Windows Rant

[chris]

On Sun, 2010-07-11 at 22:44 +0100, Angus MacGyver wrote:
> On Sun, 2010-07-11 at 16:34 +0200, Amedee Van Gasse wrote:
> > On 11-07-10 05:15, NoOp wrote:
> > > <rant>
> > > I stopped supporting Windows for my clients six months ago but still
> > > maintain Win for my relatives et al. Performing what would be simple
> > > changes in Ubuntu on WinXP brought home why I stopped supporting paying
> > > clients.
> > 
> > Why do you support your relatives for free?
> > 
> > My niece is with the police but she doesn't let me park on the wrong 
> > places for free. I have a nephew who is an engineer at a petrochemical 
> > company but he doesn't give me fuel for free. My sister is a nurse at a 
> > psychiatric clinic but she doesn't get me free drugs. So I'll ask again, 
> > why would my IT services be free?
> > 
> > If you don't ask money for your services, however low it may be, then at 
> > least ask for a service in return. For example if they are a plummer or 
> > a construction worker. Because if you don't ask anything in return, they 
> > will value your services as worthless. Which makes you worthless. 
> > Something that you don't want, I guess.
> > On the other hand if you ask something in return then your relatives 
> > will respect you.
> > 
> > Anyway if you help your relatives for free then you are also poisoning 
> > the market for other IT services who would otherwise have made a small 
> > profit if you weren't available.
> > 
> 
> Good grief - have you no heart ?
> Are people *REALLY* that greedy these days ?
> Have we lost compassion for one another, the joy of gifting and most
> importantly love ?
> I'm appalled and disappointed.
> 
> 
> Nothing in your IT services (or plumbing services) that someone provides
> makes it illegal, against their business contracts or otherwise
> un-ethical to give free services to your family...
> 
> Being with the police and turning a blind eye to illegal activity is in
> itself illegal (although it does happen) - same goes with a nurse with
> dispensing drugs without due process, an engineer in an oil company
> doesn't have the authority to give his *COMPANY'S* fuel to you, and
> therefore, these are a very poor analogy to IT services.
> 
> Plumbing is a more suitable analogy, provided the plumber isn't doing it
> on someone else's time (i.e. fixing for free a family problem instead of
> what his company expects him to do - doing it his own free time,
> depending on his company's contract, is a different matter)
> 
> 
> I cannot imagine providing services to family for a fee, be it plumbing,
> other DIY, or IT. 
> (actual parts are another matter, case by case basis - I've bought
> things for my sister-in-law and niece, they simply cannot afford them, I
> however can, so it's my pleasure to give them, but I didn't buy my
> mother-in-law's Apple as she wanted one)
> I'd rather do it *right*, for free than risk some fly-by-night rip them
> off.
> 
> 
> 

well put.  
the kiwi