them how 
to get to the tools they need and a bit of encouragement to explore, 
they usually take to it easily.

D

-- 
Daniel Reurich
Centurion Computer Technology (2005) Ltd.
021 797 722



More information about the wellylug mailing list