 So, one of the questions I often get from viewers of the channel is how they can introduce Linux to people as far as, you know, striking up a conversation about Linux. And one of the things I like to do is I like to wear these cool t-shirts, like today I'm running this RunGCC shirt that I purchased from the Free Software Foundation. And oftentimes what you guys see, I'm wearing on camera these cool shirts that I buy from the FSL for the EFF, you know, I'll wear them out in public, I'll wear them to the gym, I'll wear them mow in the yard, I'll wear them to the mall. And people sometimes come up to me and ask me about these shirts, like this shirt here. Looks like the RunDMC logo, which a lot of people will come up to me and mistakenly think it's RunDMC and say, hey, man, great shirt. But then they'll catch it and like, well, RunGCC, what is GCC? And I could explain to them about the C compiler, but typically I just tell them that I'm a big fan of Linux, that's why I'm wearing this shirt. And of course they're going to ask, well, what is Linux? And then I explained to them that Linux is an operating system similar to how on their computer they run Windows as their operating system. Or if they have Macs, they run the Mac operating system. I explained to them, I'm a big fan of the Linux operating system. I don't go into Free Software, I don't start explaining what the four freedoms are, I don't talk about open source or the open source definition or any of that stuff. I just explained to them, Linux is another operating system. It's an alternative operating system to Windows or Mac OS. Now, I learned a long time ago, keep things simple when introducing Linux to these new people. That's why I don't go into any of these other discussions. I don't try to overwhelm them with the hundreds of distributions that are out there. I don't talk about desktop environments, window managers. On all of that, it's just, hey, Linux is this other operating system. You should give it a try. And if it's a friend or a family member and they want me maybe to install Linux on one of their machines, maybe they got an old laptop that they want me to put Linux on. Typically, I don't even talk to them about distributions, desktop environments or anything. I just put a Linux distribution on it that I think will work for them. Typically, there's a handful of distributions that I typically choose from and those distributions will vary depending on when they've had a recent release. But typically on friends and family computers, I put either Ubuntu, Linux Mint, MX Linux, or here lately I've had pretty good luck with Linux Lite. So all Ubuntu or Debian based distributions, all very new user friendly distributions, I don't really talk to them about choices. You know, I just give them something and that's the best thing. You don't want to overwhelm them with choice. If you start talking about the hundreds of distributions out there and the dozens of different desktop environments out there, you're going to lose them. They're going to be so confused. They're like, why in the hell would I want to run that? Windows is so easy because I don't have choice because that's the way they think because that's the paradigm that they're used to is not having choice and they're probably used to that. And all of a sudden you give them ultimate choice, you lose them. Now you have to be really careful not to introduce any of your own biases into the discussions when you're talking to these potentially new Linux users. For example, I tell these people about, you know, I'm a big fan of Linux. I never tell them the truth, which is it's not necessarily that I'm a fan of Linux. It's a I'm a fan of free software, right? It just happens to be that Linux is a piece of free software, but there's other free as in freedom operating systems out there. I could run any of them because they meet my criteria of being a piece of free software, but that's a much deeper discussion. You know, I don't want to have that discussion with somebody that just asked me about a t-shirt, right? I don't want to talk about the free software movement because they're just not ready for that. They'll explore that on their own, right? When I give them a machine with Linux, Min or Mx or Ubuntu or something on it and they use Linux for a while, you know, they'll discover all of this fantastic software that there is on their computer that they didn't have to pay for it's all free as in cost. And then they'll eventually figure out that it's also free as in freedom. They'll understand what free software is and what open source software is. And they'll explore those avenues on their own, right? You don't want to introduce that to somebody on day one. You don't want to hammer them over the head with free and open source software. Another bias that you definitely don't want to introduce to people is like when somebody brings me a computer and says, hey, I want to try out this Linux thing you've been talking about. Install Linux on this for me. You know, I run Arch or Arch-based distributions on most of my equipment. I'm not going to put that kind of distribution on their machine, even though it's the one I love. You know, don't be one of those people because I see this all the time. You know, somebody is really passionate about their distribution. So they try to convince everybody in the world to run it, you know, including friends and families. I'm a big fan of Arch, so anytime a friend or family member asks me, I'm going to install Arch on their computer or Gen2 on their computer or Slackware on their computer. Don't do that. You are setting that person up for failure and you're going to make that person hate Linux because they're probably not going to have a good time. There's going to be a lot of pain points and they're going to go running back to Windows. And if they have a really bad enough experience, they'll never give Linux a second chance, right? You really only have that one shot to make a first impression. So don't give them something that you know is probably not going to work out for them just because it's what you love. So I don't give family members anything based on Arch, even though that's what I run, right? So I'll give them a machine that's running Linux Mint or Ubuntu or MX or, you know, whatever. And then if they want to explore other possibilities down the road, they'll figure that out on their own. They'll eventually figure out, oh, there's these other distributions I hear people talking about. I should check those out. There's these other desktop environments out there, other than the one I'm currently running. Maybe I should check those out, right? Don't force a desktop environment on them either. This is another thing I see people do. People really passionate about, especially window managers. They're really passionate about OpenBox or i3 are awesome. And then they try to put that on a brand new user's computer because, oh, man, you're just going to love it. No, they're not. They're going to hate it. Just don't do it. You guys, you didn't start out using Arch Linux with the i3 window manager on day one. Don't expect these new to Linux users to start out on day one. They need to use a new user friendly distribution like Ubuntu or OpenSUSA or something like that for six months, maybe a year. And then they'll eventually explore these options on their own. They don't need you for that. Because they've got to figure out what they like. Don't try to force onto them what they should like because it's what you like. But anyway, I'm getting way off topic here. This topic was really just about the shirts and introducing people to Linux in public. So what I recommend you guys do a great way to introduce Linux to the world really is wearing these kinds of shirts because you will have people ask you about it. And again, some people don't really know how to get into that conversation because don't explain that Linux is just a kernel, right? Even though technically you'd be correct. And I'm wrong when I'm telling people Linux is an operating system. But you know what? It's a lot easier for them to understand Linux is an operating system than trying to explain to them what the hell a kernel is. Now, before I go, I need to thank a few special people. I need to thank the producers of this episode. Ebsi Dallas, Gabe Loom, Mitchell Allen, Akami Archvicar 30, Chuck David, the other David, Dylan Gregory, Lewis Paul, Polytech Scott, Steven, Sven Wesson, Willie. They are the producers of this episode. Without these guys, this short little rant wouldn't have been possible. Shows also brought to you by each and every one of these ladies and gentlemen as well. All these names you're seeing on the screen right now. Each and every one of these ladies and gentlemen helps support my work over on Patreon because this channel is sponsored by you guys, the community. You'd like to support my work, look for Distro Tube over on Patreon. All right guys, peace. And definitely don't show them the stallman eating his foot video.