Hi, Sunday, January 16, 2005, 2:11:24 AM, Graywolf wrote:
> It wasn't a secret, MS bragged about it. They claimed it would help them serve > you better (with potatoes and gravy, I guess). But it continues, in XP there > are > about a hundred "services" running as default. Many of them can be turned off > if > you know what you are doing, if you don't turning off the wrong ones can lock > up > your computer. You say that like it's a bad thing. But if you open up any complex machine and fiddle around inside you really need to know what you're doing. The thing is, the PC has evolved from being what it says on the tin - a personal computer - to being a business computer. Back in the 1980s when we first starting using PCs at work we moaned like hell because the operating system, file system, user interface, connectivity, scripting etc. were so crap compared to the mainframe operating systems we were used to. But even back then, PCs were for nerds. Ordinary people couldn't do anything with them beyond the real basics. What is really needed is for somebody to re-invent the personal computer. Make a machine/OS that ordinary people can use easily, and have confidence in. And before anybody leaps in, the Mac ain't it. I know this because I have friends (journalists and teachers) who've used Macs for 10 or more years - always upgrading to the latest as soon as it appeared on the shelves. They still don't have the faintest idea what to do when it goes wrong. Which it does. But then, when my central heating goes wrong I don't have the faintest idea what to do. Why should computers be any different? -- Cheers, Bob
