On 16/01/2009 01:31, Sean Miller wrote: > On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 1:25 AM, Simon Wears<[email protected]> > wrote: > > > I've found that doing something like that is a poison chalice... > whereas if somebody has Windows they go to their mates for help, if > you give them Ubuntu or any other Linux they always assume you are on > call 24x7 to help them with the most mundane of problems, which (in > most cases) they could have worked out for themselves had they > bothered to move their brain out of first gear. > > I found the opposite myself. Just over a year ago I installed Ubuntu on a PC for a friend's mum. She had a virus ridden installation of XP Pro which wasn't legit and Microsoft was nice enough to pop up the usual messages about it. Anyway I installed Ubuntu for her and took her through how to login, browse the internet and do the basics in OpenOffice. She picked it up really quickly which I was pleased with considering she wasn't the most computer literate person ever. A year later I had a call from her saying that she had a small issue printing some labels in OpenOffice, just as I was about to call her back she called again to say she sorted it out herself (and that was only about an hour later!). > Just be wary. It's always easier for somebody to call you for an > answer than to figure it out for themselves, or at least that seems to > be my experience, and I simply don't have the time to be a helpdesk as > well as a programmer. > > There are always those who will phone up rather than work it out for themselves and not just on Ubuntu. I have a client whom I offered a few days free remote/telephone support to and they were phoning me about the littlest of things. Once the free support has expired and they had to pay per call they stopped calling and only phoned when something went really wrong.
Rob -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
