How can I convince my wife to change?
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| devnet Feb 08, 2005 4:53 PM EDT |
Hi all, I figured I'd ask everyone to see if there were some great points I could tell my wife about when pitching a 'let's ditch Outlook on the dual boot and go with Thunderbird' angle. I've been slowly replacing various windows components with open source equivalents in an attempt to eventually replace windows entirely...piece by piece. First went in Open Office, then Firefox. Now I've got her hooked on the GIMP Things to really keep in mind is this...she only wants simple. If it is different, she doesn't want to take a ton of time to unlearn and then learn. She wants to be able to find a doc if something gives her an error so that she never gets it again. She's never been to a forum in her life, nor an IRC channel...so obviously, those channels will be out for her. So the question again...can I pitch her Thunderbird? Is it really 1.0 and ready to go? Suggestions? |
| Koriel Feb 09, 2005 12:42 AM EDT |
I have done the self same thing with my wife, replaced her MS apps with OSS apps including Thunderbird. Thunderbird did cause some problems early on as i started converting her around the 0.7 beta mark and it was fairly ropey then but now at the 1.0 version she is very happy with it. Unfortunately the Linux version still has an annoying bug in which sometimes it fails to move junk to your designated junk folder after doing a mail retrieve. Maybe windows version has same bug but i've never seen it. So i would say go ahead |
| mdl Feb 09, 2005 2:45 AM EDT |
It is amazing the amount of frustration people will tolerate to avoid the pain of switching from something familiar. My wife uses Outlook for business and has "too much invested" in Outlook to switch at this time. Usually mild-mannered, she has started using very bad language toward Outlook and XP. I have installed Firefox and Thunderbird for her and she uses both for her personal use. She loves them and I am sure that real soon now she will reach the breaking point with Outlook. |
| dinotrac Feb 09, 2005 3:36 AM EDT |
People here have hit it on the head. Best tools for spousal switchal: 1. Gee, honey, I can't really help you with that because I'm a Windows guy. Hey! Y'know, some of my applications run on Windows, too. I could set them up for you, then I could help you when you need help. 2. Set it up, then "Hey honey, check this out. I think it's a lot easier than Outlook and I know it has a whole lot few problems." If you do this, however, you'd better make sure it is at least as easy as Outlook. |
| dave Feb 09, 2005 4:21 AM EDT |
Here's what I did in 1996... I gave my wife a choice between two options. 1. I will give her a Windows computer, but will offer nothing in the way of technical support or training assistance. 2. I will give her a Linux box, and will give her complete technical support and training assistance. She chose #2 and stuck with that until 1999, at which point Linux with Netscape 4 no longer was sufficient and I cheerfully moved her to a Mac. In 2002, when evolution and Galeon were ready, I moved her back to Linux. A few days ago I announced to her that she would be migrating from Evolution to Thunderbird, and she continues to be happy as a clam. :) http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=1999-11-05-004-05... Dave |
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