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"So, are you excited? That movie about you is up for quite a few Oscars!"

"Wow, how much does your software cost?"

"Well, I just give it away for free"

"So, its kind of like Windows? That was free with my kid's laptop."

Sounds like he doesn't know how to present himself. "So what do you do?" "Have you heard of linux?" I'm SURE they'd say yes, it's in wallmart, even. so, "yeah, that's for computers!" "yeah. i made that. most of the web runs on it too."

I'm not sure what crazy world you live in, but if I asked a random person "Have you heard of Linux?" odds are it's "no".

The "regular world" is a really long way from the tech industry.

Maybe you hang out in the wrong circles, but even my non-engineering friends (art and history majors) know about Linux, free software, and the basics of copyleft. Maybe that's at least in part due to my interests in explaining it, but these really aren't things that are exclusively understood by technophiles.