[ubuntu-uk] Remote support was Sad but true? From the Register

[Rob Beard]

On 16/01/2009 01:31, Sean Miller wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 1:25 AM, Simon Wears<munkyjunky at googlemail.com>  wrote:
>    
>
> I've found that doing something like that is a poison chalice...
> whereas if somebody has Windows they go to their mates for help, if
> you give them Ubuntu or any other Linux they always assume you are on
> call 24x7 to help them with the most mundane of problems, which (in
> most cases) they could have worked out for themselves had they
> bothered to move their brain out of first gear.
>
>    
I found the opposite myself.  Just over a year ago I installed Ubuntu on 
a PC for a friend's mum.  She had a virus ridden installation of XP Pro 
which wasn't legit and Microsoft was nice enough to pop up the usual 
messages about it.  Anyway I installed Ubuntu for her and took her 
through how to login, browse the internet and do the basics in 
OpenOffice.  She picked it up really quickly which I was pleased with 
considering she wasn't the most computer literate person ever.  A year 
later I had a call from her saying that she had a small issue printing 
some labels in OpenOffice, just as I was about to call her back she 
called again to say she sorted it out herself (and that was only about 
an hour later!).
> Just be wary.  It's always easier for somebody to call you for an
> answer than to figure it out for themselves, or at least that seems to
> be my experience, and I simply don't have the time to be a helpdesk as
> well as a programmer.
>
>    
There are always those who will phone up rather than work it out for 
themselves and not just on Ubuntu.  I have a client whom I offered a few 
days free remote/telephone support to and they were phoning me about the 
littlest of things.  Once the free support has expired and they had to 
pay per call they stopped calling and only phoned when something went 
really wrong.

Rob