Tim: >> Pity the poor pharmacist who has to help a customer configure their >> reminders, as well as the usual advice about taking their medication... Bryn M. Reeves: > Seriously? Are you genuinely concerned about that? > > I'm honestly unsure if you're joking or not. :) I'm semi-serious... Have you ever tried to get something technical going for someone completely non-technically minded, who's never going to get it? "Frustrating" is an understatement. Just recently I spent ages working out how to get some rather fancy blood sugar reading gadget working for my mum, who just can't understand anything about using it beyond about two steps. If they don't do what she expects, she's lost. And after some 50+ years, she still hasn't learnt she has to wait for dial tone before trying to dial a number. It'd have to be a damn foolproof device to survive what fools would do to it. Not just breaking, but misconfiguring it to the point where someone else has to spend ages un-stuffing it. > Do you worry about ISPs being asked to help configure Fedora or the > impact on other retailers and service providers who's products might be > used with an open source or other software tool? I don't "worry" about it, but I feel sorry for technical support who have to deal with the silliest of things from the silliest of people, and have to explain quite complex things to someone over the phone who doesn't have a clue about what they're doing. One of the second best things about my move to Linux, was being able to tell my clueless Windows friends "I don't use Windows anymore," when they ask me about trying to deal with browser won't browse, how do I get rid of a virus, and so on, and so forth. ;-) Now, the conversation lasts about 15 seconds, instead of 15 minutes. I've spent well over an hour on the phone, before, hand holding through the most basic of fixups to things. When someone asks me about fixing up their Windows box, now, my opinion about having to do it is comparable to being asked to unblock their toilet with my bare hands. -- [tim@localhost ~]$ uname -r 2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686 Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists. -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
