Glass Houses
Andy Lester asks Uncle Bill to answer some technical support queries for his family. Generally I agree with his sentiment but I have to pull him up on one thing:
At some point, we’ll get her HP laptop turned over to Linux, but until then, I have the weekly-or-so cussing from the dining room table.
and then later:
The bigger question for the industry: Why do we continue supporting a company that sees BSODs and registry hacks as part of normal computing life for the average user?
Because the alternative seems to be supporting a loosely coupled group of volunteers that sees competing GUI conventions and command line hacks as part of normal computing life for the average user.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the sentiment that computer should crash an awful lot less than they do today, but the cheap shot at registry hacks which are very rarely required compared to the all too common requirement in Linux of discovering some arcane command line chant or cryptic config file stored somwhere on your hard drive isn’t exactly a breeze of fresh air.
November 16th, 2004 at 2:14 am
The other alternative of course is a Mac. There might be fewer cusses from the dining room table with OS X.
November 22nd, 2004 at 11:33 am
I’d love her to have a Mac, but she’s not comfy with the OS X GUI. Plus, I’d rather not shell out for new hardware.
Linux is hardly a panacea for the average user, but in my house, it’s certainly better than Windows XP.
My original question still stands, though: I’d love to hear how Uncle Bill justifies it.