Here's a direct qoute from m$.com asking if a user has anti-virus software..(which I was hoping they would already know).
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Do you have antivirus software installed on your computer?

Many major computer manufacturers include at least a trial version of a popular antivirus package on new computers.
Click Start, and then click Programs. Look for an item in the list with the word "antivirus" in it, or for McAfee, Norton, or Symantec, which are manufacturers of popular antivirus products.
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If someone can't even tell if they have a major program installed, should they be allowed near a computer? I know they want to appeal to everybody, but why should they market with the moronic customer in mind? It encourages customers to dumb down instead of wise up. When you're learning linux, there are many things that go right over your head, but that encourages you to learn about it.

I have had people tell me (exact quote) "I don't know the first thing about computers, I don't even know where to turn it on."
I just want to say to them, "How the hell did get through life without wandering into a trucks headlights?" If you can't push a button, you qualify as mentally retarded and belong in an institution. Please get with the times. My 70 year old grandma knows more about computers than these people.

They seem to fear them, have some odd aversion to new technology. However the WORST part about this is that when m$ appeals to them with the above quote, they turn them to sheep. 'Don't learn about computers, let it do the work, just relax...' and let bill gates bend you over and work your ignorance for all its worth.

I'm getting ready to install Gentoo. Should I have started out with this install without knowing how to set the BIOS to boot from the CD? I admit Mandrake 9.1 is pretty easy and a good place to start but you need to know a bit about a computer and Linux before you start on Gentoo, slackware and some of the others.

People need to know what's going on with a computer. It's not just a plug it in and see what it does. This is what happens with windoze users a lot. That's why some of the viruses and such go so easily. The people running them don't update their system and make sure they have it set up properly.

I saw this on a TV show recently. Doctor's office put in a wireless device for the server and the laptops that he carried around to the patients exam room. NO installation, just plugged it in and watched it work. Someone sitting in the parking lot was accessing the medical records and was not even in the building. No changing the default password or nothing. This is nuts.

Moral, if you don't know how to drive, don't get on the freeway!

Maybe this is why there are so many wrecks on the highways. To many people that don't know how to drive.

MS NEEDS people who are clueless. The more they pound into people's heads that computers are too complicated for you to use, the easier it is to sell "easy" MS Windows. That's why they crippled DOS, to keep the curious at bay. If you go around tinkering too much, you'll soon realize that MS windows is about as easy-to-use as a rubik's cube. No matter how much you work at it, it'll still be a pain.

Remember, most people look at reboots as a normal thing, reinstalls as an occasionally needed thing, and viruses as one of the hazards of the computer age. However, once more people get used to linux, and realize they should never have to reboot, should only have to reinstall by choice, and viruses as something that is only a moderate worry (because the fix comes out almost as quick, or quicker than the actual virus does), MS's campus is going to look like a scene from frankenstein.

Funny you should mention that. I went to a friends the other day and asked how the system was doing. Small business running win 98. The thing usually crashes at least once or twice a day and has to reboot four or five times to get that. She said "It only crashes once now, I still have to reboot a lot though when it gets slow." I told her that my Linux has been running for weeks with no problem and she almost hit the floor. Never heard of a system running that long before without rebooting. When will M$ get their OS to work?

I'm glad that they don't make Mazda's. I would have to walk to town. Probably wouldn't start or go dead when I got out of the driveway.

I better stop before I go into a rant here. I get pretty hot about the crappie windoze.

Top 20 Ways Microsoft Would Change The Auto Industry

Submitted by Joe Szabo and Liane Goodrich.

20. The radio would be computerized, but you'd need to install 64 Meg of RAM, a new sound card, a game card, a new video driver, a CD drive, and type C:\radio\talk\rush*.* to get it to play.

19. The entire engine wouldn't be in the bay at once, and the car would have to keep stopping and starting to load in the relevant parts.

18. The speedometer would read 70 even though you are only doing 50.

17. You would have to have a full service every 500 miles.

16. Your car would refuse to start with a message "Abort, Retry, Fail?"

15. For some reason the engine controller would need a 1G hard disc and would take 5 minutes to boot up.

14. The steering wheel would be replaced with a mouse and you'd need to memorize the keyboard short-cut for "Brake".

13. A particular model year of car wouldn't be available until after that year- instead of before it.

12. They wouldn't build their own engines but form a cartel with their engine supplier. The latest engine would have 16 cylinders, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it. There would be an "Engium Pro" with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.

11. The air bag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.

10. New seats would require everyone to have the same butt size.

9. We would all have to switch to Microsoft Gas.

8. The U.S. government would be forced to rebuild all of the roads for Microsoft cars; they will drive on the old roads, but they run very slowly.

7. The oil, alternator, gas and engine warning lights would be replaced by a single 'General Car Fault' warning light.

6. Sun MotorSystems would make a car that was solar-powered, twice as reliable and five times as fast, but would run on only 5% of the roads.

5. You would be constantly pressured to upgrade your car.

4. You could have only one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a Car95 or CarNT -- but then you would have to buy ten more seats and a new engine.

3. Occasionally, your car would die for NO apparent reason and you would have to restart it. Strangely, you would just accept this as normal.

3a. Occaionally, executing a maneuver would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this, too.

2. Every time the lines of the road were repainted, you would have to buy a new car.

1. People would get excited about the new features of the latest Microsoft cars, forgetting that these same features had been available from other car makers for years.

I had to get up off the floor after #11. Better answer quick!!! lol lol lol Here comes the steering wheel. Watch your head.



We need to have a laughing emoticon.

I agree of the most part. But don't go be-little people who don't know any thing about computers. Some people are to old to learn about them and on top of that, they don't need a computer for any thing. My mom is one of them.
Just recently, I asked her if she could turn my computer on. I was at uni and I needed something that was on my computer at home. So I asked her if she could boot to linux so I could ssh in.
Her first questions was, "how do I turn the computer on?". When she did, lilo came up. To prevent it to boot to the default OS, I instructed her to push any button except ENTER. So she asks, "I'm going to push the '3', is that ok?". Me : "yes that's ok, hurry before it boots". After that, I instructed to push the arrow down button to select linux. She couldn’t find it! When she finally did, she had to push "enter". You guessed it, she had trouble with that as well.
Any way, it took 5 minutes to do all that. And when linux was finally up and running, it turned out that my IP address had changed (we use dhcp). I didn't know my new address and couldn’t log in. I thought about asking my mom to do "ifconfig" and tell me the IP address. But that was a to daunting of a task!
But that by no means mean that my mom is retarded! Come on. Of course she had a hard time. It was the first time she touched a computer. It was the first time she needed to.

Sorry, I wasn't directing my comments to people who don't use them, but at people who spend $1000 on one and only use it for solitare.

I play Pysol a lot. Don't put down my favorite game. Your forgiven this time. Don't let it happen again.

It is strange how people do that though.

linuXBOX,

Don't forget that minor agreement in the license. If you decide to sell your car, you must first remove the engine.

schatoor,

Nothing against your mom, but these things are 20+ years old, and all over the place. She may want to beleive that not knowing anything about them is fine because she's "too old" (as many of my older friends believe), but it's not fair to her for you to let her continue thinking like that. Assuming you're in college, around twenty, and your mom is 20-30 years older, that means she's likely to have another 20-30+ years around computers.

You need to explain it like this: Mom, I learned how to use computers in -- years, there's no reason you can't learn to use them in a more basic way, in less time.

Yeah, I know, it doesn't work. So, what you need to REALLY do is find an interest of hers online (cooking, sewing, rebuilding armored vehicles, etc.) and "force her hand". Nobody cares about computers, at least until they find a reasonable excuse to use one. Then, 99% of the time, you can't teach them fast enough. Remember, they're just a tool. The trick is finding a good project for the user.

Thanks for the advice scott_R. My mom is interested in cooking and we have looked up recipies together on the net. It's somthing to think about.

ps.
LOL

I can definitely relate to that story...

I agree it's a question of priorities, not stupidity - lots of people spend hours on end memorizing basketball statistics or discussing reality tv shows and fashion - I know nothing about that at all, completely ignorant of it. to them it's critical, to me it's not.

I'm sure there's a fashion forum somewhere with people wondering how geeks like us can spend their time talking about bootloaders and symbolic links...

You mean there are other fora? What purpose dould they serve?