[ILUG] ``Got anything without so much Windows in it?''

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Martin List-Petersen (martin+ilug at list-petersen.net):

> > Installfests.  Works here.
> 
> Works all over the world, but only for those, that have the interest
> in learning more about the operating system.

A point.

> I think, that HP more is aiming at the user not wanting to know much
> about it's operating system, but who is sick and tires of W**** based
> systems. Those would not show up on an installfest, unfortunatly, but
> true. 

Possible if not likely.  I was merely replying to Michele's question as
posed.

In my local area, my user group (CABAL) take a "Muhammed will go to the
mountain" approach:  We hold install and outreach sessions during the
local Robert Austin Computer Show events.  Those are a sort of computer
flea market, where vendors offer inexpensive software and hardware to
members of the public during a Saturday morning and afternoon.  Typical
attendance at a Robert Austin show is about 5000 for the day -- all of
whom thereby get exposed to knowledge of Linux and awareness of the
area's Linux help resources.

Of course, starting around 1998, the nature of the public's questions at
the CABAL table changed abruptly, right around the time all but one
significant SQL database suddenly shipped a Linux version, and en-masse 
ceased denying the existence of a Linux market.  We've had almost no
"What's Linux?" queries from that day on, anmd instead got
implementation questions.

Note:  At least one vendor (Cosmos Engineering) in my area sells hard
drives bearing Linux preloads, suitable for bolting into almost any
desktop system.  (The famous Granny of preceding discussion would then
pay a PC bench tech his one-hour minimum to install it -- maybe instead
of paying him to reinstall XP Home Edition for the fifth time.)