Are Microsoft users abuse victims?

[elfs]

Omaha asked me this, in relationship to her Mac, but I have to wonder about it in general. I mean, it really does start to sound like it sometimes: "Oh, it's not Windows' fault, it's mine. Really. If I worked harder at our relationship, I wouldn't have the crashes and the viruses and the spam. I just have to do what Bill tells me, and it will all be okay, right? I mean, that's really the issue. I stay because I know it'll get better. It will. I've put too much time and effort into it to give up now."

Just musing.

Comments

[secanth.livejournal.com]

Cheapness I may grant (though some of us have no choice), but laziness? I'm using a system I'm used to, and don't really have *time* to learn a) another OS system, b) the money to switch, even if I wanted to, and c)don't really *care* as long as the one I've got does what I want it to. IF I had the time, I'd cheerfully learn just about any OS/software system...and *have*, over the years. (I can still get around a system with DOS, if necessary, and have done Cobol/RPG programming, so I don't think I'm brain dead.)

However, learning that new stuff right at the moment isn't high on my list of priorities, since the only thing I require from my computer is that it connect me to the internet, do word processing and a few other office apps, and let me play a game now and then. Those of us who are not certified geeks wouldn't dream of actually trying to FIX operating system errors. And I'd venture to guess that the *vast* majority of people using computers these days would no more try to program/install hardware on their systems than they would construct their own plumbing and electrical system.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Those of us who are not certified geeks wouldn't dream of actually trying to FIX operating system errors.

I think this one of those pieces of FUD that Linux will be spending awhile overcoming. The commercial Linuxen, like SuSE or Redhat, are as stable and reliable as any other commercial OS released around the same time. I'm not particularly anti-Windows. I've even written code for it; it put food on my family's table for two years once upon a time. But MS and Apple keep acting as if their commodity products are precious and rare-- they're not.

As for the price-- I guess I don't understand that. An install of XP with Office approaches six hundred dollars, while a similar install of Fedora (the free component of RedHat) costs about a dollar-- and it comes with things you don't get with XP/Office, like a desktop publishing program, a working spam filter, image editing software comparable to Photoshop, 3d rendering software, and the like. Not that you need any of those, but there they are.

It's simple: a hammer is a commodity item. Everyone knows how to make a hammer, so hammer manufacturers have to get you somewhere else, and they sell on volume because margins are slim. The only ways to "win" in the hammer market (or the cola market, or the automobile market) is to generate volume through marketing, and to reduce costs through material supply manangement.

It seems counterintutive because so few people can program, but operating systems, windowing systems, office suites, and the like-- are the same way. "How to make one" is commodity knowledge. Anyone with the time and energy can go to the library and look it up. There's no secret, no intellectual property, no patentable process, to be had there. And once a talented amateur has reproduced what the propietary marketers have invested in so heavily, the market is doomed.

[secanth.livejournal.com]

In my case, it wasn't a matter of the original cost. (smile) Thanks to ... ah hem ... friends of friends, I was able to get most of the software (legally and registered) for almost nothing. (I AM Runnerwolf's Mom, after all...grin) And at the time my system was assembled, I was working with Windows at work and had been since Windows 3.1. I was familar with it, and given that the only 'tech support' I was going to have was all the way across the country, we went with what I knew. My mention of cost was actually intended to be more along the lines of "well, I've *got* Windows, and if I change...". (Actually, I wouldn't mind having good imaging software, and it would be fun working with some of the 3D stuff...but I digress.)

I think the biggest thing that is 'against' the alternative OS systems is simply that a lot of people really don't know that much about the machines they use. And let's face it, MS markets the heck out of their stuff. Anyone who is only literate, as opposed to well informed, barely knows the other systems are out there. A lot of them barely know how to use the systems they have, for that matter. There are still a whole lot of 'old fogeys' out there to whom computers are still a mystery, and a lot of them are in 'positions of power' when it comes to business and the workforce.

There's also the conversion problem. While not insurmountable, it often *seems* that way to those not familar with anything other than Windows. And even then, the old principle of 'If it's not broke, don't fix it' still has a lot of force in business and with private individuals.

Of course they're commodities. Back in the old days, I could just as easily program a lot of apps as go out and buy them...the logic isn't all that difficult for most of them. Given enough incentive, I could probably still learn what I needed to know. But where's my incentive, as an average user? There are programs out there I can *buy* that are a simple install...and I don't have to do all the work. That's the attitude most folk have about a lot of things. (Why should I make my own bookshelves, when I can go to Lowe's and buy 'em cheap?)

This is changing, of course, as the current generations grow up. The 'new' technology isn't a mystery to you guys...and it won't be a mystery to a lot of the people in high school and college now. I suspect that, given that, MS is gonna have a whole lot harder time in the future holding on to it's market share when it comes to OS systems.