On Monday 04 August 2003 21:07, Ian Bell wrote:
. However, Joe public does not expaect his car to last forever or for it to cost nothing to run other than fuel costs. He expects to pay for it to be serviced/maintained and the same should be true of his computer. If he decides to have air conditioning fitted to his car he may decide to fit it himself if he has the skills but if not he expects to pay someone who can. The same should be true of his PC.
In this area Linux is no different to any other OS.
Actually this is a really good point.
It also demonstrates a point where Linux is actually stronger than Windows.
Once a Linux machine is set up as long as the tasks it performs and the hardware connected to it doesn't change, there is very little that needs to be maintained.
Windows machines on the other hand, break for no apparent reason, require constant updates for even the lowest degree of secure computing, suffer fragmentation, registry corruption, DLL hell, Virus updates, Virus's themselves, Worms, Pop-ups and ad/spyware.
A reasonable proportion of my business comes from dealing with home users having one of the above problems. However I think more people are willing to have a go at fixing their computer themselves, than start ripping their engine to bits. Not so sure why this is.
Maybe it's because computer people are viewed as expensive, maybe it's the lack of muck and grease thing or maybe it's because you can tinker with a computer without going to halfords and buying a socket set first :o)