Today I reinstalled Windows

[Fred Roller]

Liam Proven wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 4:27 AM, Fred Roller <froller at tnclimited.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> Is there a correlation between Helsinki syndrome and Windows' users?
>>     
>
> ITYF that is "Stockholm syndrome".
>
>   
God it was late, LOL.  You are right, don't even know what I was thinking.
>> They release a crapy product (which, by the way, when ever my step
>> daughter fires her V-laptop up, network connections die.)  This product
>> is so bad that my clients paid the extra $150 to purchase XP and put it
>> back on systems that came with Vista.  (brilliant move to pay for going
>> backwards) then release Win7 under a parade of praise, and they rush to
>> upgrade to something that works on the other side of Vista.  M$
>> effectively selling three OS's to the same person inside of a couple of
>> years or $450.oo times x-millions of users.
>>
>> ... No, I don't see them giving away much of anything and maybe I am
>> giving them too much credit for being this smart.
>>     
>
> :¬)
>
> Well, in part.
>
> For one thing, yes, if people have spent - "invested" - money in
> something they will be more determined to try to extract value from
> it. Contrastingly if it cost nothing that implies that it's worth
> nothing.
>   
Agreed.
> More generally, for all that we tend to knock it, Windows actually is
> a pretty good tool. Since W2K, it's done everything important old
> Windows did: 3D, games, PnP, power management, etc. etc. - but it is
> actually a pretty stable, reliable OS if your hardware is good, you
> keep the system clean and free from malware & don't burden it with
> crapware.
>   
I agree in as far as Windows being everything to everybody, or trying at 
least.  Where it falls apart for me is when you start to depart from 
/their/ track of marketing. 
> For many people, computing = PCs with MS OSs. They know nothing else.
> This is bad, no question, but it does mean that Linux is utterly
> bewildering to them. No drive letters, no installer programs, nothing
> works as it "should" and it's all weird and /wrong./
>   
The two areas I found needing conquering are work and games.  If you can 
get them productive equal to or easier than their current Windows 
solution then you have their attention and quite honestly singing the 
praises of linux.  The doubled edge sword though is if it makes things 
harder then they tend to /really/ hate linux, like they had a hope of 
relief and it was stolen.  As for games, I don't play a lot of them and 
the few I do play are either web based or linux based.
> For those with virtually /no/ knowledge, they might never know the
> difference. For those with just a bit of technical know-how, though,
> Linux is utterly strange and scary and that is horrible and
> bewildering.
>
>   
I will disagree on this point, at least in part.  I think the argument 
is more in line with your first point.  The ones with technical know how 
are invested, time and $$ for books, software, etc. and will not want to 
think their investment was wasted.  One of the ways I ease the 
transition is to use the "Perfect Desktop" from www.howtoforge.com.  I 
do the initial install while they watch and hand them the webpage and 
let them do the work from there.

This lets them see how fast and easy Ubuntu is to install, which 
compared to their experience building Windows tends to blow their hair 
back :-).  A quick run around the desktop to familiarize while the 
system updates and I start them on Chapter 4.  The document is good for 
showing the equivalent  software to windows and they get used to using 
synaptic and command line.

For the folks who know nothing technically I just get them a working 
machine and show them where everything is and have them use the 
Add/Remove Software for the time being.  This is in observance of KISS 
(Keep It Simple and Stupid) philosophy on training noobs.  These folks 
tend to just take on one program at a time.


-- 
Fred
www.fwrgallery.com

"Life is like linux, simple.  If you are fighting it you are doing something wrong."