- Share your personal experiences (good and bad) with Linux.
Everyone knows that software has bugs and limitations and
if we only have glowing comments about Linux, we aren't
being honest. I love to tell people about having to
reboot four times (three scheduled) in three years.
- If someone has a problem that Linux may be able to solve,
offer to provide pointers to appropriate information
(Web pages, magazine articles, books, consultants, ...).
If you haven't actually used the proposed solution, say so.
- Offer to help someone start using Linux.
- Try to respond to one ``newbie'' posting each week.
Seek out the tough questions, you may be the only one
to respond and you may learn something in the process.
However, if you aren't confident that you can respond with
the correct answer, find someone that can.
- Seek out small software development firms and offer to make
a presentation about Linux.
- If the opportunity arises, make a presentation to your
employer's Information Technology group.
- Participate in community events such as
NetDay96 [ http://www.netday96.com ].
While your first priority must be to
contribute to the success of the event, use the opportunity to let
others know what Linux can do for them.
- Always consider the viewpoints of the person to which you are
``selling'' Linux. Support, reliability, interoperability and
cost are all factors that a decision-maker must consider.
Of the above, cost is often the least important portion of the equation.
- Point out that the production of freely available software
takes place in an environment of open collaboration between
system architects, programmers, writers, alpha/beta testers
and end users which often results in well documented, robust
products such as Emacs, Perl and the Linux kernel.
- Report successful efforts of promoting Linux to
Linux International [ http://www.li.org ]
(
li@li.org)
and similar organizations.
- Find a new home for Linux CD-ROMs and books that you no longer
need. Give them to someone interested in Linux, a public
library or a school computer club. A book and its CD-ROM
would be most appropriate for a library. However, please be
sure that making the CD-ROM publicly available does not
violate a licensing agreement or copyright. Also, inform
the library staff that the material on the CD-ROM is freely
distributable. Follow up to make sure it is available on
the shelves.
- When purchasing books about software distributed with Linux,
give preference to books written by the author of the software.
The royalties that authors receive from book sales may be
the only monetary compensation received for their efforts.