[questio verum]

While things here in the open source world are expanding and opening up on a number of fronts, things aren't so rosy elsewhere. And events could really get interesting over the next couple months as a result. Microsloth is pulling XP from shelves and OEM builds on the 30th of this month. Up 'til now, customers could get a shiny new copy of XP if they really wanted it and were willing to accept the hardware choices the OEMs forced on them. As of the morning of July 1st however, that will all be gone. Now, those cast adrift in the sea of FUD will truly be forced to chose the red pill or the blue pill. This could be an interesting time. Those of you who find yourself acting as tech support for microserf friends and acquaintances might want to practice your conversion spiels now.

*carny barker mode on*

"Distros! Get your red-hot distros! This little marvel of open source development can be yours now; for the low, low cost of just nothing whatsoever; plus absolutely nothing for shipping and handling. That's right, folks! Don't be fooled by poor-quality imitations. Ask for it by name. Linux... the name you can trust for all of your open-source computing needs. Vista victims... act now and we'll throw in a free referral to a trained therapist in your area. Don't let another day go by without experiencing the freedom and joy that FOSS can bring to your computing experience. If not absolutely satisfied after 30 days, we will refund you, er.. well, actually.. nothing. But don't let that stop you from taking advantage of this special offer. The freedom available to you can only be experienced through actual Linux usage. Don't wait another minute. Servers are standing by!"

*Carny barker mode off*

qv

p.s. Steve Jobs is probably too excited to sleep at night, right now.

[jayd512]

Ya know... this really worries me because I happen to work in a call center for an ISP. Let me tell you... tech support for Vista is a real <bleeping> treat! I am not looking forward to the day when somebody calls up with a PC with XP on it and I have to tell them that it's outdated. MS has really decided to go for broke with the idea that Vista will finally take-off with people... not just individuals, but with business as well. Add to that the fact that there are so many networking issues ingrained into Vista that it's next to impossible to get a valid connection going and you end up with a real FUBAR.

P.S.

You may be right... Steve Jobs is probably planning a block party!

[Manchunian]

jayd512 - don't you ever get even a little bit tempted to advise your customers to burn a ubuntu live CD and give it a whirl? Just whisper it so your supervisers don't hear!

[elija]

I have a standard way of dealing with Vista tech support requests.

Friend: Help me I think I may have done something stupid!
Me: Are you using Vista?
Friend: Yes
Me: You did do something stupid.

[Manchunian]

elija, you crack me up!

[imranka]

Originally Posted by elija

I have a standard way of dealing with Vista tech support requests.

Friend: Help me I think I may have done something stupid!
Me: Are you using Vista?
Friend: Yes
Me: You did do something stupid.

Its classic.

[jayd512]

Originally Posted by Manchunian

jayd512 - don't you ever get even a little bit tempted to advise your customers to burn a ubuntu live CD and give it a whirl? Just whisper it so your supervisers don't hear!

Dude... you have NO idea! It's sad when I'm asking "What version of Windows do you have?"... hoping that they'll say Windows 98 or ME, just so I don't have to deal with Vista!!!

*EDIT*
Sometimes, if I have a really nice caller, I actually advise them that Vista isn't exactly the best thing on the market And as it happens... my supervisors don't like Vista that much, either!

Originally Posted by elija

I have a standard way of dealing with Vista tech support requests.

Friend: Help me I think I may have done something stupid!
Me: Are you using Vista?
Friend: Yes
Me: You did do something stupid.

<snort> No kidding...

[Rob_B]

Sounds like I switched to Linux at exactly the right time. Now if I could get the wife to be a bit less attached to photoshop...

[techieMoe]

When I was in college, I worked in what we called the Ready Room. It was essentially a bank of laser printers that received all the print jobs from the computer labs upstairs. Part of our job when we worked evenings was to field calls that were meant for the help desk (which closed at 5pm, since everyone knows computers never act up except during regular business hours).

One evening I was watching the printers and another operator was manning the phone, and I actually heard this conversation:

Operator: MCS Ready Room, how may I help you?
I didn't hear what the person on the phone said, obviously...
Operator: Well, miss, you're right. You do have a virus on your machine. It's about 2 gigabytes and it's called Microsoft Windows.
Again, no idea what their response was...
Operator: Yes, ma'am. The help desk will be open tomorrow. Bring the computer right up and they'll help you out.

Needless to say, the guys at the help desk were not amused. We, however, were. Quite heartily.

[Oxygen]

Originally Posted by techieMoe

When I was in college, I worked in what we called the Ready Room. It was essentially a bank of laser printers that received all the print jobs from the computer labs upstairs. Part of our job when we worked evenings was to field calls that were meant for the help desk (which closed at 5pm, since everyone knows computers never act up except during regular business hours).

One evening I was watching the printers and another operator was manning the phone, and I actually heard this conversation:

Operator: MCS Ready Room, how may I help you?
I didn't hear what the person on the phone said, obviously...
Operator: Well, miss, you're right. You do have a virus on your machine. It's about 2 gigabytes and it's called Microsoft Windows.
Again, no idea what their response was...
Operator: Yes, ma'am. The help desk will be open tomorrow. Bring the computer right up and they'll help you out.

Needless to say, the guys at the help desk were not amused. We, however, were. Quite heartily.

I love you.

I've very recently had my friend who previously had XP UND ONLY VINDOWS EX-PE! sing the praises of Kubuntu Hardy. Having had XP act up I gave him a copy of Kubuntu which after some slight technical difficulties (ie ****ing all his shit up due to not understanding RAID) eventually I got them both working. What I quickly found is that XP is crap. It took about a month between giving him Kubuntu and finishing fixing his PC before I managed to find raid drivers and a working floppy disk.

Anyhoo... after a while everything was cheery - I've never had so much trouble setting up an OS on a PC. Either way he seemed to love Kubuntu.

Last week he was asking me to fix it. Seems Windows was laden with spyware and other assorted shit (No surprise there then). And Kubuntu kept freezing. I formatted both Windows and Linux and installed Windows... install disk wouldn't work. Tried again.... still nothing. Tried different disk with older version of Windows... finally. Now for the raid controler... nope won't work... try again.... ahh it's worked. Windows installed finally and then I had to install drivers... this was relatively quick except for the fact I have no idea what the sound card is other than an Intel high definition built in device with ICH7 being something to do with it. To this day his XP copy has no sound.

Kubuntu however... disk in, about 10-20 minutes and it was working perfectly.

I believe that if it wasn't for games he'd go completely Linux. He likes it a lot.