RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
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Geek on the Hill
About four or five years ago, a good business client of mine, Henry, asked me to take a look at his then teen-aged daughter Jackie's PC, which was loaded with spyware and viruses.
On the first trip, I spent an hour or two doing virus and spyware removal, but a week or two later, the machine was infected again. So I went back (for free) and did a reformat / reinstall, figuring I'd missed something the first time.
A week after that, Henry called me back and told me the machine was infected again. I went back again, and sure enough, some spyware had slipped by the security software, and the machine was a mess.
Jackie was 15 at the time and was upset because she wanted to get on AIM to tell her friends about her upcoming sweet 16 party, and her brother (wisely) wouldn't let her near his computer after getting her own infected again. So I booted up my laptop, which was running Fedora, and fired up GAIM so she could chat while I pondered what to do with her machine.
After a few minutes, I noticed that she seemed comfortable with Linux, so I offered to install Fedora on her desktop. She was hesitant: She was intimidated by computers and doubted she could learn to use Linux. But when I pointed out that she was already using Linux on my laptop, she agreed to give it a try -- as long as I promised to put Windows back on her machine if she hated Linux.
So I installed Fedora, explained a little about Linux to her, showed here where to find help, invited her to call me if she needed to, made sure her Internet, sound, printer, and other peripherals worked, and left.
About a month later, Jackie called me and explained that she was having a problem updating some program or another. Her explanation went something like, "The update failed when I ran the RPM; so I downloaded and gunzipped the source, su'd to root, and extracted the tarball, but it segfaulted at line such-and-such..." or something along those lines. I was astonished that she'd picked up the lingo so quickly.
In any case, we solved the update problem. I think she had to do a force install, but I forget. And that was the last time I heard from Jackie.
Since then, Henry's told me whenever I've seen him that Jackie hasn't had any computer problems since we'd put Linux on the machine, and in fact had become a little Linux guru. Apparently, she often takes her Fedora disks to friends' homes to convert them when their computers get bogged down by malware.
A few months ago, I went back to the house to look at Henry's son's PC, and I checked out Jackie's machine while I was there. She hadn't changed the root password, but when I logged in I saw that she had upgraded the installation several times since we'd first installed it. I think I'd installed Fedora Core 2, and she had upgraded it to Fedora 6 by the time I last saw the machine. She obviously was quite comfortable and satisfied with Linux and had been maintaining the system well, so I logged off and left it alone.
Sooo... while at a "geekfest" with local colleagues a month or so ago, I happened to mention the story to a friend, Rob, who promptly told me I was full of something. He couldn't believe that a teen-aged girl could "master" Linux and use it for years with no problems. Not that he had anything against Linux; he just felt it was too complex for an "average" person, much less a teen-ager, to master.
So the other day, when I talked to Henry, I asked him to have Jackie (now 20) give me a call.
Well, Jackie called today and agreed to call Rob at work, and she gave him an earful -- as well as a lesson or two about Linux. Rob called me a few minutes afterwards and apologized profusely, and also said he was astonished at Jackie's knowledge of Linux. The kid has become a legitimate expert, it seems, because even Rob, who is an expert in his own right, was impressed. (I'm merely competent in Linux, so she's certainly advanced beyond me.)
It's hard to figure why a kid who had so much trouble with Windows wound up becoming so competent in Linux. But she did; and apparently she's been leading a mini-Linux revolution among her friends. But she has no desire to make a career of it. She's going into nursing instead. Kind a pity from my selfish point of view, because I'd love to hire her.
In any case, I thought it was rather amusing. I guess you have to be a geek to appreciate it...
-Rich
On the first trip, I spent an hour or two doing virus and spyware removal, but a week or two later, the machine was infected again. So I went back (for free) and did a reformat / reinstall, figuring I'd missed something the first time.
A week after that, Henry called me back and told me the machine was infected again. I went back again, and sure enough, some spyware had slipped by the security software, and the machine was a mess.
Jackie was 15 at the time and was upset because she wanted to get on AIM to tell her friends about her upcoming sweet 16 party, and her brother (wisely) wouldn't let her near his computer after getting her own infected again. So I booted up my laptop, which was running Fedora, and fired up GAIM so she could chat while I pondered what to do with her machine.
After a few minutes, I noticed that she seemed comfortable with Linux, so I offered to install Fedora on her desktop. She was hesitant: She was intimidated by computers and doubted she could learn to use Linux. But when I pointed out that she was already using Linux on my laptop, she agreed to give it a try -- as long as I promised to put Windows back on her machine if she hated Linux.
So I installed Fedora, explained a little about Linux to her, showed here where to find help, invited her to call me if she needed to, made sure her Internet, sound, printer, and other peripherals worked, and left.
About a month later, Jackie called me and explained that she was having a problem updating some program or another. Her explanation went something like, "The update failed when I ran the RPM; so I downloaded and gunzipped the source, su'd to root, and extracted the tarball, but it segfaulted at line such-and-such..." or something along those lines. I was astonished that she'd picked up the lingo so quickly.
In any case, we solved the update problem. I think she had to do a force install, but I forget. And that was the last time I heard from Jackie.
Since then, Henry's told me whenever I've seen him that Jackie hasn't had any computer problems since we'd put Linux on the machine, and in fact had become a little Linux guru. Apparently, she often takes her Fedora disks to friends' homes to convert them when their computers get bogged down by malware.
A few months ago, I went back to the house to look at Henry's son's PC, and I checked out Jackie's machine while I was there. She hadn't changed the root password, but when I logged in I saw that she had upgraded the installation several times since we'd first installed it. I think I'd installed Fedora Core 2, and she had upgraded it to Fedora 6 by the time I last saw the machine. She obviously was quite comfortable and satisfied with Linux and had been maintaining the system well, so I logged off and left it alone.
Sooo... while at a "geekfest" with local colleagues a month or so ago, I happened to mention the story to a friend, Rob, who promptly told me I was full of something. He couldn't believe that a teen-aged girl could "master" Linux and use it for years with no problems. Not that he had anything against Linux; he just felt it was too complex for an "average" person, much less a teen-ager, to master.
So the other day, when I talked to Henry, I asked him to have Jackie (now 20) give me a call.
Well, Jackie called today and agreed to call Rob at work, and she gave him an earful -- as well as a lesson or two about Linux. Rob called me a few minutes afterwards and apologized profusely, and also said he was astonished at Jackie's knowledge of Linux. The kid has become a legitimate expert, it seems, because even Rob, who is an expert in his own right, was impressed. (I'm merely competent in Linux, so she's certainly advanced beyond me.)
It's hard to figure why a kid who had so much trouble with Windows wound up becoming so competent in Linux. But she did; and apparently she's been leading a mini-Linux revolution among her friends. But she has no desire to make a career of it. She's going into nursing instead. Kind a pity from my selfish point of view, because I'd love to hire her.
In any case, I thought it was rather amusing. I guess you have to be a geek to appreciate it...
-Rich
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