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 :)"
Which one? (Score:2, Interesting)
Women love Linux too :) (Score:5, Interesting)
pic [nccomp.com]
So Just how screwed up are these companies?!?! (Score:2, Interesting)
Hell, this is kinda like McDonalds deciding to use a different type of cash register, then having someone attractive go by and give each McWage Slave a free friggin teddy bear, in order to get them to use the new machine.
How about this approach... "Use the damned software!". Really, I dont know why people seem to think they should have complete freedom on a computer at work. The company owns the machine, and the company chooses the software... so long as the company involved the proper employees in evaluating which is the best software(s) to use... thats it, end of story. Employees really shouldnt have a choice one way or another.
So instead, you get this boneheaded company in germany, that is now going to have a number of mail employee's that have no clue how to use the software, and thus loose productivity, because there ego refuses to let them be beat by a girl?!?!
Besides that point... does male ego really apply that much to intellectual persuits? I mean, do most people think men are better then women at using a computer because of genetics? I doubt the number is high. Now, those hard to open jar lids... yeah, ego still applies there.
If BSD weren't dying... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:3, Interesting)
The article spends a fair amount of time talking about how they dealt with their proverbial "sticks in the mud" and talking about a few of the benefits of running linux vs. Windows, and then finishes up with the following paragraph:
Re:booth girls (Score:3, Interesting)
The other woman had a great personality and eventually she stopped giving out post cards demonstrating a technical application to victi... potential customers. It was amazing how much more attentive the demonstratee was with her. I don't know if it's because she was a woman, evidence of the friendliness of the application or what, but it stuck.
If you want to convert an entire company to swith to open source in one fell swoop get your secretary to install OpenOffice.
Sex Sells (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not surprizing that having a woman demo Linux, people are interested in learning.
Re:I hate male ego (Score:5, Interesting)
I do too...
I don't like that if a girl can do it, any man can...I can do a lot of things with a computer that many men can't do. I work hard to learn all that I can and I don't like that when I am up against a man, everyone automatically listens to what he says over me. I know what I'm talking about, I've been using computers longer than everyone that I know. When I go into a computer store all the clerks swarm to help the poor, defenseless, dumb girl buy expensive things for her computer. It really bugs me. Don't question my intelligence, I know what I'm doing.
I think its an excellent way to market linux to a bunch of men, but it still bugs me that people think like that.
Same in US, but unspoken (Score:5, Interesting)
Gotta keep the spin "Easy enough for *her*, so you can certainly handle it."
Yeah, well despite all the lipservice for equality, there's still plenty of cavemen who think only a man can do such-and-such. A remarkable comment on futuristic magazine ads, back in the 50's, projected the lady of the house still doing all the work, just with more high-tech, work-saving tools. Watch day-time TV and the message that men and women have the same roles from back then is still there.
Good leverage. Works with racism as a motivator, too. "Hey, that (insert ethnicity here) can do pretty good with a (insert tool here), guess I better be able to do as well or my arguments of everyone being inferior to (insert own ethnic group here) falls flat."
Americans tend to have a lot of levers, thanks to lingering puritanical attitudes (watch the super bowl half time show? ;-) Careful how you try to apply them at work, though. The spin that "she can do it, so anyone should be" could land your butt on the sidewalk.
PHB's OTOH could probably care less. Hit them with the true TCO and they're half in the pocket. Problem I've run into is most have this dinosaur attitude that Microsoft makes everything easier. If only...
Re:Reverse psychology... (Score:5, Interesting)
But if you can't lift more than they can, by all means send them along to somebody that can.
Oh, and just because they are using a trick on you doesn't mean they don't need your help. Just smile and say "Sure, but next time just ask instead of playing the mind games." Being a jerk doesn't allow you to change behaviour -- or get dates for that matter.
The only thing stopping Linux... (Score:5, Interesting)
For a long time, I've been a huge proponent of ease-of-use. While I respected Linux from a technical perspective, I've long been dissapointed in it from an ease-of-use perspective.
That all changed the last time I tried Linux. Knoppix, to be exact. It was jaw-droppingly impressive to me: the hardware recognition; the ease-of-use; the clean interface (KDE, in this case, though I suspect GNOME is just as nice); everything was polished and smooth.
And then it hit me, there are only two things stopping Linux from making deep inroads into the desktop market these days:
1. Drivers, drivers, drivers. Not enough hardware makers are bothering with drivers for Linux. Kudos to all the Linux folks writing drivers, but Linux is always at least a step or two behind. However, this problem may be solved if the project that allows Windows drivers to work under Linux is successful.
2. Inertia. Everyone uses Windows, therefore...everyone keeps using Windows.
My hope is that the low cost of Linux will keep driving people into its loving arms.
So...how does this post apply to the topic at hand? Simple: anyone who has given modern distributions of Linux a chance already knows what I know: Linux is just as easy to use as Windows these days (or close enough that it doesn't matter), and the only thing holding Linux back now are the two items I listed above. Anyone who claims modern distributions of Linux are too hard to use probably shouldn't be using computers at all.
-Teckla
Re:So Just how screwed up are these companies?!?! (Score:5, Interesting)
Deciphering all the typos in that post was an interesting experience...
Regardless, the main point - that a corporation is a dictatorship - is factually correct. However, if you treat your employees as if they have no valuable opinions on the tools they will be using to do their jobs, then you will lose buy in, and have a revolt.
The employees aren't exactly going to be turning up at their manager's door with pitch-forks and flaming torches, but they are going to be grumbling, moaning, bitching, whining, and likely looking for another job. Successful companies retain staff by ensuring they feel valued.
Basically, treating your employees like shit gets you nothing but shit employees. Acting in a dictatorial manner simply because you can simply creates more problems than it solves. It is vital in large scale change projects to ensure that people at least feel like they've been consulted, even if you end up ignoring everything they've said.
The productivity lost in replacing numbers of employees would be far more costly than simply throwing some toy penguins and a blonde bimbo into the equation.
I am, of course, assuming that once the buy in was created by the "weaker sex" and toy penguin strategy there is sufficient training and backup in place - without which the entire project is doomed to failure anyway.
What about ./ personals? There are plenty! (Score:3, Interesting)
1 is a direct consequence of 2 (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, this isn't true anymore, and slowly, as more people are using Linux, more companies are realizing that Linux is worth supporting.
This doesn't apply just to drivers, it applies to specialized software as well.
It's not that hard, stupid! (Score:3, Interesting)
So... how hard is it, really?
Its What you are used to (Score:3, Interesting)
B29 Strategy (Score:4, Interesting)
The male pilots decided that it was flyable when a crew of female pilots were trained to fly it.
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmm.... part 2 (Score:3, Interesting)
After all, i'd much rather prompt the girls to play with my tarballs and give my extension a header first (as long as they don't byte). Then they can finger eachother and play with their nodes while I cool off, before we all compile. I won't dev into the core details, but it would involve loading a large driver and lots of fscking and !banging.
(And remember kids: No networking without a firewall!)
Better?
Re:booth girls (Score:3, Interesting)
When Art Fry, the inventor of Post-It notes, first attempted to pitch the innovation at 3-M he received a lukewarm response. He then distributed samples to some 3-M secretaries who quickly found new uses for them . It's now one of the 5 top-selling office products.
the history of the post-it note [snopes.com]
Email IBM (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Example (not cut and pasted, just typed in by memory.. this is what happened to my system a few weeks ago):
apt-get update; apt-get upgrade
package-A requires package-B-2.20
downgrading package-B-2.30 to package-B-2.20
package-C requiers package-B >= 2.30
uninstalling package-C..
uninstalling everything that depends on package-C..
I ended up with over fifty things that I had to reinstall, to get my computer back in order after THAT fuckup.
The Holy Roman Catholic Church (Score:4, Interesting)
So when men are amazed at women's ability to use Linux, their amazement can be attributed to the work of the early Roman Catholic Church, which continues today.
IFO was sold on Linux not by a woman, but by a penguin. I don't know how where the Church comes in there. The nuns in the catholic school I went to as a kid looked a lot like penguins. But I was never attracted to them. Really.
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:4, Interesting)
scripsit XO:
Um, you've got a seriously FUBAR apt configuration if that's happening to you. I would suggest unfscking your /etc/apt/preferences for a start...
Seriously, the only time this sort of thing happens is when you're running Unstable or, especially, mixing Unstable packages into a Stable or Testing system -- and then you're intentionally putting yourself on the bleeding edge. The one exception I can recall is the recent and well-documented problem with the switch to GTK2-based Galeon; that only affected Testing, too, not Stable. And it was resolved in a few days; we just used Firebird in the interim.
Re:Theres a name for this.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Though in any case, even word of mouth seems to be doing pretty well. I'm finding it more common for people to mention thinking about using Linux - OK, not huge common, but the fact that it's turning up at all in conversation with non computer geeks is amazing to me.
Re:Same in US, but unspoken (Score:4, Interesting)
Ladies and gentlemen, the voice of reason.
Thanks.
Re:The Future is Open (Score:3, Interesting)
Stuffed animals and Testosterone Pride (Score:2, Interesting)
Kidding aside, this shows that everything is politics, salesmanship and psychology; even something as simple as choosing the best software platform.
Congratulations!