All Things Microsoft > Microsoft as a Company
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reactosguy:
--- Quote from: Calum on 16 March 2010, 17:04 ---and also because virtually everybody working as a civil servant anywhere has got the microsoft fear (i mean, they think it's impossible to exist without having ms windows, and/or IE installed on every computer, they just can't understand any other possibility).
--- End quote ---
Yeah, because people used Windows and IE for years.
It's a shame to know that Microsoft can push this fear into to-be-brainwashed little kids. I mean, they use Windows and IE at home and in schools that refuse to switch to an alternative BECAUSE OF THIS BELIEF.
worker201:
^ It's hard for some people, and we need to recognize it. I can easily switch between a Mac and Windows and Linux, and I can use your computer as well as my own. But I'm not an "average" computer user. Most computer users have a difficult time adjusting to new situations, and don't accept change very well. Here's a cool metaphor. Let's say you speak English. And let's say you go to a class 5 days a week where you learn how to speak in Spanish. Except you don't really learn how to speak conversational Spanish, you just learn some colors and how to count to ten. After a few years, you'd be saying "cinco rojo" like it was nothing. And then imagine one day that you go to the class and a real Mexican is there, using slang and not articulating every syllable. You'd be freaking out, wondering what the hell was going on. You might pick up a few words here and there through context, but mostly you'd have no idea what was going on. And then the Mexican leaves, and everyone is back to numbers and colors, and there's an audible sigh of relief. Now imagine that the teacher says "Who wants to quit speaking Spanish and start speaking Mandarin Chinese?" I bet not one fucking person in the class will be interested.
Spanish = Windows
Spanish from a native speaker = Windows trouble (virus, BSOD, etc)
Mandarin Chinese = Linux
It might not seem fair to compare computer operations with learning a foreign language, especially a foreign language that uses a different alphabet. I learned Linux way quicker than I learned Spanish - hell, it was faster than learning English, and I'm a native speaker. But again, that's me. For the average computer user, switching to Linux would be about as much fun as switching to Mandarin. Although they'd probably get somewhere eventually, it would be stressful and expensive and unproductive - just not worth it.
Lead Head:
Yup, pretty much. I still see people every day that are pretty much afraid of error messages, or just about any dialog box that pops up. They either ignore it, hit cancel/do not allow/whatever, or panic and just reboot the computer. Even switching to a Mac would probably be hard for these types of people.
worker201:
What's kinda sad, though, is that we let those people dictate the direction of the microcomputer industry. The trouble doesn't come from having Windows on every secretary or account manager's desktop. The trouble comes when scientists and engineers are also forced to have Windows on their desktop, because of silly things like hardware compatibility, or network interoperability.
Calum:
i can't imagine someone being so dumb as to reboot for every dialog box! Thank goodness they're not mac users, remember when all the dialog boxes had a picture of a bomb on them? all those users'd be under their desks with tinfoil on their heads!
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