Post by XS11EPost by Blinky the SharkWhen I categorized the upper end as I saw it, I wasn't thinking about
the relatively few that are as firmly attached to the MS tit as those
you describe; my thoughts addressed the teeming masses, and the high
and low ends of that termendously huge group.
That "termendously" huge group is the group that, for the most part,
are running Vista w/o problems. Sales so far have been very good,
better than anticipated (see MSFT's latest financial statement) and a
very large percent are doing very well.
Yes, I just read yesterday I, think it was, that sales were higher than
expected. Given what I read about Vista that surprised me. Even now, I
guess I had more faith in the marketplace. I can't believe I just said
that; I really do know better.
Post by XS11EThen there are those....... Years back, an English lady used to post
some very helpful tips in the MS Office groups using the nym of Miss
Perspicacia Tick, she once posted this wonderful advice to a user,
Hey, I remember her. Not from MS Office groups, but elsewhere. Is she
absent now? Your tense indicates that she might not be there any more.
Post by XS11E"Please turn off your computer, pack it in the original boxes and
return it to your dealer, tell them you're too stupid to own a
computer." Sometimes that needs to be said.
Just this afternoon, I mentioned to someone in email that that advice is
not unheard of in the tech-oriented groups. Small world. :)
Here's the Usenet post that I'd sent my friend, that generated my
comment on unplugging. This is good. :)
------------>%-----------
A friend was here on Saturday night - well, hubby had a bunch of friends over.
One of them was this woman who noticed my computer and said "My computer is
broken - the desktop doesn't work." Hubby, of course, spoke up and said "Kim
can probably look at it - she's pretty good about fixing them." I wasn't
around when he told her this, so I wasn't able to elbow him and say "never
say that - NEVER". So, Sunday this woman's husband comes in with a box of
computer stuff and says "Thanks for taking a look at this!" I, of course,
have no clue what I am looking at. All I have is a note that says "Kim - the
desktop is broken. And the tower is slower. Can you see what's wrong with
it?" So, I unplug my tower, plug hers in, hook up my monitor. Yeah, it's a
little slow. Install Spybot on it, and AVG, run those, remove a few virus's
and some spyware. Seems fine. Defrag just for good measure.
So, I call the lady, tell her "seems to be fine." She says "Did you fix the
desktop?" I said "Well, it wasn't broken - I took a few virus's off, but
it's ok." She says "Well, I couldn't even do that, because the desktop was
broken. I unplugged it a few times, but it wouldn't do anything. How does
the desktop get a virus? I knew the tower had one, because my virus checker
said it did, but I couldn't get them off without the desktop."
Finally it's dawning on me that this woman might be stupid, and I said.
"Look, what exactly was broken - describe to me without using the word
'desktop' what your problem was. Do you mean the desktop on the screen? Do
you have things missing?" She says "No, no - My desktop - the thing with the
letters on it - it was broken, it wouldn't do anything." So I yelled, very
calmly - GO BUY ANOTHER ONE." A few more minutes of conversing makes me
realize that this woman thought that the keyboard was an integral part of
the computer - and that you couldn't just buy a new one, you had to buy a
whole new system. When she came to pick up her box of crap she said "Can you
buy a new pointer [mouse] too? Because I bought this computer when my old
pointer kept making the arrow jump all over the screen."
----------->%-----------
Post by XS11EThose will always be with us but they're sometimes pretty vocal
because most hesitate to talk to them as Miss Tick did. (Damn, I
*MISS* her!)
You can find that kind of frank reality in 23hoursupport.helpdesk. :)
Post by XS11EPost by Blinky the SharkInterestingly, I think, and rather ironically, I see a hint in your
pecking order of the old complaint against Linux -- that Vista's only
good for the real geeks (a category I obviously respect, but that's
extraneous to my point).
Then you misread. Vista is fine for people who will stop and RTFM
I guess I did. I thought you to be saying that it was just the upper
crust (the beta testers and developers) that it was good for, and the
underclasses were still using older versions. Obviously that's not
true, or all those sales of Vista wouldn't be happening. :)
Post by XS11Ebefore jumping in. There are hardware and software problems such as I
had with Windows 2000, older stuff just isn't supported and
hardware/software vendors are not willing to write new drivers for
very old hardware/software. Being a real geek helps with any new OR
old OS but it's not needed. I had no problems installing Vista 64 and
getting all my hardware running (had to change mouse) and I can say
the same for Mandriva 2007 64. Both set up every bit of hardware (I
had to struggle with my printer in both OSs) but I think anyone could
have done it, well, anyone with fingers, maybe not with fins....
I see Dell has returned to offering XP (which is not to day it's
dropping Vista <g>).
--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html