Episode: 115
Title: HPR0115: Promoting Linux
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0115/hpr0115.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 11:37:03

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Thank you so much.
Hello my name is Ken Dall and welcome to this edition of Hacker Public Radio.
Sorry for the sound quality and this one again I'm using my portable MB3 recorder.
Today is going to be a little talk about promoting Linux and not the LBI certification course.
I'll be doing another LBI certification course this month and I'll be doing a changing
tack a little bit, found some interesting documentation following my appeal for more
information last month loads of people have responded and I've got some good resources
that we can use to hopefully speed along the process of doing the LBI certification.
Okay as I said before today's topic is about promoting Linux.
Now a lot of people want to know how they can give back to the community,
some people do source code development, other people want to do documentation and other people
try to do podcasts which of course is a very good way to promote Linux and if you want to do a
podcast and are thinking about it but don't have a topic feel free to come along and help out
with the LBI certification track and shameless plug. However quite a lot of you if you listen to
this year of the hacker mentality and not only that but most people who are of the hacker mentality
tend to get asked to do computer related tasks for a friend and family. Now this means
even if you're a Linux guy you sometimes are fixing PCs for people with windows and people with
max and that sort of thing. Now in the course of these repairs you are going to probably be
purchasing more equipment, memory, hard disks, video cards and that sort of thing then your normal
job low on the street. Now as all good Linux people know places like LinuxDevices.com and
Linux Hardware and the LinuxQuestions.org Hardware section will give you loads of information
on the right type of hardware to purchase and naturally over the years you've know you've learned
to check these sites out and be 100% sure that the hardware you're going to purchase will work on
Linux before you purchase it. Now what I'm about to say now is more when you're going into a lot of
people buy stuff online so this isn't really relevant but when you're going into shops,
computer shops, I don't know, like media marketing or dixons or fries or something like that
can compute or say whatever. When you're buying anything and I mean absolutely anything if it's a
CD but a stack of blank CDs if it's memory, if it's a hard disk, if it's anything be sure to go
to the information desk and ask will this product work with Linux. Now you ask this even though you
know in your mind that it will 100% guaranteed work with Linux you will ask this every single time
every single time you will ask this and you will say to them if they don't know then you will
reply back to them saying and what is your return policy and can I return it if it doesn't work
with Linux and they will probably have to go and ask the manager but most doors have no questions
ask return policy where you return it within somebody days. Now I go down to my local computer shop
I walk in and I buy some RAM I know that they have a return policy I ask will it work for Linux
the first time I started doing this they answer was we don't know both I'll have to check
and they go and they look up and now I have been trained so that anytime I walk in they
look at the back of the thing and they'll see the tux logo and they go yes it does work with Linux
so now in their mind in that one store there are conscious of the fact that they have customers
who work with Linux now that's all very well you think and well I buy most of my stuff online
well do exactly the same thing if there's options for load form if there's a questions about
the product fill it out can you confirm that this product will work with Linux and if it doesn't
along do I have to return it be sure and always do this and the reason we're doing this is to say
we are people in the Linux community we have hard cold cash in fact we probably have more hard
cold cash accessible to us largely because we're repairing PCs for people on other environments
now you message yourself there's a bit dishonest because I'm repairing Windows PC and I want to make
sure that the printer and buying works with Linux well you're not because you're making that
PC future proof if somebody if a manufacturer has taken the time to provide Linux drivers
they more than likely also have Mac drivers and they also more than likely have good Windows drivers
and this just makes it a more supportive product that they care about their product now if you're
in the business environment and you're responsible for doing quotations or specifying equipment
are you talking to vendors even if you're when if you're a Windows shop with 100% Linux server or
Windows servers I mean 100% 6p on the desktop 100% whatever you should always ask what sort of support
do you have for Linux or other other other environments so Mac or BSD and this will guess
the sales guy thinking for start might not know what Linux is and you go well we're not
intending and implementing it but we want to leave our options open now management ask you
why you're doing this and say you put it now to quotation you should always try and guess into
the quotation you usually have requests it must do this it must do that and then nice to have what
you're trying to do is you're trying to get on that sheet of paper nice to have is Linux support
and you say to management if they say well why are we doing this you say well we want to make sure
that we're leaving our options open so that in the future we're open and supported if a company
is supporting Linux it means they generally have more support staff available and therefore
that is that means that their Windows support will be a lot better if they're supporting Linux
they have a bigger customer base which means we're more secure in buying that product so you can
convince management that is a good thing to do and what that does is put in Linux on the radar
it's saying people who make purchases are using Linux people are thinking about using Linux so
if they're coming back when people bring the sales dudes in and they're working on the strategy
for the coming year they will ask them you know what what do you see coming up and they'll say
well we see a lot of people are asking about Linux they're wondering do we have Linux support
yet yet yet now if you're talking to these people and they say well we don't have Linux support
then what you do is you say you do know that there's a team within the Linux community that will
develop your drivers for free essentially you don't have to do anything except point them in
the right direction and there again you're promoting the use of Linux you're making it an
everyday thing you're making it that it's coming up on every sheet of documentation so if you
are there working in a in a Windows only shop and you're frustrated by the fact that you're not
bringing Linux in well here's how you can do it from the ground up because if you bring in questions
about Linux into sales people and everybody else listening to this do it then the product specifications
when they come out with next year's brochure there will be a tiny little thing that says
also supports Linux and then your manager will say oh that dude who was working down in the
in the balls of our IT department was on about support for Linux and I see this product supports
Linux so it must be a good product and there again we're supporting the whole idea that Linux
is something that they that she must be right because I see it in the product brochure and you
just keep chipping away keep bringing up the word Linux also if you're if your family are thinking
of buying a computer with Linux on it suggest that they give it a try put a dual boot in don't force
it on them any chance you get to do interviews or talking to salespeople try and inject the word
Linux in there as a sort of buy the buy sort of a thing I've waffled on a little bit too much now
and just remember every time we purchase something you're spending money that can be attributed
to the Linux column even if you happen to be buying it for Windows and Mac I'd encourage
everybody to do that it's one good way of helping the community without actually having to be
that technical or whatever so make sure you allow a little bit of extra time when you're going
out to make your purchases to allow for that okay and the next time you're here for me we'll be
talking about PC expansion cards on the Linux certification I've been told that team working
on the Linux audio section for the LPI certification no pressure no pressure but if you could have
it soon that would be great and like to know an episode on modems for the LPI certification so
that'd be cool looking forward to that speeden up later on this month anyway ladies and gentlemen
this has been another exciting and fulfilled episode of hacker public radio have a good day
thank you for listening to hacker public radio HPR sponsored by caro.net so head on over to
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