[X4U] Good Reading

[Johns Maillist]

Please excuse the formatting, but it was easier to address this in  
the below format.

On Jul 18, 2005, at 5:04 PM, Michael Winter wrote:

>
> On Jul 18, 2005, at 3:44 PM, Stroller wrote:
>
> Maybe I am underestimating, but not having done it (installed  
> Windows) very often, I have to ask...
>
>
>> About half of my work is fixing PCs for home users - the other  
>> half being fixing them for small businesses. What you're not  
>> accounting for is that the average home user simply isn't  
>> comfortable reinstalling Windows - many don't even know how to  
>> back up their photos to CD!
>>
>
> As much as I don't want to believe that, I do. It's a sad state of  
> affairs.

AND, remember, reinstalling Windows, means that many of your programs  
have to be reinstalled. The average user is not capable of backing up  
the Registry. If they can't back it up, they sure cannot restore it.  
So they need to reinstall many of their more complicated apps, like  
Office etc.!


>
>
>> Installing Windows XP can easily take a couple of hours,  
>> especially on systems a year or two old - many PCs are _still_  
>> sold with 256meg or less of RAM - and that's not counting Office,  
>> Service Pack 2, internet setup, accounts for the kids &c &c.
>>
>
> But all of that (except probably SP2) would have to be done with a  
> new PC too, wouldn't it?
XP with SP 2 comes on computers, and all else being said, XP is not  
to bad to work with on setting up wireless and other internet  
connections.
It is not even close to as simple with X and Airport, but the first  
connection is not so bad.

>
>> If I can take the computer home & leave it running - I back-up the  
>> whole hard-drive and install any additional software in addition  
>> to the above -
>>
>
> And what I couldn't believe is that the first person in the article  
> (with a Ph.D. in compsci) didn't have a clean image backed up  
> somewhere he could restore instead of buying a whole new computer.  
> Which he's going to have to do again in 6 months unless he's going  
> to be running a different OS or doing things different than he has  
> been.
>
Having a Ph. D.  in computer science doe snot mean you know how to  
care for networks and OS on systems. I know many very smart people,  
who work in systems programming etc. Their is not much in that course  
work that is OS specific. They can be just as lost as a novice.

>> There are so many factors that come into this, it hard to surmise,  
>> but for machines of more than 2 years old replacement may not be a  
>> bad upgrade.
>>
>
> Like I said, if there are other reasons involved (wanting a faster  
> computer), I can understand perfectly. My guess is that many of the  
> people interviewed wanted a new PC for whatever reason, and the  
> malware was just an excuse they could hang the blame on. But that  
> wouldn't make the story quite as interesting. Purely MO.
>

As a side note, there is nothing like watching a hobbyist try to add  
or upgrade their Windoze box, only to see them fail, as Windoze does  
not have a driver, or does not find the device.
When you look at a box, and it says nothing about Mac compatible, you  
know it will probably not work. if it says it is, then you can be  
sure it will work.
Just because it says XP ready, does NOT mean it will work.

Some background:
I am also a tech, supporting home and business users for a living in  
Miami (Mac and Windoze)

John