I’ve been taking the train to work for 4 years now. It’s a 45 minute rambling ride in which I usually either read a book, sleep, or grab my laptop loaded up with Ubuntu and get some stuff done. Over time, I’ve collected a few funny remarks I’ve either over heard, or that people have said directly to me. Here are the 10 best.
- That’s not windows, it’s a Mac! (One teenager to another).
- Where’s the start button? (Asked directly to me on a train).
- Random middle manager 1: He must be in Marketing, he’s making a new picture! Random middle manager 2: I don’t know, look how he’s dressed. (While using gimp).
- Don’t turn your computer on Bill – that guy can look into it! (two business men).
- You’ve got to work in IT. (said directly to me).
- (Whispered)How did he get Vista early? (Two teens).
- Yeah, I’m surrounded by yuppies, kids, drones and two guys using Linux. (Someone on a cell phone).
- What the hell is that? (Pointing to my screen -followed by a 15 minute conversation about computers).
- Can you game on it? (Guy with a Sony VAIO running Vista. He wasn’t impressed by Moria).
- They stole that spinning cube thing from a Mac! (Two mac users sitting next to me).
Technorati Tags: linux, laptop, overheard, lists, 10 things, geek, ubuntu
July 17th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Excellent! I’ve heard people say stuff at coffee shops but nothing as good as these. I like #4, #9 and #10 the best. You should run arecord at the beginning of your train ride and see if you can capture any sound bytes.
July 17th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
#4 is my personal favorite. Someone said that about a year ago as I was alt-tabbing between a full screen terminal session and an open office spreadsheet.
I wasn’t even online!
July 17th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
You know those spreadsheets dangerous business. I like #9 & #10 because it would have started a flame war. Too bad the guy on his cell phone didn’t get drop kicked.
July 17th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I dont belive any of this really happened. Sorry.
July 17th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Try taking the train every day with a combination of high school students and business folk commuting to and from the city.
I’ve had people comment (loudly in some cases) about my laptop, my shirt, my backpack, my hair, whether or not I’m a potential terrorist, and my glasses.
And that’s in the last month, off the top of my head.
July 17th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Bit better than a conversation I had to endure between 2 young teens it was something along the lines of i hacked my home computer by putting kazaa on it…
The amount of understanding of computer terms got worse from that ending with something along the lines of ‘hacking msn to appear offline’.
The one day am on a (nearly empty) bus with no mp3 player and i felt like either slamming my head into the window or theirs.
I like comment no 7 linux users are distinguishable from the drones
Personally I got a few looks on the way home from uni one time on the train just before rush hour, I was jumping between terminal and X server to save power and got a 2nd glance from some suits curious at a distance.
July 17th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I’ve gotten plenty of comments in coffee shops and airports. Most of them are polite and people who are genuinely curious.
I’ve never encountered a huge amount of ignorant or hostile comments.
Just people sayings things, “That’s cool, what is that?” or “What did you do to make Windows like that? Is that even Windows?”
Most people don’t know there’s other options. Or if they’ve heard of Linux it was back in the mid-nineties when it was pretty much solely for coders and servers so they’ve never paid it any mind since.
When you explain it’s a different operating system called Linux and it’s free they get curious. If they don’t ask more you can be sure they’re at least Googling it later.
July 17th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
My train story:
I once had the ‘pleasure’ to hear an elderly woman ramble to her friends that those kids these days thought they had the world, with their macs, drinking coffee in a restaurant. She was obviously talking to me, she qas looking at me; and I was using my Macbook (only has Linux on a VM, sorry
).
Too bad for her I don’t like coffee that much. And I didn’t frequent restaurants (yay for smoking ban since July 1st). I do force my 2 mice to take over the world for me, so that’s true though..
July 17th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
hahaha, a good reason to buy a laptop and install linux on it: so you can freak people out.
July 17th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Right, now I want to know what you look like if they make comments about your appearance
July 17th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I look like just a guy - at the time I think I was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt under a blackish button up shirt. Standard fare for me.
But I wasn’t all slick looking like they thought a marketing person should look like.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
A friend and I were on the train recently on our way to the release party for the current Ubuntu release in London. Two guys got on and started talking about upgrading their systems to the latest Ubuntu release. I asked if they were going to the party, they said ‘no, we’re just two guys who happen to run Ubuntu’.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
10. # They stole that spinning cube thing from a Mac! (Two mac users sitting next to me).
To which you should have replied, “And where do you think they got OS X”
July 17th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
7 is the best!
July 17th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
These were great. I recently got back from San Diego for a couple of interviews and one day while my girl and I were hanging out in the hotel I got up and did some work on the laptop. About 15 minutes into working she asked if she could check her email when I was done, I told her I’d be done in about 10 or 15 minutes. When I was finished she walked over as I was closing all the windows I had opened on different workspaces (IM, terminal, music player, etc), I opened Firefox for her so that she could check her email, she spent the next 2 hours playing with the different effects in compiz and the bouncing icons from avant.
It was fun watching a woman break down to that fascinated child we all have inside us. Not to mention that, but she developed ADD and forgot to check her email.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
LOL! I’m reading this article on my Linux laptop (an Asus EeePC 701, with PCLinuxOS MiniMe 2008 and a Sierra 3G EVDO USB cellmodem) right now, while riding the bus home from work! I’m getting a chuckle from this article… but; nobody seems to notice or mind much about it, over here (Canada).
July 17th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
NYC ?
July 17th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I know how you feel i used to work a job which involved a 2 hour commute each way. So the time wasn’t wasted i brought a Linux Eeepc when they first came out upgraded the ram, put an sd card in for enhanced storage, installed PHP, MySQL, Apache and used to build PHP apps on the way to and from work.
This got me a lot of weird looks and started a few conversations with the mostly office commuter crowd, mainly about how i got such a small laptop and what is the gibberish i am typing on the screen.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
The only thing I get is “Why is she typing on that toy laptop? Does she think we can’t tell the difference?” while I was typing on a toy laptop hoping they couldn’t tell the difference
July 18th, 2008 at 12:46 am
I know what you mean Chi.
I’m an instructor at my local State College and I had to do a double take one day when I saw one of my students laptops. He had a Dell with a big ole apple logo covering up the dell insignia. And he was running Darwin x86 on it…i just about laughed my head off when I saw it. we had a great conversation about computing and how awesome his laptop really was.
I’ve never forgotten that laptop either.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:23 am
I was with a friend of mine at Mos Burger (I live in Singapore right now) and we wre looking up movie times on my laptop. I also have it skinned, so it’s pretty eye catching from the back. A guy walking by outside saw the skinned lid and glanced back, as he saw my desktop, he leaned in for a better look and banged his head against the window!
July 18th, 2008 at 3:32 am
Thanks for his, I loled.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Heh heh heh… wonder what they’d do if they saw me running OS/2 or BeOS (in a full screen VirtualBox session).
Thanks for that, ’twas LOLsome.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:10 am
@sc
Forget VirtualBox. I got BeOSMAX v4 working on native hardware!
July 18th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
wow haha.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
You should make a desktop background in your linux operating system to the effect of something like this:
http://stashbox.org/161150/comeon.png
July 18th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I’ve received a lot of really positive response when fellow Linux users spot me out and about with my EEEPC laptop running Ubuntu. Sitting in a food court or on a park bench and having Linux enthusiasts strike up a conversation isn’t rare for me at all. Mostly bits of Compiz catch the eyes of people who use other OS options, and programs like Amarok and Pidgin usually prompt admiration. A lot of people are puzzled that they’ve never heard of Linux and it’s so wonderful, but I haven’t gotten many of those genuinely absurd questions you have collected here.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
#7 is classic……..My question though is why is everyone so hung up on Ubuntu; which may be one of the crappiest distros I think I have ever used. It’s ok but doesn’t deserve nearly the acclaim that it gets.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Linux is so cool, I am just getting into Ubuntu. but I use to run Fedora
July 18th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Wow. Made it on the front page of a couple of social media sites - and had a plugin to help with this kind of traffic fail! ouch!
July 18th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I’ve been running *nix for over 13 years, and now that I’m using Ubuntu it is my only laptop OS. When people see my laptop starting up or the desktop they are amazed that Microsoft allows me to use it!
When their technology breaks (Windows) my laptop is up and running and to the rescue, recovering data from their disks, usually a corrupted FAT. When I let people use my laptop, usually web surfing or editing documents, they are amazed how this “unusual” system works so well, better than their beefier systems.
It really is great to watch peoples horizons broaden, even if it is just for a moment.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
I used to get comments like that about my TabletPC all the time too. Now, if I could just get Kubuntu to play nice on it, imagine the range of commentary.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
You must be rolling. Yes, people have a tendency to believe what they read… but come on. Maybe you are just lonely and you want attention, but these quotes aren’t even close to believable. Pretty sad.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I’m gonna have to put linux on my laptop and bring it to work. People will think I’m so smart. Yay.
July 19th, 2008 at 1:46 am
Sandra, is that why you posted? Were you wanting a little bit of attention? Now that you’ve received it hopefully it assisted in removing that pesky wedged stick.
I can assure you the lines aren’t made up. Perhaps there’s been nothing special about you that would ever cause people to comment moronically or otherwise. It’s not your fault, truly it isn’t. There are those born with personality… and those who spend their time bashing posts that weren’t of the offensive nature. But please continue to pat yourself on the back for gaining a response- just keep your hands off the keyboard.
July 19th, 2008 at 9:04 am
I’m glad to hear that people even know the name of Windows, even if they can’t identify Windows vs. Gnome. Knowing your OS name isn’t Dell or HP really helps, even if they don’t know which version of Windows they have.
July 19th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Mac fanboys as usual
July 21st, 2008 at 2:58 am
Pff!
It looks like mostly all the commenters are “Ubuntu” users, if not newly born Asus Eee Laptop. It’s a pity no one ever mentions one of the great distros. But i have to show sympathy even to those since they’re promoting linux, in one way or another.
In my case, i’ve witnessed a lot of people thinking my Linux to be Vista, even though they had “computer knowlodge”.
I liked #4 and #8, if i was asked #9, i don’t know what would i say.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:00 am
@Yert,
Sure, Gnome is an OS, right?
LOL!
July 21st, 2008 at 9:04 am
I’ve heard many of these as well. I always love answering questions like “Wow! How much does that cost?” and “Is that like Mac?” My personal favorite is “Sure, it looks great, but does it suck like Vista?”
Side note, I think Vista has been one of the greatest things M$ could have done for open source. I tell people, “Ubuntu with Compiz is like Vista, except it doesn’t suck, doesn’t cost anything, and comes pre-installed with an office suite, photo editing software, IM software, Firefox, and a host of other free software. Also, there are as many as 15,000 other programs available for download for free.”
Response: “Oooh! It has Firefox!”
July 21st, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Wow! #3 and #7 are fun!
I was only asked why I run DOS in the train (my craptop is ancient and thus I used the textmode).
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:05 am
Oh god. Mac users are the best.
LOL They think that Linux copies from Mac OS X and not viceversa. Even more LOL. 
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
My lady friend stopped by to give me another P4 computer that had crashed, so I could load Ubuntu and donate it to a poor school child. We are in our 60’s.
I mentioned that I could put Ubuntu on it and she could take it bac. She stated that she already has her mom, husband, and herself using Ubuntu, that I had shown her last Fall!
Hey, everyone’s heard of Linux or Ubuntu, by now! But, the really stupid people still PAY to suffer the million Microsoft virus/malware/spybot/exploits!
July 25th, 2008 at 10:39 am
I sometimes spend my time on the train playing NetHack. It’s funny what kind of looks you can get when doing so.
People even stop playing their fancy PSP to look over to your Fedora-box and look what you are doing.
And people really have trouble understanding that NetHack is a game…
July 25th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Dennis,
Don’t get me started on Nethack! When I was in my late teens and on my own, I spent hours, possibly days whacking away at Moria (nethack varient) on my roommate’s 286.
Ahhh dammit. Now I have to dig up Moria for my laptop.
July 26th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
jajajaja nubs cant appreciate linux :p
I r Arch user
July 28th, 2008 at 1:41 am
hahaha… extremely funny
one time in a full bus on my way back home.. I pulled out my subcompact thinkpad to finish a kismet configuration I’ve started earlier that day.. and I’ve noticed people looking at me with their funny-eye … so I decide to do a little script that would blow up the terminal, scroll some ascii stuff for 20 seconds, flash the screen a few times with a loud beep and shut off the display
..lets just put it this way, it made all the funny-eyes turn into funny-wtf-faces
August 9th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Great post to accompany my morning coffee. Thanks!
August 9th, 2008 at 9:45 am
You drink your morning coffee awfully early on a Saturday!
August 18th, 2008 at 11:58 am
From my father in law.
“Why do you use Linux, because you hate Microsoft?”
Then onto a 45 minute conversation about everything that broke when he upgraded to Vista. Irony.
August 18th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
The best comment I’ve ever had is “that’s exactly what I need”…I think I was ripping a movie and checking a web site, using compiz and the cube to move from screen to screen…nothing special, but the guy who made the comment sure thought it was cool.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:12 am
4: Don’t turn your computer on Bill – that guy can look into it! (two business men).
Occam’s razor in effect I’d have to say it is more likely they thought you would be able to see the screen from where you were sitting. I’ve worked for several companies that have cautioned us on how we use our laptops and to be aware of when other people can see the screen.
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
#6 is my favourite!
Great blog post!
August 26th, 2008 at 6:16 am
Acording TO Mac users Everyone Nicked Everything From Mac
August 27th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
People around me don’t know about Linux, they thought it’s Vista applied with themes. I like #6
August 28th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I quote jman6495.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:14 pm
When I am at University, I usually like to load up Compiz Fusion for kicks (ok, I like showing off).
Varied results…once I was playing around with customising some effects, notably making explode window animation explode in thousands of tiles, etc..and then I hear 10 students behind me going literally :*GASP*. They knew I was into Linux, but no idea what it could actually do. They thought it was DOS-like
And I also got a kick from writing messages with the burn plugin
Otherwise, as for applications, Amarok is usually admired, along with whatever cool theme I have on today.
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I know how you feel i used to work a job which involved a 2 hour commute each way. So the time wasn’t wasted i brought a Linux Eeepc when they first came out upgraded the ram, put an sd card in for enhanced storage, installed PHP, MySQL, Apache and used to build PHP apps on the way to and from work.
Jim, great thought…
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I like the one with the missing start button. It’s funny how many people seem to think that windows is the only OS. Succeeded by those who think that Mac OS is the only good one ;D
September 14th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Your java script Infolinks thingies are a pain in the arse
October 1st, 2008 at 8:33 am
I’m sorry but are obviously fake.
No one cares about what operating system you use on the train.
October 13th, 2008 at 3:15 am
I have an asus eee, which i take pretty much everywhere. I’m using it right now. Whenever I use it in public I get comments. Every time. Mostly it’s about the eee itself, because of its size, but people love to say things like “is that the version of Windows the just released” - “[me]You mean Vista?” - “No, no the NEW one” and “You can do better things on a mac for half the price.”. I’ll make a book of them - “N00B Kwestshuns”
October 21st, 2008 at 3:29 am
M. Omer Golgeli Says: It looks like mostly all the commenters are “Ubuntu” users, if not newly born Asus Eee Laptop. It’s a pity no one ever mentions one of the great distros. But i have to show sympathy even to those since they’re promoting linux, in one way or another.
I do have to question why you don’t consider Ubuntu one of the “great distros”. If anything it’s the one that’s going to bring linux into the mainstream - Dell has already chosen it to sell preloaded over the others, after all. That alone ought to make it a “great distro”, even if it’s “great” for a different reason than the ones you’re referring to.
Like you say, linux is linux. Distro doesn’t matter all that much - that’s part of what’s great about it: You can make it into whatever you want.
*I use Ubuntu with the WMII window manager
October 28th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I have similar experiences on an everyday basis!
working on a eeepc with ubuntu in a mircosoft sponsored university’
students ask me often if it’s a real computer
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:49 pm
One of the more awkward conversations was when I was playing Nethack on my way to NYC. People just see terminals and go into panic mode
November 10th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
This is bullshit, through, and through.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Ha, that’s really funny post about Linux. Actually I have 7 years experience using Linux while I haven’t got a chance to encountered things like this.
Great!:)
December 16th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
#1, #6, and #9 have happened to me also.
December 23rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Number 4 is priceless. If that had happened to me I would have turned around and said, “Boo!” for their reaction.
January 14th, 2009 at 7:51 am
This is good, I love when people notice that I don’t use window in my laptop and ask questions about it. I usually carry a few Ubuntu live install disks with me in case I can give some out to curious users.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
lol - I love it!! I only got a new Macbook very recently so not had the chance to *cough*showoff*cough* on trains yet.
I shall jump at the chance this weekend though.
February 4th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
I am about to get my first Laptop, on which I will run Ubuntu. I do an hour long bus trip to UNI most days, so I wonder how many comments I will get? Doubt I will get any comments in class, most of my lectures have Linux installed (or Mac), so it would be nothing new.
March 5th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Great Post, I have actually had this happen to me as well. It’s always great to have faces light up when your running something different. I run pure debian with LXDE and love it!
June 30th, 2009 at 2:00 am
Such statements are very common I guess !! I used to work for a Customer Support Campaign for Software before. I was once bombarded by a lady for over 30 minutes … stating she is not able to see anything in the screen after installing the software. I tried to explain to her in several ways but she would not listen. I was so frustrated that I told her she must be having her monitor switched off or have the computer TV mode and laughed sarcastically so give an idea I was joking and nothing offensive. TO MY HORROR the lady started laughing and told “Sorry dear … I have been very rude with you. My system is in TV mode only” HUH!!!!!
Regards
Anita Patt