Regular readers of this column will know that I’m a fan of education and positive experience as an advocacy tool in place of shouting from rooftops. Winning the mindset of an average computer user — particularly home users — is never going to be a quick process but a recent experience showed me we still have some old and familiar hills to climb. How do we combat legacy reputations of GNU/Linux that are no longer valid?

A friend of mine has been using GNU/Linux — Debian to be precise — for about three years. Prior to that he had used Windows for several years. It was his choice to switch, but I helped him do it. He’s taken to Debian with great gusto; in fact, he’s often mentioned how much easier he finds his computer to use when he’s using it. He has a “just in case” dual-boot set up with Windows XP but he rarely uses it because he finds it “slow” and “less intuitive”. He’ll ask me for advice on software choice because he’s keen not to have to go back to Windows at all. He’s by no means an expert but he’s also no longer a beginner. He’s quite happy to engage with the shell if required but prefers not to. I support him when called upon but rarely have to. He is analogous to a car driver who is confident in changing a lamp bulb. Sounds like an ideal conversion story doesn’t it? And it probably is - yet even with him there are parts of the “reputation” of GNU/Linux that keep resurfacing.

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