Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 09:25:20 -0600 From: "Matthew Bettinger" <mbettinger@championelevators.com> To: <johann@broadpark.no>, <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Cc: <bsd@nuug.no> Subject: Re: Presentation of UNIX to an ignorant crowd Message-ID: <001b01c1be10$a34f1e30$9202c9c9@championelevators.com> References: <1014648629.3c7a4f35eab24@mail.broadpark.no>
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Hello, I was in the same similar type of situation that you are in. We purchased a new ERP system and when I mentioned the idea of putting it on HP-UX the whole office literally freaked. "What is this UUUUUUUUUUUUNIX SHIT!!" . I can tell you right now that trying to make people convert is a waste of time. It won't happen like that. You need to present unbiased facts (which is not hard at all) to the users showing the benefit of using unix like systems. It was particulary difficult to get the point accross that you do not run an 500,000 dollar system on a windows machine, since around here I am a 'Bill Gates Bigot', and a 'fanatic'. Whatever you do , do not turn it into a religious war, present cold hard facts. I still have a mess of information from my last battle that I will gladly send you if you would like. When it comes to upper management work a C sale. By this I mean the ceo's , coo, cfo's are typically just interested in Dollars. How much is it going to cost, how much is it going to cost to run etc.. Also, keep in mind that alot of these upper management folks have this image burned in their head of UNIX as some cryptic dummy terminal looking system that they probably used a long time ago. Also, don't force it too much, there may be another alternative that woudl fit your company and users needs better than linux work stations. We are finally ditching office machines and going with thin clients here. I couldn't ever see this office using linux or solaris machines for day to day activities so I never even brought that up and these thin client solutions are pretty slick. One last thing here, if you do in fact implement some linux solutions, the moment something doesn't work the right you can almost guarantee that people will say you've made a mistake. ' I knew we shouldn't have done this.." Even though they don't mind rebooting their winblows machines 2 times a day.. =]. Don't paint yourself into a cornerby making extraordinary claims. ;-] Matthew Bettinger ----- Original Message ----- From: <johann@broadpark.no> To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Cc: <bsd@nuug.no> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 8:50 AM Subject: Presentation of UNIX to an ignorant crowd > Hi. > > I'm about to hold a lecture on UNIX to people who don't even have the faintest > idea of what it's all about. > > The utter perimeter of their knowledge halts at performing government-related > tasks in Windows 98. > > My job is to convince them that UNIX -- using Mandrake on workstations and > FreeBSD on servers -- is the way to go. In other words teach them the truth, > and make them convert. > > I was assigned to this job on a rather short notice, and therefore I havn't > really had time to do the thorough research part myself. > > I was wondering, however, if such a thing (general presentation of UNIX, its > movements up and till now and the various benefits it may serve). My knowledge > is filled with black holes that might twist out during this presentation, which > is why I was hoping that this could be of assistance. > > Best regards, > Johann > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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