[Tfug] 2 weeks of Hackintosh fun..

[Bexley Hall]

--- On Sun, 11/9/08, Andrew Ayre <andy at britishideas.com> wrote:

> > Start your own business.  Then, start keeping track of what it
> > costs you to keep your "technology" running <however>.  You
> > will be *amazed* at the cost!  (even if all you are doing is
> > "typing term papers" for folks)
> 
> Everyone I know (bar my wife and one other) runs Windows.
> All of them have asked me for help more times than I care to

>From days of Olde:  "never tell anyone you can repair televisions"
The same applies today.  :>

Having said that, most of the people I know are also aware of
my skillsets and my willingness to help them -- "just ask".
Yet, I have only had to come to four people's aid in the
past 15+ years in Tucson:
- a neighbor's son who managed to get his machine horribly
  infested with spyware
- a neighbor's daughter who's hard disk was heading south
- a friend who couldn't figure out how to transfer her email
  accounts to a new provider
- my sister who's XP laptop was horribly mangled after my BinL
  experimented on it with lots of "free" downloads  :<
The first, I suspect, is true of many clueless users -- and
I've not seen any definitive criteria that "proves" one OS
to be more resilient to this form of problem than others
(Windows is probably more frequently *targeted* due to its
greater footprint in the market)

The second is hard to separate any of "her problems" from the
underlying hardware problem.

The third is the "typical clueless user".  I blame these types 
of errors on the fact that no one gives users a fundamental
idea of what is involved in these technologies (soft/hard).

The fourth is just stupid.  Last week he managed to mangle the
exact same laptop by trying to install XP over the W2K installation
I had put in place (his ego apparently couldn't dal with the idea
of "10 year old software" -- so, now he has *nothing*!  :< )

But, I've never had to help any of the neighbors install a printer.
Or an access point.  Or a scanner.  Or a piece of software.  Etc.
So, despite all the rants about win/mac, they *seem* to be usable.

OTOH, I'd bet dollars to donuts that none of these people would
know where to start with a live cd!  Part of that is the "novelty"
of it:  "Linux?  What's that, a new version of Windows?"  But,
another big part is that win/mac you just sit back (and pray :> )
and let the machine get things "right" for you.

I know that I can't build a universal kernel on my NetBSD box
that will work with *any* set of hardware.  And, that ignores
the fact that the hardware vendor may not have released a driver
for their device on "platform X".  Of course, that's a chicken/egg
situation... until "platform X" becomes ubiquitous, vendors
don't want to invest money chasing releases.  And, until all
of those goodies are supported on "platform X", it has a hard time
becoming ubiquitous!  :<

> remember. I also have a couple of people who pay me for
> Windows help. So I think everything you wrote equally
> applies to Windows based on my experience.

I don't think so (obviously).  I see lots of people that manage to
"get by" with their Windows machines -- at least until the next
Windows release, etc.  The only folks I see using *BSD are folks
who write code for a living, or, who maintain various services
for their employers (DNS, etc.).  Or, who want to "tinker" with
how certain applications run (I know very few kernel hackers).
Almost without exception, the people using *BSD are *also* using
Windows -- often the *BSD is not a sanctioned platform for their
employment.

> So do you also say that Windows cannot be used for real
> work because of this? :)

Give your wife the live CD and see how long it takes her to
get these *few* things running on a known working machne.

Then, give her a windows CD and repeat the test.

Don't just *ponder* how well/bad she will do... *measure* it!
And, she has the benefit of having *seen* her system "working"
so she *knows* it is possible.  E.g., when I build a NetBSD
system, I have no idea if all of the hardware bits and pieces
will be supported -- until after I have built a few kernels
and examined the dmesg for each.
 
> Note my wife is using a vanilla install with some apps
> added (which Ubuntu makes super easy for most) and email
> configured. No big deal.

And her camera installs out-of-the box?  I'm sure installing it
on a Windows machine would be next to impossible (why would a
camera maker invest any time there?)

Now, find someone 20 years older than (I am guessing) you are.
Repeat the experiment.

Remember, your own experiences don't necessarily scale up to
reflect the user base at large.  If Linux was so great, it
would be on *every* desktop.  PC vendors would be pushing it
like hotdogs at a ballpark (why should we give MS a cut of
our sales?  let's put that money into creating our own distro
for use on *our* machines -- and tell folks they can buy
MS's software "at retail").

<shrug>