Toy Penguins and Male Egos Drove Linux Acceptance 548
An anonymous reader writes "Germany's local and city councils have been pioneering the migration from Windows to Linux. Now, one of the IT staff behind one move has revealed how they persuaded workers to accept the changes. Stuffed toy penguins and Linux t-shirts helped to create an open-source love-in at the council offices, and they got a senior chairwoman to demonstrate the new system to the troops. Male ego stopped anyone claiming that Linux was difficult to use, once they'd seen that the 'weaker sex' could master it :)"
"the 'weaker' sex?" (Score:4, Funny)
Theres a name for this.... (Score:5, Funny)
f'ing brilliant! (Score:5, Funny)
Gotta keep the spin "Easy enough for *her*, so you can certainly handle it."
booth girls (Score:5, Funny)
Re:booth girls (Score:3, Funny)
More like a HARD DRIVE.
Male ego driving Linux? (Score:4, Funny)
One thing to remember (Score:2, Funny)
WHAT?!?!? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe we should rethink our strategies...
And so it goes (Score:1, Funny)
Geek girl? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:booth girls (Score:5, Funny)
Teddy Penguins (Score:1, Funny)
They forgot to mention... (Score:3, Funny)
Hmm.... (Score:5, Funny)
I'd be sure to try switching to Linux then!
Re:f'ing brilliant! (Score:4, Funny)
Women can use Linux now? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Reverse psychology... (Score:2, Funny)
They were a bit miffed when I told them no.
New marketing tagline (Score:2, Funny)
Deodorant joke, anyone? (Score:4, Funny)
"Easy enough for a woman, made for a man."
=8-]
- shazow
Re:Deodorant joke, anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Women love Linux too :) (Score:3, Funny)
Amusing (Score:5, Funny)
Good to know that Linux wins on technical merit and avoids the kind of gimmicks used by other big name software vendors
In a reversal: Linux made me eat at Macdonalds (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I hate male ego (Score:5, Funny)
Re:booth girls (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Old habits die hard... (Score:1, Funny)
Different perception and perspective based on different evolutionary pressures combined with structural differences in the brain due to prenatal influence of sex hormones?
Re:Hmm.... (Score:1, Funny)
Well, root, on my Linux box, receives no spam... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"the 'weaker' sex?" (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, they're making progress!
At least they didn't finish the demo by invading Poland.
Note to Microsoft (Score:4, Funny)
What's black and white with poka-dots? (Score:4, Funny)
i would decribe this... (Score:4, Funny)
women trust women. and men like to look at breast.
Re:Sex Sells (Score:1, Funny)
Re:What's black and white with poka-dots? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Geek girl? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm not so sure about this... (Score:1, Funny)
My Malibu G.I. Joe tells me "Linux is Hard."
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:5, Funny)
Women... (Score:5, Funny)
harder to understand than klingon,
harder to handle than SAP,
harder to resist than an open telnet port...
Ain't women what we all do this for ?
Re:Women love Linux too :) (Score:2, Funny)
In soviet russia, the package comes in her.
ouch, I had to.
Re:"the 'weaker' sex?" (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Hmm.... (Score:5, Funny)
Just out of curiosity, what would be the mount options?
Re:It's brilliant (Score:5, Funny)
Yup, sincerity is the hardest part. Once you can fake that, you're golden...
You know what that means? (Score:5, Funny)
The number of people using hurd just doubled!
This is a great day (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sex Sells (Score:5, Funny)
The ratio to good-looking women to men was 2 to 1.
I, for one, welcome our new modern workplace....
Re:Arbeit... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Hmm.... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:2, Funny)
And what did MARKETING say?
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Janet Jackson (Score:3, Funny)
do we need a how to edit adult pics with gimp tutorial?
Do we need a naked Linux Torvalds in order to promote Sauna - Linux?
Campaigns (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:2, Funny)
The T-Shirt doubles their wardrobe and allows them to go another fortnight without doing the laundry.
The stuffed toy is for them to give to a cute girl as valentines day is coming up (not that that would work!)
In fact, using a nice looking saleswoman, she probably got most of the stuffed toys right back as "thoughtful gifts" from the geeks. Money saved!
Realistic demographic of NYC, actually (Score:5, Funny)
Welcome to New York City! I am one of six straight men in an office of 400 (Facilities staff not taken into account). It truly is refreshing working with so many women.
However, two points worth taking into account:
*Most of the rest are killers looking for someone far above your earning potential.
So come on over! You'll have a great time dating around here.
==---------==
No more geek sex jokes ... okay, *one* more (Score:4, Funny)
I can... (Score:2, Funny)
I can -- the view is better.
Re:This woman doesn't... (Score:1, Funny)
back to your cave, slave.
The name for this isn't MARKETING. (Score:5, Funny)
Just a few minutes ago, Aunt Tilley taught me how to compile my 1st kernel, & when I asked her a question, she refused to answer. I can't remember what she said exactly, but was something to do with man pages, howtos & Google.
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:2, Funny)
Taking this a bit further
Put on 2 demonstrations in a workplace. In the first, get an attractive woman to give the Linux demo, hand out Linux T-shirts. Focus the demo on the usefulness of Linux and how it is free (as in beer).
In the second demo, get an RMS clone to hold an installfest for the attendees personal computers. Focus the discussion on how you can hack the kernel, and how Linux is free (as in speech)
Take a random sample of the workplace, send half to the first, half to the second and see which group will welcome a migration to Linux in their workplace and which will be scared off thinking that its too hard. I bet that the first group will come out thinking its a great idea, the second will think that its a step backwards.
MS has shown us that its all about marketing. No matter what the quality of the product you are selling, if its marketed well people will believe that it is the best thing since sliced bread
UNIX Lyrics (Score:3, Funny)
"Going to grep my pipe and chown my sticky bits, yea..."
Re:This woman doesn't... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:3, Funny)
and then proceeds to beat you're ass at it
Re:Hmm.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Reverse psychology... (Score:3, Funny)
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