Average User XP (Build 1312, Service Pack 2)

Subject: Average User XP (Build 1312, Service Pack 2)
From: Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 05:30:46 -0800 (PST)

"Chris" wrote...

> The average user wants two things - something that works, and something
> that's advertised alot.

Hahahaha. Now that is one of the best summations I've heard for the
mystical "average user." I think they also wouldn't mind Jennifer Lopez's
name on it. (Did you know she has her own line of clothes. Its true, I saw
them in a mall in Seattle tonight.)

> If users *only* wanted something that works,
> then MS Word would be much smaller and more stable than it is today.

Well, if you are like most users who expect their program to
instantaneously read their mind and operate flawlessly after you have
installed and uninstalled 7389 different add-ons all coded from
Uzbekistanian monks.

Word is plenty stable these days.

> >The garden variety home computer user doesn't want that either. And
they
> >make up the majority of the market. We techies are specialists; it
makes
> >sense that we might prefer specialized tools. But to force new OS's on
the
> >unsuspecting (and undesiring) public is to punish them, not to help
them.

Yeah! Damn it, get these Linux freaks off my back!

Force? Force means to compel somebody with threats of harm. Explain to me
how MS (or anybody) is forcing the public to adopt a new OS? Many people
are happy and sticking with Win98 or WinNT these days...and last I checked
John Ascroft had not made it a crime to use an outdated OS. Although, he
may be working on that plan still. And as far as I know there is no UN
Joint Commission on Forcing All People to use Microsoft Products.

> I will remind you that the big argument against Unix (the winning
> argument for Windows) was that Unix was too complicated. I'm here to
> tell you Win 2000 is easily as chaotic as Unix, if not more. And it's
> much less robust - I freeze once a day. Once a week the OS wipes out a
> file when it rebuilds the FAT (after one of my daily freezes).

Why aren't you using NTFS? And if you are freezing once a day, why doesn't
your IT staff solve the problem? I have Win2K machines going on 1000 or
more hours of continuous operation.

One of the most common reasons people have problems with Windows machines
is the "uninformed fiddling" problem. Joe User see those pretty little
windows and point and click interface and thinks - cool I am a computer
expert. So Joe starts fiddling with things, deleting files, setting up
Active Directory connections, reinstalling things...and before too long
the system freezes solid. Then Joe looks at his event log and its filled
to the brim with errors, misconfigurations, etc. dating back well over the
last month.

I know this for a fact because I see this all the time at my client's
sites. They have a little bit of knowledge and that's dangerous. Take
Win2k and Active Directory (AD). This is a technology that is not for the
faint of heart. If you stick your head into AD you had better be prepared
to spend a lot of time learning it. However, people who have become
accustom to "plug it in, turn it on, off it goes" thinking of computers,
will quickly bungle themselves into a mess if they unleash the AD dragon.

Now, who's fault is this? Should they make Active Directory for Dummies
versions of Win2k? What about those of us that have learned it all and can
make it do kewl stuff. Just because you don't understand something doesn't
mean your ignorance should be a burden to the rest of us. If you are not
willing to learn the technologies, they stay in the romper room with the
Windows Me users. I am LDAP-ing up Active Directory. (10 points to the
nerd who gets that joke!)

> Without
> a degree from MS University, I'm all on my own trying to figure out why
> my ethernet won't function if I start my machine with my printer already

> turned on (plug-n-play is the culprit).

No, its probably the drivers from your ethernet or your printer. Again,
another common misconception is that MS is to blame for all peripheral
problems. When in fact, many companies don't want to spend the $$$ to
code decent drivers, so they hire a pack of toads who code lame drivers.
When the product fails or conflicts with another peripheral, the
unsuspecting user ends up blaming MS. Its a perfect deal for the
peripheral maker. They have no incentive to make good drivers, because MS
will have to shoulder the blame.

> In the second place, techology isn't sold
> in a free market, religious claims to the contrary notwithstanding. The

> MS practice of threatening manufacturers is a case in point

MS's marketing practices aside, Windows "won" because it could penetrate a
larger market quicker. Basic economics - the farther you can spread your
seed.

Also, a lot of people tend to see MS in terms of 1998 thinking. Go back to
1989. MS was an unknown nothing. Even by 1992, Windows was still, mostly,
just a nice idea. It did not come of age until 1995, when MS offered a
truly useful platform that was reasonably stable and had a lot of business
applications behind it. Then it picked up speed. One of the salient rules
of today's economy is that if you can get the ball rolling, it can
permeate the market and spread - becoming more valuable as a whole.

> Finally, as specialists, I would say we have every reason to look at
> alternatives, and explore those which may be better.

As technical writers, we should be focusing on writing documents, not
which operating system makes us more spiritually satisfied.

> In this "free" market, they have the money to do it.
> (Remember, Word is ubiquitous at least in part because installed for
> free on so many machines.) The only thing that could stop them, aside
> from internal catastrophe, is political force of one sort or the
> other... Either grass-roots support of Java (and the small companies
> refuse to sell out), or the Gvmt steps in (not something I advocate,
> BTW). Figure the odds on either. I'm reading up on C# (selling out
> already?).

The rich and powerful will always be able to dominate markets. This is
nothing new. Large, market dominating companies have been around for over
a century. MS is just one of many.

If people truly hated MS, they would stop using it. Its like TV. If you
truly hate all the sex and violence on TV, then stop watching it.
Obviously, they keep making shows like Jerry Springer and Slut Island
because people consume them.

Or the unthinkable alternative is true, MS and Slut Island are filling a
need in the world and people demand that need.

Andrew Plato

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