Great story

Story: Is MS Windows ready for the desktop?Total Replies: 1
Author Content
kstevens715

Nov 09, 2005
4:12 PM EDT
Very good. Very true. And very funny. You were correct, I could see someone writing an article such as this if all they had used was GNU/Linux.
hkwint

Nov 10, 2005
12:09 AM EDT
Yes, although I meant it to be a very funny story, that remark, about some Chinese or Indian lad, trying Windows for the first time, is very serious, and important.

(Most) people always forget about the time they spent learning Windows. Microsoft always uses this, telling teaching people Linux is very expensive.

What MS always want us to forget, is the teaching it took to learn people to handle their products. To adults, but also in US/European school-classes. People aren't taught 'computers' over there, they're mainly taught how to work with MS-products. At least I know this is true for Europe, but I suspect this is the same in the US. This teaching may take, added to a total, several weeks, which is paid by the parents of those children, and the (federal) state. In Europe, we also have a standardized "European Computer Driving License" (ECDL), which almost only learns you about MS-software. For example, one of the things required for this ECDL, is you understand the risk of virussus and you understand your antivirus-program should be updated regularly. For some jobs, this license is required.

It's a pity we can't calculate how much money is being spent on teaching people MS things like Windows.

But, if someone, maybe from India or China, or with a $100 MIT laptop, learns Linux and maybe an office suite like OOo/Haansoft Office/EIOffice before he learns Windows, learning Windows will be very expensive. The story already explored the problems that someone might come across. At that moment, MS will have lost its biggest benefit in my opinion. I mean, if you could express the Windows-competencies of US/European people in money (which almost equals the money involved with the time they spent to learn it), you would be shocked.

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