Friends don't let friends use Windows
My roommate Chris is a loyal Windows user. He think Windows XP is the cat's meow. But he's really jealous of the design of my PowerBook 17" compared to his huge HP (desktop replacement) 15" widescreen notebook. He isn't so sure about OS X. I've extolled the virtues of the superior interface and the Unix core but it he just doesn't get it.
His big concern is the total change of what he's used to. It's like Mother's Meatloaf. You may try other meatloafs but none of them will be better than your mom's.
Plus he's got a lot of hardware to try. Scanners, printers, etc. I'm hope 99% of it will work but only time will tell. He also runs a lot of strange software including a voicemail/fax over IP system. I've got my fingers crossed that all will go well cause I'm tried of being his 24/7 help desk.
So I'm going to put the Mac to the Pepsi challenge and have him use it exclusively for a week. That means no Windows at all. We're going to transfer all of his documents, email, etc. I'm going to have him do most of it with my help. And we'll blog the whole thing. It will start on Tuesday because I have a presentation to make on Monday.
If all goes well he's going to buy a Mac mini.
Any ideas you have would be great.
posted by Jason Sares @ 1/14/2005 06:59:00 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Have him register at arstechnica & post on the experience (afterwards) in the battlefront. Will make for a lively discussion, I promise ;-)
Here's a better idea: Have him run as a non-admin on Windows for a week and watch the problems with spyware and other crap disappear.
I wonder how many home Windows users run non admin, 1% maybe. On OS X this is the default and why Windows 2000/XP wasn't I don't know. Ask Microsoft. I have a feeling it was something to do with "ease of use" which Microsoft doesn't get at all. Ease of use also means not having your system slow down from 1000+ instances of spyware. OS X handles this better than any other OS I've used since you don't have to run a su command like in Linux all the time. It just asks for your password any time something sensitive is happening.
"I wonder how many home Windows users run non admin, 1% maybe. On OS X this is the default and why Windows 2000/XP wasn't I don't know. Ask Microsoft. I have a feeling it was something to do with "ease of use" which Microsoft doesn't get at all."
Microsoft had to do this because of old legacy software that was written for Windows 3.1, 95, 98, and ME, and also because quite a few third party software companys can't follow the rules that Microsoft set. Usually those applications require the user to write to certain folders or registry locations that a regular "User" account doesn't have access to. If they had made everyone a "User" by default at the time Windows 2000 and XP were released, there would have been major problems, and they would have taken the blame. I also don't think anyone saw that there would be such a tremendous explosion of "malware" or "spyware" at the time.
"OS X handles this better than any other OS I've used since you don't have to run a su command like in Linux all the time. It just asks for your password any time something sensitive is happening"
This isn't a great solution actually as it conditions the user to simply enter the root password whenever it is asked for. How long before a website simply pops up a window and asks for a password. Grandma will type it right in there, and now the website has her IP and password. Great.
So what's the verdict? Did you friend switch?
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