<div dir="ltr"><ul style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><li style="margin-left:15px">Gamers and XBox owners. I said "potential". If this is a teenager, you can try to sell them about the rebellious open source community! (-:<br>
</li></ul><div><font face="arial, sans-serif">I'm offended, but that would probably work on some</font></div><ul style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><li style="margin-left:15px">Migration of Microsoft Office to LibreOffice - Fortunately, the Microsoft Word-documents, Powerpoint-presentations, and Excel-spreadsheets are normally converted without too many issues; some will probably require some manual cleaning up. The big obstacle here is the Visio drawing tool. There isn't a way that I could find to convert their drawings to be imported by `dia` or other Linux drawing tools. Mine too.<br>
</li></ul><div><font face="arial, sans-serif">Just make sure they know how to save in a word readable format, otherwise there will be a lot of hate coming at you.</font></div><ul style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<li style="margin-left:15px">Photoshop to The Gimp? Photoshop is very complex to operate and so is the Gimp. I could not find a way to migrate one artist (my daughter) from Windows to Linux because of this single issue (she is already a Firefox and LibreOffice user). I don't think she is unusual in her disdain for large-scale change of habits.<br>
</li></ul><div><font face="arial, sans-serif">Point people to something like pinta that is slightly easier to learn if they don't need every feature ever made.</font></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 4:59 AM, Richard Elkins <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:richard.elkins@gmail.com" target="_blank">richard.elkins@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div lang="x-western"> I have converted
neighbors and family members to home-PC-Linux since 2003, lately
exclusively to Xubuntu. They were all non-computer-tech people
with various levels of experience and education. My simple
approach (like an interview):<br>
<br>
Would you like to <br>
<ul>
<li>avoid being forced to periodically purchase new hardware by
the basic software vendor?</li>
<li>avoid being forced to periodically purchase new versions of
essentially the same basic software and office software?</li>
<li>stop being tempted into stealing software from Microsoft and
other Windows vendors?</li>
<li>reduce time dealing with spyware and viruses because your
"basic software" (OS) is being targeted by miscreants? Linux
like Android could still be attacked but this is a probability
question. One still needs protection on a Linux system.<br>
</li>
</ul>
Nothing is "free". There are ONE-TIME (fixed) "costs" in terms of
personal time investment associated with adopting Xubuntu for a
new non-computer-tech user:<br>
<ul>
<li>During the migration, stored data must be backed up from
Windows and restored to the new Linux system.<br>
</li>
<li>Learn a new desktop and set of programs. Essentially, learn
how to go find things one uses and operate, in general, in a
different manner. Change is always a pain. Intelligence and
curiosity helps. People locked into habits will probably not
succeed.<br>
</li>
</ul>
Potential large hurdles:<br>
<ul>
<li>Gamers and XBox owners. I said "potential". If this is a
teenager, you can try to sell them about the rebellious open
source community! (-:<br>
</li>
<li>Migration of Microsoft Office to LibreOffice - Fortunately,
the Microsoft Word-documents, Powerpoint-presentations, and
Excel-spreadsheets are normally converted without too many
issues; some will probably require some manual cleaning up.
The big obstacle here is the Visio drawing tool. There isn't
a way that I could find to convert their drawings to be
imported by `dia` or other Linux drawing tools. Mine too.<br>
</li>
<li>Outlook mail/calendar/etc. - I converted myself a long time
ago by doing a lot of Windows and Linux programming which
effectively moved me from Outlook to Yahoo almost-equivalents.
I don't recommend this approach. This is probably an
individual by individual solution, assuming there is one for a
given individual (no other stumbling blocks).<br>
</li>
<li>Photoshop to The Gimp? Photoshop is very complex to operate
and so is the Gimp. I could not find a way to migrate one
artist (my daughter) from Windows to Linux because of this
single issue (she is already a Firefox and LibreOffice user).
I don't think she is unusual in her disdain for large-scale
change of habits.<br>
</li>
</ul>
I was lucky. The only complex user was myself. Others said "I
don't need the files that much" or they converted them to PDF and
manually re-entered the files in question. Everyone that I have
converted said it was worth the effort because Linux is an
excellent financial deal. All have gained a new respect for open
source in general. Me too.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
<br>
Richard<br>
<br>
<br>
</font></span></div>
</div>
<br>--<br>
xubuntu-devel mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:xubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com">xubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br></div>