I just spent half an hour of my life fiddling with my dad's damn computer, running, of course, Windows XP. Every time you try to print in Word, it just starts up with "Word is preparing to background print the document" and just hangs, and eventually crashes. My mom didn't know this, typed up a lengthy invoice, just to lose it all. I had to e-mail it to myself to print it on my computer once it was typed up again.

In about 20 minutes, I sent about a dozen error reports to MS, and Ctrl + Al + Del Word about 6 times. Every time I get on the computer, something similar happens.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I felt the need to vent (since my dad doesn't like anyone dissing his windows.... he's a tough cookie).

How the hell do people put up with that?

They haven't seen the light of Linux?

Well, my mom seems to like it just because I've basically said that it's better, but she rarely uses the computer anyways, so it doesn't really matter.

My dad basically says that linux blows and refuses to try it

Some people prefer to stay ignorant, I guess! :-)

I always think it is total nonsense when I see one of those posts listing every know fault a Linux system could possibly have and attempting to make out that Windows will never produce an error of any kind. Anyone that has actually read a Windows help forum knows that folks have problems installing and using Windows also.
I don't know if your printer problem is common with XP or a configuration or specific hardware problem.
I agree that Windows is not the the trouble free OS that it is often claimed to be. Most anyone that uses it is well aware of that.

maybe it's time to say "m$ blows and I refuse to help you the next time it hangs on you. if you like it so much, you fix it."

Exactly. See how much he likes it when all he can do is play freecell