Voice of the masses: What can Linux users do to welcome XP users?
About a third of computers on the internet are using Windows XP. For twelve years this operating system has battled on providing many users with a stable computing environment. For many people, Windows XP is the only operating system they’ve ever used. However, in a little over a month, Microsoft will officially stop supporting it. That means no patches for when things go wrong, and no support for future versions of software.
Most machines running XP won’t cope with newer versions of Windows, leaving many users with three options: buy a new computer, keep using an unsupported OS, or switch to an open source OS like Linux.
We’d like as many people as possible to take the third option, so our question this fortnight is, how can we (the Linux community as a whole) try and persuade as many people as possible to make the switch?
Install-fests? Sky writing? Driving slowly round town with a megaphone handing out free DVDs? Working one person at a time with friends and family?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments, and we’ll read them out in our up coming podcast.
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About The Author
Ben Everard
Ben Everard is the co-author of Learning Python with the Raspberry Pi and hacks hardware projects held together with a big dollop of Linux and Free Software glue. He's @ben_everard on Twitter.
I know when talking to my father and brother, the idea of a free and secure OS have been big selling points to them. Especially as most of the applications they use are either web based, have solid open source alternatives, or they’ve already been using open source and haven’t realized it. I’m confident that I’ll have both of them at least dual booting before the end of the year.
A list of equivalent software alternatives to make a smoother transition. Also a file compatibility list so they know which files would need converting if needed.
Social media is the obvious choice. If everyone posts a brief explanation and link to a distro as close to xp in stye as possible (for an easy transition), surely some people will be drawn to the benefits of Open Source.
Why is this brand new news post under all the rest?
Give them a bootable pen drive with a long term supported release and show them how it works, perhaps include one on the front of a magazine you can buy in the shops with a guide on how to switch? Make sure that all of their hardware works with the OS, if it doesn’t it will fall at the first hurdle. Guide them through opening their documents, email etc.
The real way to get people to move to Linux is to make them pay for it, say just £10, down 50% from £20. The problem is that no one values something without a price. “Oh, free is it? That means it’s worth nothing”. The price they pay is like an investment of trust, and with that comes a commitment to make an effort, give the OS a fair go. People want to feel their money is well spent. Oh along with OS I would also give vouchers for half price Libre Office and Inkscape. But just for you my son, one time only, I’ll do a nice bundle with a subscription to a virus killer…c’mon guys you’re breaking my arm here, I have kids to support.
I installed Mint MATE for my Gran, I installed wine and a bunch of applications she uses, and gave it the XP look, that has worked very well thus far.
I personally would recommend that we’re really patient with this guys they’re new after all.
In addition we should show them what makes Linux, or OpenSource software in general, so great and not what makes Windows bad in comparison to Linux.
Pointing out other peoples weaknesses is IMO a really cheap and unprofessional move to attract attention.
I think once they get used to the freedom they are going to experience on Linux it will get harder and harder for them to go back to Windows.
First thing to do is to not call it Linux…
Then if sneering, bribery, threats of violence, and offers of illicit pleasures do not work in changing their minds, consider them unworthy of Windows 8; only at that point may you install Linux in their computers. I mean not Linux. Linux? what’s that?
Honestly… do you really know someone who still uses Windows XP?!??!
That’s so last century…
Anyway, the people still using thta just want a computer that works. Lets just tell them: “I have something here that works”. Intall linux, show it working and BAM… a new Linux user!
My thought is that we should bring out a brand new magazine with a cover article that addresses this very important matter!
People still using XP tend to be unaware of the impending issues with it – as far as they’re concerned, XP is the definition of computing. They know new Windows exist but aren’t bothered about it, because XP “just works”. Earlier today I visited a client to help them setup online banking. I was presented with a P4 desktop running XP. I had to mention that their system would potentially become a security risk and it might be worth doing something about it. Problem is they seem to use certain proprietary software (such as Sage 50 Accounts) which only runs on Windows.
What we need is a universally acceptable alternative that will run on older hardware. @Corbin mentioned his Gran has Mint MATE installed, which is a good choice. Alternatively, Lubuntu, Munich’s first choice, might be good – I just rescued my Aunt’s old laptop with it and it’s ultra-fast!
Maybe Linux Voice could suggest a common distro for us to promote as a single solution? Something ideal for XP migrants without requiring an upgrade or extra RAM?
(In answer to Rodvil’s response…) I know two people who use WinXP and are very happy with it: my octogenarian parents. I bet the profile of a typical XP user is one in a higher age group who has relatively low computing functionality requirements. They don’t care what they use – as long as it looks like XP – and is safe from viruses.
So, if we want the typical XP user to switch, then we need to have demos etc at bowls clubs and Women’s Institues etc.
I do hope this doesn’t come over as un-PC! (If you’ll pardon the pun.)
p.s. Congrats on the LV inaugural issue!
My Mum’s in our local W.I. She’s been using Ubuntu (with a Cinnamon desktop) for about three years. She shares the PC with my Dad who loves Unity. They’re both in their mid-60s. Maybe I’ll ask her and see if I can attend one of their meetings – they might teach me how to make jam in return 😉
I think you guys are asking the wrong question – it’s not how _many_ – but _who_ would be good for moving over to linux – there’s no point putting linux on someone’s laptop if they’re clearly going to need windows. My most successful convert was fixing a windows vista laptop, which I had for around 3 weeks or so, giving me plenty of time to fully test the distribution…
Sultan of Swing is right – we need a good distribution. My vote is for ubuntu 12.04 in classic mode, but I would consider 13.10 in ‘flash-back’ mode, kubuntu 13.10, linux mint mate.
Ever tried converting a GNOME user to use KDE or vice versa?
Trying to convert an XP / Win7,8 / Mac user to Linux is even harder. Don’t waste your time. Introduce them progressively during normal time and hope that gradually they make the transition themselves and not hope for change overnight.
FYI, I have been using KDE since before Ubuntu exist and never understood Gnome 2. I still didn’t understand Gnome3/Unity now.
And yes, hearing the word the word Ubuntu can make me switch off a podcast or magazine.
Setup a dual boot for them. (We can all argue about what distro is best.)
Configure the dual boot to default to XP for now, but when the sky falls in on them, tell them to start using that first option on the boot menu – the one that they’d completely forgotten about – so that they’ll be able to carry on using their computer. Well, carry on with Gmail, Facebook etc, anyway!
The good news about XP class hardware is that it’s likely to predate all the Secure Boot shenanigans, making it that much easier to setup a dual boot in the first place.
Just go round with a CD and/or USB stick with a copy of your favourite distro running a MATE or xfce desktop. (Better it be a 32bit and not 64 bit as aged XP boxes wont like 64 bits.) Run a live session and let them try it out on their computer.
Obviously you do the selling spiel whilst they’re playing with it.
Generally speaking, the community can cut the ‘techier than thou’ bullshit and never utter ‘RTFM’ again. If the person is still using XP you can be damned sure they aren’t going to read anything.
If you don’t care to help, don’t say anything and let someone who will help answer instead. The Linux community does more damage to itself by not being civil than by not being user friendly.
As far as methods, OEM or personal contact is the only way it’ll work. If people have to make the choice themselves, it’s too hard already.
Fully agree w/ Starfire IT. Don’t turn people off by taking that attitude. We were all newbies and some point in time
At my level, I think a spin of a popular distro (ex: Ubuntu + OS4 Systemimage) will be very useful. Having a remastered image with full out of the box functionality already installed / configured will do wonders in showing people and winning converts!!
Otherwise, actually showing people how to install and configure an alternate distro. Don’t just tell them “download and install”, show them how to get it to the state they’ll need it for every day use and productivity
The rules of LinuxClub:
1) Concentrate on the single goal: “Convert as many users as possible to Linux”
2) Realise that the conversion rate will be low (but keep repeating to yourself that any convert is better than none: See point 1)
3) Don’t get sidetracked into discussions (between Linux users) of the relative merits of desktops and/or distributions. Linux is Linux is not Windows XP ( See point 1). (Ahem, take note previous posters).
4) Get out there and organise events for the public to attend. Demonstrate Linux working (on XP standard h/w) and provide free install onto machines that people have brought and/or provide USB keys for people to take and try at home. Initially turn out will be low: Don’t get demotivated. Repeat until the attendance increases. (See point 1).
5) Motivate and/or train others to pro-actively convert XP users to Linux and to run their own events. Suggest that they follow the rules of LinuxClub.
6) Review whether the main goal has been met. Give yourself a pat on the back and feel a warm sense of satisfaction of what has been achieved.
My wife had been happily using XP on a 2006 Lenovo until a few weeks ago.
I’d installed Firefox on the laptop almost before it was out of the box, way back when, and later added OpenOffice and more recently LibreOffice. Consequently, she was accustomed to using open software.
In the light of the forthcoming end of support for XP, I suggested that she switch to a Linux OS before the sky falls on her head. She was a little sceptical at first, concerned that I was about to trash her beloved laptop. However, I persisted and, after backing-up her data, began looking for a flavour that would suit her.
I settled on Lubuntu which works like a dream. It’s fast (muuuch faster than the admittedly decrepit XP had become) and it does everything my wife had ever wanted her laptop to do, and even a bit more besides.
Lubuntu has impressed me, a Mint MATE user, and it has satisfied the wife; she’s even gone on to describe it as ‘good’.
I think we could learn from the Munich city council guys. First introduce them to libreoffice, thunderbird, firefox/chrome on their Windows machines. Get them to appreciate the benefits of free open source applications. Once they are comfortable suggest they give Ubuntu/Mint or similar, perhaps on an old machine that they don’t regularly use. Show them how to install via the package manager, make their DVD’s, dropbox, facebook, ect.. work. My experience is that most people will have a generally positive attitude when trying out something like Mint or Ubuntu, but it will take a long time before they transition completely.
PS! Word of warning: Do not rant about Linux vs Windows, Debian vs Ubuntu, Firefox vs Chrome, Vim vs Emacs ect ect ect. Nothing is gained by this meaningless trolling. I speak from experience here, its best to restrain yourself and respect that other people will have different preferences then yourself. You should embrace diversity, not kill it. That being said, any diversity is preferable to Windows XP 🙂
We could just sit back in a conceited and self congratulatory sort of way and laugh at the Windows XP users. It’s not very welcoming, unless they’re of a masochistic bent … hold on, they are Windows XP users.
Anyway, Windows XP users are probably not at the cutting edge of IT use so probably won’t consider what to do about XP until their computer grinds to a halt.
When this happens where do they go for help?
The answer to this is somewhere very mainstream like PC World, where they will probably try to sell them a new computer.
What we need to do is try to get in there and suggest the third option – to switch to Linux.
Can we convince mainstream tech support, especially chains like PC World, to suggest to irate XP users that switching to Linux is a viable option? Perhaps we could stand outside these places on the fateful day to offer our support armed with Linux Mint DVDs.
Getting the message out is the problem here so we in the Free Software community need to engage with the mainstream media – not our natural environment, I know. It would be great is we could place national TV and press adverts, or get mainstream TV, radio and the press to feature something about switching to Linux on XP’s demise.
Other than that, sky writing or driving slowly around town handing out free DVDs seems as good a way as any to gain access to these people.
The world is not going to come to an end when Microsoft ends its so called support of XP. XP will continue to function just fine and most AV vendors will continue to support the OS for a number of years. Most of you would be surprised by the number of Windows 98SE machines still being used in businesses today.
Just because there is a new version out, doesn’t mean the old version is worthless. I have discovered over the years that NEWER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER. Many times, the newer version of whatever is large steaming pile of #$%&!. We have become conditioned that a new version of X, whatever X is, has to be better than the old version of X. It just isn’t so.
The best analogy I have come up with regarding OSes or Programs, is a tool box. In that tool box you have several tools that do the very same thing. However, you will have a favorite, and sometimes that favorite isn’t really the tool for the project at hand. So, you will take tool more suited to the task and use it, not your favorite but the one best suited to the task.
So, getting people to switch is going to require letting them see that there are other tools in the tool box. I still use Windows (nothing new) almost every day, because I have a favorite Word Processor. It is used usually in a Virtual Machine. Once people understand that OSes and Software packages are nothing more than tools to get a job done, they will willing accept change. The problem is that, they have only really seen one tool and its accessories.
It’ll continue to function, but the malware authors will have a lovely stash of exploits ready to use once it’s EOL. And those holes will never be fixed by MS. So yeah, your XP will work. As part of a botnet, most likely.
Solution is mathematically inducible
Consider Linux users=psychiatrists (1)
and XP users = light bulb (2)
How many Linux users needed to change an XP user?
Answer 1. But he has to WANT to change.
QED
So for an XP user to want to change, a Linux user has to make it appear desirable financially, practically, ethically and socially to switch to Linux. Not difficult, a couple of sessions on a Linux user’s couch with a tape recorder and swinging watch ought to do it.
In answer to the original question: “how can we (the Linux community as a whole) try and persuade as many people as possible to make the switch?” here is a suggestion:
–Provide abundant forums and discussion about LINUX *for Windows Users* that do NOT assume prior LINUX knowledge. As a Windows User, I have tried literally for years to experiment with Linux, but all of my efforts have failed because there is no source of information about Linux that does NOT assume prior Linux knowledge. Even very simple questions are not answered in ways that Windows users can easily understand. So if you want to attract Windows users to Linux, provide a way for questions to be answered that does NOT assume prior Linux knowledge. Thanks for your efforts.
This is going to become an issue for me (an XP user who has been familiar with linux since Red Hat 5.2 – You’d think I’d be using exclusively linux by now? Well, the only remaining laptop that still works in my household is this little XP thinkpad, and I just can’t exchange one OS for the other as easily as I would like to … the truth is, a lot of the things I do with this machine depend on audio or just games stuff that isn’t as stable or available on linux yet.
If I had the space I would (as I have on all my other machines to date) run a seperate partition with a version of linux on it – up until recently my favourite was Mint 10 Julia – the most XP-compatible desktop I found, everything after that has been actually further away from easily customisable or just works for your regular XP user (ie someone who may have had their computer for twenty years and NEVER used a terminal, and only ever saw a prompt when something had broken.
I reckon your’re right on the money though – they may see going to win 7 or 8 as just as easy/hard and give linux a go if they know about it’s existence.
The truth is it really is up to me, I ought to be out talking to people or even getting a support group happening. I’m sure if people knew they had someone in their neighbourhood who could help them get up and running and could provide inexpensive support then they’d probbaly be prepared to give it a go.
I just don’t really know where to start, and lack the confidence to take it all on by myself. Anybody out there?
Make shiny, expensive Linux Boxes with a nice Logo, that dual-boot Mint and Steam. Maybe not as expensive as apple though.
A long, long time ago now, my nice was having difficulty with her XP box, continually getting it full of malware (even with several pieces of increasingly expensive ‘Internet security’ software installed). After format and re-install number three, I gave her a simple ultimatum : if it broke again she could either buy a new computer with vista (which was a new and shiny thing then, not yet revealed to be the massive font of festering feces that it truly was) or I would install Linux on it. I was expecting this to be a sufficiently horrible threat that she would open her wallet and leave me alone. When she broke it again, and it turned up on my workbench again, as I had threatened, the latest version of Linux Mint was installed with no dual-boot, not even wine or mono and returned with a reminder of the threat I had used. I expected her to suddenly become more financial and buy some new electronics, but something astonishing happened. She loved it. It was faster, looked slicker, and did all the things that she wanted (facebook, email, flash games, mp3 and DVD playback, and very little else) she regularly posted on facebook just how much better it had become. Most importantly to me at the time was that it never broke again, and I could spend my time playing retro DOS games on DOS-box like a proper geek. Why I’ve brought this story up is what happened latter that I didn’t know about until recently. Several of her friends (I use this term loosely, as facebook was involved) when their laptops also became crawling, malware encrusted data leaches started asking for “That Mint Thing” when they where getting them repaired or replaced. The moral of the story is, that people listen to their friends, and if enough of their friends have good experiences with something, they will try and source it for themselves, asking the Walmarts and Tescos of this world for them. This causes a knock-on affect, meaning more OEM linux boxes are produced selling to more non-techies who have good experiences and tell their friends.
I never quite understand the desire to “convert” people. I’m pretty sure none of us want others to have a go at converting us to whatever it is they love. People who convert are usually biased and treat the person undergoing the converting as a target. They’re like Jehovah Witnesses, marketeers or Emacs users (yes, the last one was just a joke).
If people ask me whether I’m using Windows or a Mac I tell them that I’m using Linux, and if they want to know more I’ll happily share my knowledge and experience. But I’m not going to tell people that they also should use Linux, in the same way that I’m not going to tell people that they should be belief in a certain God, vote for a particular political party, or follow a vegan diet.
Interestingly, the question this post asks is: “What can Linux users do to welcome XP users?”. To me that implies that those XP users have already made the decision to give Linux a try – I reckon that’s important. The answer, I think, is simple: just be helpful and honest. Shout about those things that are really nice (no virusses, no bloat!) but be honest about things that aren’t so great (no Adobe Suite, no way to update your TomTom software). And, stress that it will take a little bit of time to get used to doing things the Linux way (in the same way that people needed to get used to XP and may never get used to Windows 8).
Someone above joked that people should sell Linux to XP users. I’d actually take that seriously to a certain extent. If people are willing and able to pay, they should pay for support and help, maybe a trusted local tech professional, or if a friend helps out, perhaps they should make a donation to a charity like the FSF, or a F/L/OSS project.
Make a windows-based tutorial of the basics of a simple UI for linux (you decide which one) that is installed on the usb-drive that will ultimately install such linux distro.
To the last XP users the issues of FOSS are simply not appealing. They are “loyal” to XP for one of two reasons:
a) They could not care less about the OS
b) They want something that “just works” and cannot afford a Mac.
Show them that these two aspects can be fulfilled, introducing zero new terminology and focusing the user experience.
I somehow came across your raspberry radio suggestion as I was sitting here watching my Ubuntu 12.04 upgrade to 12.10… SLOW! And I have an Athlon Phenom X2 with 8Gb!
Dualbooting Win8 and Ubuntu.
Anyhow, what’s with the “dead tree” stuff? Paper? Isn’t it obsolete YET? All junk mail that I get goes immediately to the box beside the fireplace…
Oops! Looks like I have to re-boot the Upgrade now. Catch ya later, with more thoughts on this newspaper stuff
i think that many of the above suggestions are quite practical.
1. People can hardly benefit from something they know nothing about so spreading the word about Linux is important.
2. Leave that “holier than thou” attitude at the door, better yet drop it entirely. You cannot help people by even thinking you are better than they are. It has a way of transferring over whether you want it to or not.
3. Repeat #2
4. Letting people see Linux in action is so much more meaningful than merely telling them about it.
5. Remember that someone using Linux will likely have a lot of questions as it is rather different from what they are used to, so don’t encourage them to use it if you are not willing to hold there hand at least long enough for them to find other resources
6. Again don’t be a jerk!