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whm1974
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Girl buys Ubuntu lapto by mistake.

Sun Feb 05, 2017 11:54 pm

I ran across this video and think that it is rather funny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qj8p-PEwbI

OTOH, a lot of people I have helped with their computers were not even aware what an operating system is, much less that there more then just the Mac and Windows OSs. Yes I know it is old news, but when I first heard about this some years ago I thought it was something from the Onion. Now I find out it is true.

Now I'm wondering just how many times this sort of thing has happen and we just don't hear about it?
 
Flying Fox
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Re: Girl buys Ubuntu lapto by mistake.

Mon Feb 06, 2017 1:12 am

Sounds like you might have been that Dell guy who talked her up. :P And you are not exactly doing your Linux cause any good by still propagating stuff like this.

To be fair, that was 2009. These days, ISPs like Verizon should know better that they cannot force people to run their CD to "get onto the internet". And as for Office compatibility? If Open/Libre Office does not work, you can just sign up an OneDrive account and use Word Online as real Word documents. Microsoft has come a long way to make sure the Office Web Apps work on Chrome (not sure about FireFox). It is going to much less of a problem now. Heck, a girl in 2017 may not even get a 1100 Dell "cheaper" laptop, but a $400 iPad instead, and even that can do Office no problem. Times certainly have changed.
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Re: Girl buys Ubuntu lapto by mistake.

Mon Feb 06, 2017 1:29 am

Flying Fox wrote:
If Open/Libre Office does not work, you can just sign up an OneDrive account and use Word Online as real Word documents. Microsoft has come a long way to make sure the Office Web Apps work on Chrome (not sure about FireFox).


Office online works just fine in Firefox, generally speaking.
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Re: Girl buys Ubuntu lapto by mistake.

Mon Feb 06, 2017 2:10 am

I am 99% certain someone posted a link to this previously. Can't find it though.

Dell really did themselves and the Linux community a disservice by advising her that this laptop would be a good fit. Even today, one needs to be careful when recommending Linux for consumer use cases; back in 2009, recommending it for someone with a non-technical background was just plain stupid.

TBH I don't find it particularly amusing, other than in a "mainstream media attempts to cover a technical topic, with predictable results" sort of way. If you're laughing at the girl who bought the laptop, you're a poster child for the image problem that Linux (still) has among much of the public.

I also can't imagine The Onion running something like this; they're funnier than that.
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whm1974
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Re: Girl buys Ubuntu lapto by mistake.

Mon Feb 06, 2017 2:51 am

just brew it! wrote:
I am 99% certain someone posted a link to this previously. Can't find it though.

Dell really did themselves and the Linux community a disservice by advising her that this laptop would be a good fit. Even today, one needs to be careful when recommending Linux for consumer use cases; back in 2009, recommending it for someone with a non-technical background was just plain stupid.

TBH I don't find it particularly amusing, other than in a "mainstream media attempts to cover a technical topic, with predictable results" sort of way. If you're laughing at the girl who bought the laptop, you're a poster child for the image problem that Linux (still) has among much of the public.

I also can't imagine The Onion running something like this; they're funnier than that.

I think Dell at the time should have taken the laptop back and exchanged it for a Windows one no questions asked. I myself am very careful about how and who I promote Linux too. The handful of people who I had installed for kept asking me to install what I used, before I did anything I did take an effort to explain that is this not Windows. I also made sure the stuff they needed was installed as well.
Now that you mention it, yeah you are right this isn't funny at after all.
 
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Re: Girl buys Ubuntu lapto by mistake.

Mon Feb 06, 2017 4:13 am

whm1974 wrote:
I think Dell at the time should have taken the laptop back and exchanged it for a Windows one no questions asked.

Of course. Trying to convince her to live with what was (effectively, to her) a $1000 doorstop was a clear case of crappy customer service.

You can't very well expect someone who doesn't even know the difference between Windows and Linux to manually configure an internet connection, and that's just the beginning. I'm sure IE-specific sites, shaky Flash/Java plugin support, and lack of common Microsoft fonts in the base system install would've given her trouble too, and that's just for web browsing. Woe be unto her if she was required to submit papers in MS Word format, or use PDF fill-in forms for anything.
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whm1974
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Re: Girl buys Ubuntu lapto by mistake.

Mon Feb 06, 2017 5:58 am

just brew it! wrote:
whm1974 wrote:
I think Dell at the time should have taken the laptop back and exchanged it for a Windows one no questions asked.

Of course. Trying to convince her to live with what was (effectively, to her) a $1000 doorstop was a clear case of crappy customer service.

You can't very well expect someone who doesn't even know the difference between Windows and Linux to manually configure an internet connection, and that's just the beginning. I'm sure IE-specific sites, shaky Flash/Java plugin support, and lack of common Microsoft fonts in the base system install would've given her trouble too, and that's just for web browsing. Woe be unto her if she was required to submit papers in MS Word format, or use PDF fill-in forms for anything.

While I have never dealt with Dell's customer service myself, I have heard that they are very poor at it or at least were at the time. I wonder if the girl ever brought another Dell product again?
 
Glorious
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Re: Girl buys Ubuntu lapto by mistake.

Mon Feb 06, 2017 8:54 am

JBI wrote:
If you're laughing at the girl who bought the laptop, you're a poster child for the image problem that Linux (still) has among much of the public.


Bingo.

Why does it even matter that a "girl" bought this laptop?

Oh.

right.

:(
 
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Re: Girl buys Ubuntu lapto by mistake.

Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:04 am

whm1974 wrote:
Now I'm wondering just how many times this sort of thing has happen and we just don't hear about it?

Clueless sales staff miss-selling something they don't know how to pronounce properly let alone understand?
I'm pretty sure this is the first instance of that happen in recorded history.
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