On 4/30/07, rbw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I hadn't touched a Vista box until today and I had to make sure they
were networked... Knoppix wouldn't start X on the Dimension 9200's...
I also noticed that the "Run" command has been removed from the eyesight
of their victims...
One other note... The person in charge of all these boxes wondered if
they could all print to the same printer. I said sure you just have to
share the printer. His response was , "I don't know anything about
networking, I just use applications". Then it dawned on me, WinDoze
users don't even know what "File Explorer" is anymore. If it is not in
"My [yadda, yadda]" they refuse to think any further.
I'll help someone who is trying to learn, but not these people. Maybe
I'm about to learn how to charge an arm and a leg for substituting for
their willful ignorance... But then I would have to know all about
WinDoze brokenness and programing for market share over usability...
Do exactly what Microsoft does, charge them more for Windows work. It
will probably do more to push them to Linux than anything else. I
think MS is really pushing it with Vista, I have two clients that are
refusing to change over to it because their PCs are a few years old,
not running core duo CPUs, and would have to gut their office and buy
all new boxes AND new, really expensive, OS software if they switch to
Vista. In short, they are pissing a lot of folks off who really don't
want to become "computer people" or have to deal with "computer
issues" much. Yet for all that, they still balked at switching to
Linux, and are making plans(financial, mostly) to transition to Vista
over the next 18 months.
I sometimes forget that most of my clients simply don't share my
fascination with this stuff, and consider it a bother in many ways.
Not a mentality I really relate to, but it's the devil-you-know
syndrome. You can explain the cost-benefit side of Linux until blue in
the face, and you still have to get around, through, under, or over
that. I found myself getting equally frustrated at their intransigence
in the face of some real cost savings and no loss of functionality in
these two cases(no CAD, Flash, or streaming video issues, they
outsource their accounting so no Quickbooks/Quicken insanity). I
decided that I'd done my due diligence and made a good offer. They
chose to stay with windows, I choose to charge them for the waste of
time that simple tasks in Windows usually turn into. My hope is that
the combination of higher MS related costs both for hardware,
software, and support might be the one argument they will listen to.
If not, I don't really want to work on Windows Vista that much anyway.
Robert Donovan
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