Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2001 21:13:50 -0800 (PST) From: John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> To: Anthony Atkielski <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> Cc: FreeBSD Chat Mailing List <freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG>, Technical Information <tech_info@threespace.com>, Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Subject: Re: Feeding the Troll (Was: freebsd as a desktop ?) Message-ID: <XFMail.011202211350.jhb@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <01bb01c17bb1$78653110$0a00000a@atkielski.com>
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On 03-Dec-01 Anthony Atkielski wrote: > Mike writes: > >> Oh, horse pucky. Anyone who noticed that time >> passes knows that computers crashing sucks. > > Most people don't experience crashes with the frequency that you adumbrate. > Even when crashes occur, for the casual desktop user they are > inconsequential. > I've known several people, in fact, who reset the machine whenever they are > having a problem, just to see if that helps--obviously crashes are not a > concern > for them, if they can do a hardware reset without blinking an eye. I hardly ever use Windows but I still get it to crash when I do use it. My Mom has found that rebooting her Windows system once a week makes it "run better". She is hardly a computer geek. I've found that when using a USB keyboard with Win98 to play games, it routinely "forgets" about the keyboard in the middle of playing a game after about 20 minutes or so requiring me to power reset the machine to get it back. (Removing and reinserting the keyboard doesn't bring it back.) Windows technical problems are glaring, not minor nits. I will admit that Windows has trained people to believe that computers crashing are normal, and that rebooting or reinstalling the OS to fix things are normal. I've worked at companies that performed a scheduled reboot of every NT machine every Friday evening because they couldn't trust the machines to stay up for more than a week. Then again, I also seem to have BSD germs or something. I've walked up to idle NT servers, brought up the control panel just so I can write down some notes on their memory, etc. and had the machine blue screen and crash. At least when BSD crashes it's not random and is usually my fault. Regardless, Windows has definitely lowered the expectations of the average Joe computer user. Most don't even realize that they should expect a machine to reliably function for months or years at a time without a glitch. We expect cars to not break down on the way to work on the freeway every morning, but it's normal for the computer to be rebooted every day. :-/ -- John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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