Has anybody had a Linux discussion with a perfect stranger?

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Jayce

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Sunday of last week rolled around and the boring reality of having nothing to do that day settled in, so my buddy and I went to the new Best Buy that opened up 3 months ago to browse around and see if we could find some deals, since the week previous we had found some random items on a one day sale that were cheaper than even NewEgg.

Walking in to the one aisle, my ears perked up when I heard a Linux discussion just a few feet away, between a younger Best Buy employee and an older gentleman.

Listening more, it became apparent both of them were very familiar with Ubuntu. The employee seemed to be more of a Windows guy due to the nature of his job, as well as being a pretty hardcore gamer. The older gentleman though sounded like he had been a Windows user since Microsoft was even founded, and only recently (within the last year) had gotten into the Linux scene. A couple minutes pass and the discussion dissipates. I spark up conversation with the man by simply saying, "Ubuntu fan, huh?" He smiled and said yep - it's all I use now. He talked more by saying how Ubuntu is the only OS in his house now. Both of his kids and his wife even got in on it and had it installed on their computers. Everything is networked together and he expressed how everybody picked up the OS without much issue at all. Of course, AFTER they learned what programs in Ubuntu compare to the known titles they were already familiar with in Windows.

After I left I realized this was the first time I ever ran into a perfect stranger and was able to spark up some sort of conversation like this. And go figure, being the tech nerd I am it'd be something computer related. At the end of the day, I knew the guy's job history, what his family was like, and what his background was like, but I had no clue what his first name was.

Go figure.
 
He talked more by saying how Ubuntu is the only OS in his house now. Both of his kids and his wife even got in on it and had it installed on their computers. Everything is networked together and he expressed how everybody picked up the OS without much issue at all.

That is nice to hear. I am having problems with that. I installed on my sisters laptop ubuntu and windows so she can dual boot but she seems to prefer windows and keeps talking about vista. I was so ****ed at her the other time. She just lives in a little bubble about computers.

Now regarding the topic. I had one of those moments. I once picked up a chick at a club and once at my place she asked me if that was linux on my computer and I was like :omg: At that time I was really into it. I still am but back than I was even more. Any way than we talked once about it but I do not remember now how she came to use it or what ever but yeah it was quite amazing to hear her talk about linux when some times people in the computer industry do not use it. I just meet this guy who installed internet at our house and some thing was wrong on my computer so he looked at it and you could see how confused he was. I had ubuntu installed and there was nothing that he could do on it. Kind of sad if you think about it now days they sell laptops preinstaled with ubuntu and he would not know how to fix some networking issue on it.
 
Ubuntu huh? But honestly, I barely consider Ubuntu users, linux users, because it takes no knowledge of linux to use ubuntu. He's probably never touched a terminal, or command line operating system in his life.
 
Ubuntu huh? But honestly, I barely consider Ubuntu users, linux users, because it takes no knowledge of linux to use ubuntu. He's probably never touched a terminal, or command line operating system in his life.

I find it interesting that there's a few people out there that make this rather interesting claim. I've used RHEL, openSUSE, Fedora, Mandriva, Mepis, PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, Sabayon, CentOS, and the list goes on and on. Yet, I find I use the terminal just as much in Ubuntu as I do any other distro. Maybe it's just because I'm used to it and kind of a terminal fanatic, so maybe that's why I typically just go that route.

After having so used so many different distros, all for relatively extended periods of time, I have yet to understand why anybody wouldn't consider it Linux. Is it because you don't have to compile a new xorg file in terminal every time you set up a new install? It runs on the Linux kernel. It uses the terminal in the same fashion as other flavors of Linux utilize it. Yet when it comes to having a friend or relative who's not an adept computer user, I'm not afraid to install that particular OS for them.

That's really the beauty of it. An operating system that is capable of handling things for more adept users and terminal junkies, all while being easier to use for the general public.

To correct your comment, it is indeed Linux. By the way, welcome to the forums. ;)
 
Haha way to go sparking up convos! Never had such a convo, Linux users here are rare I guess. I've used it off and on but not as a primary OS. Guess I'll play around sometime in the future :p.

Edit: Oh and as I said before, your my Linux Hero :D! Haha :p.
 
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