On Fri, 2006-12-15 at 18:10 +0000, Adam Trickett wrote:
> I now feel guilty for not helping, he didn't want to install anything else -
> which I would have offered to help with. He feels that he must use Microsoft
> Outlook as it came with that from Dell and as everyone uses it, it must be
> the best? He trusts me enough to ask for my advice but not enough to actually
> follow through.
>
"Friends don't help friends with Windows" :)
I have blogged [0] previously on what I do when people ask for help with
Windows. At the moment there's really only 3 people I help with their
Windows computers and they are all family members. I can't convert two
of them because of the amount of dependence they have on Windows
software, the other is the mother in law. She is coming around, and when
they next buy a computer I will suggest they run Ubuntu on their old
one.
> I'd happily give him The OpenCD but I know that wouldn't help either... By not
> helping I've driven him deeper into the Microsoft tar pit, but he really
> doesn't want to be helped out, which I feel bad about as he is a nice chap.
>
Keep plugging away. There is a guy in my office who has consistently
said he loves Microsoft and their products. I suspect part of this is
due to him being very good friends with someone senior in Microsoft UK -
but that's by the by. He recently told me that when he gets a new PC he
will install Vista on it and install Ubuntu on his old PC. This is a
real breakthrough for me because when I first started he was very
anti-non-Microsoft products.
This isn't the first person who has been very pro-Windows and after a
number of conversations has relented slightly. It just takes a bit of
patience I think. Obviously I don't know your friend or your
relationship with him, just voicing from my own experience.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Al.
[0]
http://popey.com/Helping_Windows_Users
