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]

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.