Today, in the New York Times, there is an article (reg. required), that talks about how people are throwing away their old PCs, in an effort to rid themselves of spyware, viruses and the like. "throwing out a computer ‘is a rational response,’said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project…"
A rational response?? Rational would be to wipe Windows and replace Linux. Rational might be, like the woman pictured, throw away the box, and get a Mac (or, for the brave, you can wipe windows and put Mac OS on the same box). I can’t quite believe we have gotten to the point where people are not only willing to put up with the viruses and spyware, but are willing to go out and buy another Windows machine! Microsoft, who makes a decent amount on each purchase of a Windows machine, must be jumping for joy. They are entering the anti-spyware business, and, of course, they will "not [be] providing protection for people who have earlier versions of the company’s operating system."
First off, MS entering the anti-spyware business is kind of like a vendor who sold you locks that are incredibly easy to pick, coming in and saying they’ll clean up after the mess created by a break in (for a fee, of course). And, if the mess is too much, they’ll sell you more locks!
How long are people going to put up with this nonsense? And how long are nonprofits, where every dollar spent on new PCs means a dollar that doesn’t feed someone, or give someone services, or pays for medicine, or an activist on the hill, going to put up with this?
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Am i the only one that wants to go dumbster diving?
Wow, an unhelpful response from some nerd! Yes, let’s give grandma a 5 CD Fedora Core set.
OK, yeah, I’m a nerd. And yes, a 5 CD Fedora core set would not be so helpful for either grandma, or a nonprofit organization w/o technology expertise. But a Mac works, as does some distributions such as Lindows, and others.
I’m not saying that Linux is the be all and end all. I’m just saying that it is very hard to beleive that people are willing to put up with this crap from MS, continually.
It will take some time for Linux to be ready for prime time, but the Mac OS is on it’s way to the intel platform pretty soon, and Mac Mini’s are cheap – so that alternative, which is much, much less vulnerable to spyware and viruses, both because of lack of market share, and, truly, by design, is a reasonable alternative.
People continue to put up with this crap because they don’t know they can do better.
They’ve made themselves believe that they could never learn new technology, and so they do nothing.
Action, and altruistic techs passing along truths about ease of use (with Linux or Macs) would be my suggestion. Also, educating people on the benefit of giving their PC away is probably a very good thing too…
Give Grandmom a linux distribution? Are you insane or just cruel?!? Be kind to your grandmother–get her the Mac Mini or iMac that she deserves, and set her up with AOL.
My grandmother loves being able to be emailed pictures. She doesn’t send much email though, because she can’t type. What’s funny is when my mom got her the computer, I think we almost all thought she would be able to type, without considering that there was no reason for her to ever learn how.
I know the linux folks love their linux, but I think for regular folks that need to be saved from using windows–the mac is still the best alternative.
(Ironically, I stumbled on this story shortly after telling my wife that my PC is dead–I think there’s some weird spyware on it that causes explorer to crash on startup)
Ok, enough rambling.