Getting someone to switch to Trisquel

I wouldn't. Turning someone off to "GNU/Linux" (which is used to describe several operating systems that are rather different) would be a huge loss.

I think someone who is used to Windows needs to be introduced to something like Ubuntu GNOME before trying Trisquel, and they need to learn about the issues of things like Flash and proprietary drivers/firmware. Without knowing about this stuff, someone who tries Trisquel will just think that it's no good as an operating system and go straight back to Windows.

But before you can go to an entirely different operating system, you need to get a feel of it. Tell your friend about LibreOffice, the GIMP, and other free software which is (and this is important) relevant to them. Some other time, you can show them GNOME, Unity, KDE, and/or Cinnamon and tell them of the imperfect from the freedom dimension, but easy to use operating system appropriate: Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or Mint. Once they are comfortable with whatever OS you showed them, and if they've heard about the freedom problems in it, Windows, OS X, etc, *then* you can tell them about Trisquel, that it's basically the same as the system they're using but without proprietary software.

Don't push them too hard, however; if they feel that they need Flash, Skype, or some other proprietary program, be compassionate about their situation. it's better to have an Ubuntu user who understands and appreciates the free software movement, but feels they are not ready to abandon certain proprietary programs, than to have an Ubuntu user who is convinced that free software advocates are assholes or a Trisquel user who is unhappy with the free software-only experience.

I think onpon4 sums it up pretty well.

Free software in general, such as GIMP, is a step in the right direction. A GNU/Linux distribution such as Ubuntu or Fedora is an even bigger step in the right direction-- even if both have proprietary software and firmware.

I wouldn't recommend Trisquel to someone who isn't interested in or doesn't understand free software, quite personally. Especially if they are accustomed to a proprietary operating system where everything "just works" out of the box. I don't think your friend will appreciate having to use a special USB wifi card, or degraded 3d performance, or not being able to use programs such as Steam, After Effects, what have you.

I think most people (and your friend) will just come to the conclusion that their old proprietary operating system is better because "it just works", despite the upsides of free software. They won't have to go through a bunch of trouble (such as buying new hardware) to make their once working computer function properly again (if the hardware is incompatable with free software, of course, which in my case is rather frequent).

I had a lot of trouble making the decision to choose free software. It took me a while to choose because I saw practical (at the time) gains when using some proprietary software and firmware. I didn't want my hardware not to work, either. I didn't want to replace something that once worked. But, I eventually got fed up with proprietary software all together for security, privacy, ethical and liberty reasons. Not to mention the costs of some proprietary software.

If you give your friend some time, they may choose the path of free software, like myself. But, I believe only if they understand the reasons for choosing it and are willing to go through some extra difficulty for good.

Good thoughts fellows. I'd like to contribute something. I'm already sorry for a lenghty answer, but I hope it give some insight.

a Previous thread here shows that many of us have switched to free software step-by-step, many small steps after another, so I'd suggest using that strategy. Show them small things that are relevant /to them/. Be cautious, because those things and tasks are likely to be completely different than what's nice and neat for you.. so take a note on what tasks and how they perform, look for alternatives and play around with those programs yourself, so you can support their experience.

Please keep in mind that many users don't mind about the four freedoms. I found out that the best way for those who value practicality, is to show them the aspects of free software in practice. The ethical issue is harder. There's no pushing it. Just let the question "why would anyone make this software and give it out for no money?" arise, and then address that with your reasoning the way they might understand.

One day my father asked about copying Vinyls and C-tapes to a computer, if that's possible. I teach my father to use audacity. Not all the bells and whistles of it, but a very basic set of tools and concepts he already understands from the analog world. He already knows the equalizer, amplifier, selection removal, zooming and exporting to file. He knows the practical, or sound difference between lossy and lossless audio files.

Sure you could do all these things with proprietary software, but these programs tend to bug, nag and wear off. You often are required to tell the dev you're using it, paying for it, and throwing it away when it wears off.

What's neat in this software for him is the fact he's completely libre and allowed to use old version of this "sound thing" on his old laptop. It doesn't nag, brag or bug him about anything irrelevant. It just does what he tells it to do.

I had been using GNU/Linux for 2 years before I discovered Trisquel.

I eased into it after I became less reliant on propietary software. By the time I discovered Trisquel the transition wasn't a big deal since I knew the alternatives to flash and various codecs.

Tell him about freedom. Let him choose.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/

We have some promotional statements in the Documentation. Can we better gear these statements to new users?

https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/recommending-trisquel

Telstar wrote that the specific freedoms may be too abstract for new users. Magic says that freedom matters. Can we convey both the philosophy (freedom) and why it matters (practical) in the promotional statements?

Others said that going fully free is hard to do without understanding why. And new users who care may not understand or accept the perspective overnight. Should the promotional material address this?

My intention wasn't try to negate the importance of freedom nor to say it doesn't matter. It sure does, Mr. Banana - but this raises the question, if the learning curve for the average joe, your grandpa or mom, using free software still seem too big for /them/. The fact that we see the light doesn't mean we are able to enlighten everybody we see. We see have some challenges and work to do.

I think muhammed gotten my point. There isn't quite disagreement, we just talk different angles here. Those who value practicality over ethics, should have reasons formed in the way of practicality. Even rms addresses these in some speeches defining the 4 freedoms. There's the ethical view and the practical view.

We're hackers, we can fix and find things out, but can they? I don't know. This is not an excuse, it is an issue suggesting we still have some work to do, so that those people we care about, can switch. a gradual switch is, i think, better than nothing, but the switch should be kept going towards the goal - freedom.

Even if I am late...here are my 2 cents...

For me all boils down to this:
Trisquel > Debian > Ubuntu > Windows / MacOS with mostly open source > Windows / MacOS with no open source used

Explanation:
- Trisquel stands for pretty much every free GNU Linux out there

- Debian stands for all those GNU Linux variants which most aim to be free but still include non-free firmware files, support installing non-free software

- Ubuntu stands for all those GNU Linux variants which fully provide / support non-free firmware and apps

- Windows / MacOS with open sources stands for propritary operating systems with mostly open-source / free software installed like GIMP, Firefox, Audacity and so on

- Windows / MacOS with no open sources stands for propritary operating systems with only propritary software installed.

Getting everyone to use an OS like Trisquel might be the final goal but right now with the tremendeous amount of non-free things around like SmartTVs, Android boxes, tablets and smartphones I do not see this happening. Its more like most people will turn away from a general purpose PC towards specific devices.

In the end even an Ubuntu user (like I am most of my time) is more free than a Windows / MacOS user ;)

Personally I just ask people about their use cases first. There's an awful lot of people, like the friend who I recently influenced into using Trisquel, for whom the many things free software _can_ do are more than they need.

Of course I always discuss the freedoms. But, people do tend to use things for their own sweet reasons regardless of what you say. So you have to keep chipping away at the education thing until they've fully grasped the implications of the freedoms and the nature of the injustice software hoarders perpetrate. They still might not commit even though they'll happily use a GFSD distro after all that.

So I should first tell my friend to use Free Software Applications, wait about 3-5 weeks, grab the ISO and make a VM and switch the DE every 3 days, wait a week, give my friend a LiveUSB and tell my friend to use the LiveUSB a couple times, wait 4 weeks, and finally install?

And also send the template at https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/recommending-trisquel to my friends email?

I am not trying to move my friend to Trisquel 6.0 for the freedoms (well atleast not just because of the freedoms) but for the fact it might be better for my friend. My friend /*isn't that smart on computers*/ and finds Windows too complex. My friend is looking for a laptop "more simple"; it's that my friend doesn't know /*almost every*/ laptop runs Windows 8. And that's the problem.