[CaptainHaddock]

This article is kind of amusing … and true. It reminds me again why I switched. Look at all the headaches you go through installing XP, versus the click-and-go 20-minute install of OS X (the rare time you have to install it).

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

That’s a person who simply can’t properly operate a computer, period, no matter what the OS. What an embarrassing display of ignorance that only the equally computer un-savvy would pay credence to.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by CRASH HARDDRIVE

That’s a person who simply can’t properly operate a computer, period, no matter what the OS. What an embarrassing display of ignorance that only the equally computer un-savvy would pay credence to.

I think he was trying to imitate the average computer user to give an example of why Windows is horrible. I think he gave a rather accurate example of your average user trying to upgrade an older PC. Note, I said average. Believe it or not, most people don't think to look up the brand/chipset of their motherboard, go to the respective website and download all the drivers, burn it to a CD, then go back to the original computer and install them manually.

OS X runs and installs (mostly) fine on 4 generations of Macs and laptops. Installing Windows XP onto a machine where you only have a Win 98 CD and no drivers for XP... good gods. Jane a John Q. Average will spend DAYS (and gods forbid, lods of money on useless support calls) trying to get their computer to work before they call their nephew who "works at that computer store," or whoever else in their family that "knows computers."

A lot of users don't know anything about anti-virus and anti-spyware. I'd say a good 75% of the faculty here at my work is ignorant to those two, and probably closer to 90% are ignorant of at least one of them. I constantly get asked "Why is my computer so slow to boot?" I have to tell them, "Because we have protecive software like Norton and Spysweeper that keeps viruses and spyware off your comptuer." And the inevitable followup, "Why do I need Norton and Spysweeper on my computer?" To which I reply (too often with a sigh as I repeat myself) "To keep viruses and spyware off your computer."

[Mediaman_12]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

I think he was trying to imitate the average computer user to give an example of why Windows is horrible. I think he gave a rather accurate example of your average user trying to upgrade an older PC. Note, I said average. Believe it or not, most people don't think to look up the brand/chipset of their motherboard, go to the respective website and download all the drivers, burn it to a CD, then go back to the original computer and install them manually.

Dont I just know it. We have a PC in our office that keeps moaning about requiring XP SP2. But we now know that if this is installed, it totaly borks the PC as the motherboard firmwhere isn't SP2 compatable. We only figured this out after it updated and crashed there then followed about 2 days of reinstalling XP, then letting it go through it's auto updates, then it crashing. When we finally found the info about the firmwhere, we decided no to do this (updating the Firmwhere is a scary process, that can render the board useless) and not install SP1.

[Mastrap]

Originally Posted by CRASH HARDDRIVE

That’s a person who simply can’t properly operate a computer, period, no matter what the OS. What an embarrassing display of ignorance that only the equally computer un-savvy would pay credence to.

He sounds more like a geek to me. He certainly knows more about PCs than I do.

[turtle777]

WTF did he try to install Win 98SE ?

To be fair, it's like someone trying to install Mac OS 7.5 and then bash on OS X.

-t

[CaptainHaddock]

Originally Posted by turtle777

WTF did he try to install Win 98SE ?

Because that's all he had at the moment. If you read on, the bulk of the article is about XP. Most people who've had to rely on Windows will recognize most of his problems from their own experiences.

The fault isn't all Microsoft's. You simply can't support a billion and one hardware combinations and still have a usable, stable, easy-to-install operating system.

[Salty]

Yah installing 98SE is kinda dumb. I once had a room mate that swore by it because he liked dos... loser...

[Paco500]

Originally Posted by Mediaman_12

(updating the Firmwhere is a scary process, that can render the board useless)

Why? It's pretty common across all sorts of computers and devices. Apple has, in the past, released firmware updates on motherboards, DVD drives, bluetooth chips and on and on.

I suppose it could fry the board, but it's not likely. At all. Even a little. Get over it.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Salty

Yah installing 98SE is kinda dumb. I once had a room mate that swore by it because he liked dos... loser...

I prefer DOS to windos myself. I can't think of a time I have ever had DOS lock up on me and corrupt my hard drive.

DOS is pretty powerful.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Railroader

I prefer DOS to windos myself. I can't think of a time I have ever had DOS lock up on me and corrupt my hard drive.

DOS is pretty powerful.

-t

[analogika]

Originally Posted by turtle777

WTF did he try to install Win 98SE ?

To be fair, it's like someone trying to install Mac OS 7.5 and then bash on OS X.

-t

Actually, if you RTFA, the Windows 98SE bit is the very first beginning and the least problematic bit of his odyssey. Its incompatibility with a newer protocol is what prompted him to install XP.

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

The guy is a computing doofus- he couldn't have figured out how to use OSX either. A knowledgeable person would have had Linux working fine in the first place, and had his system configured correctly before he even arrived in the Middle East. (This guy can't even use the OS he espouses!)

A knowledgeble person wouldn't have gone anywhere near Windows 98, when: "My IBM Thinkpad originally came with Windows 2000 Pro. I have the OEM disk. IBM affixed the Certificate of Authority on the bottom of the case. But as mentioned above, I installed Windows 98 SE."
The hell for? Oh wait, he actually states that Windows 98 runs best on an 'older' laptop! (That shipped with Win2000 Pro!) That right there perhaps sums up EVERYTHING about how clueless this person is. His laptop turns out to be an 800mhz PIII that will OF COURSE run Windows 2000 or XP just fine, and that no one in their right mind would dick-up with Window 98.

Why he elected to buy WindowsXP Home on top of it is anyone's guess, but it's no surprise he couldn't figure that out either.

Most of his ranting is not him traveling somewhere with no access, but he's back home where he should be able to access anything he needs- yet his descriptions of things like loading drivers are just purposefully ignorant for the sake of causing problems for himself to shore up his nonsense that his bungling is all the computer's fault.

He purposefully chooses to use a wretched dial-up ISP that's proprietary to a system he doesn't even know how to use, thereby cutting himself off from using any of his Linux boxes to do what he wouldn't have been able to do anyway. That idiocy is supposed to be the fault of Windows??

He simply doesn't know how to operate a computer -ANY computer- correctly, despite the OS, nor utilize the resources he has available to him.

There may be plenty to bitch about Windows over, but being a purposeful TWIT that creates your own problems just to say how bad something is, is just silly. His agenda is painfully obvious- be a twit with a Windows machine, so that he can bag on Windows. Anyone that even knew how to use Linux would have just set that up properly, done his work, and got on with life.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by analogika

Actually, if you RTFA, the Windows 98SE bit is the very first beginning and the least problematic bit of his odyssey. Its incompatibility with a newer protocol is what prompted him to install XP.

Thanks for the executive summary.

-t