On Thursday 21 September 2006 17:12, krishnakant Mane wrote:
Tell them to put a new blank disk for their data and linux. U supply the disk if neccessary. End of story.
if that can happen nothing like it. even I was thinking of making our clients at least dual boot their machines so that they start using gnu/linux. only thing is most of them will not even allow a machine under amc to be touched. and they will believe more on their hardware guy rather than some one coming from outside. so putting a new hard disk will only be at the mercy of the hardware personal.
I usually do it like this. Check the free space (maybe 30GB). Tell the hardware guy u need 55gb free space. He says new disk. U say customer will refuse. He says i will convince him. U thank him profusely.
and all these hardware personals are not like you jtd, who will go all out in supporting gnu/linux. rather many see this as a loss of business. they think "we know linux is secured and stable, once this man named kk installs even as duel boot, I will soon loos the service contract." so they will in all ways put fear uncertainty and doubt in the minds of their clients. we need to address this issue very deeply. don't you think so? and I don't meen to disagree with you jtd or even hurting you. but all are not like you and me.
HA ha. I take it then u havent seen the flames fly around here. I am one thick skinned bloke ;-). U are absolutely right abt the hardware guy masquerading as the knowall. Avoid dual boot like the plague. U will loose all data everytime some madcap formats the disk kyonki machine slow chal raha hai / virus hai / disk bahut din se format nahi kiya. Also the moment he blames a problem on linux just disconnect your drive and he will stick out like a sore thumb. Learn the pc arch well. Next time they dish out crap give them details of write thru v/s write back cache and its impact on queue miss or some such equally useless thingy on netwonking on windoze.
Remember it's a lot of hard work and nobody's running "get the facts wright" or "kids waving arms on bbc" ads in support of linux.