[Tfug] 2 weeks of Hackintosh fun..

[Andrew Ayre]

Don,

I'm sorry your experiences of Windows and Linux have been so different 
to mine, but I'm afraid we will have to agree to disagree. I hope you 
can respect my opinion, as I respect yours.

Andy

Bexley Hall wrote:
> --- 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> 

-- 
Andy
PGP Key ID: 0xDC1B5864