Audience targetting at ITEC

[joel]

Heh... this might be a bad day to post this...

There are a whole lot of people out there with the mindset that if something 
is free, it can't be any good. Most people do not initially believe that free 
software can be as good as the professional software they buy in a store. We 
are culturally conditioned that free means either it's worthless, or it's an 
advertisement for something we have to pay for.

"Just try it, you'll love it," we say, handing them an installation CD. "It's 
a lot more powerful than Windows." We're right, Linux can do a lot of things 
that Windows can't. For most things, it's a dream to work with. But how many 
normal people (not computer enthusiasts) do you know who would actually 
install a completely foreign operating system on their hard drives? That's a 
big step, and it takes a very brave (or motivated) person to do it. 

What if we were to hand them a disk with programs they could use, right now, 
today, to extend the capabilities of their existing systems? This would show 
them that open-source programs can be as good or better than the software 
they can buy. 

I think we should have a CD of open-source software that works under Windows, 
including the Gimp, Mozilla, Abiword, Star Office... can anyone think of 
other open-source programs that work in both Linux and Windows? They could 
take the CD, play with the programs on in for a while, read some of the 
philosophical ramblings (also on the CD, surprisingly enough ;-), and start 
using open-source software themselves. Then, it's not such a foreign concept.

This also gives us another opportunity. Instead of seeing ITEC as a one-shot 
deal, we could give them a taste of free software there, and mention that 
we'll be hosting an install-fest next month, if they're interested in doing 
*more* with free software. Not having a date, time, or place for that yet 
could work in our favor, because it'll give us a chance to gather e-mail 
addresses of interested people ("we'll e-mail you all the details later").

At an install-fest, we could have people installing Linux on their own 
machines, help them set it up exactly like they want it, fix all the little 
problems that periodically surface, and help them through the initial 
learning curve. 

In a few short months, they'll be ours! Mwuahahahaha! >;-)

--Joel