Tips and Tricks·366 discussions

OS Intructions/ Tips & Tricks????

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Has Any body thought about this ?…..
Why do consumers have to buy a separte Companies Book on the instructions of how to use it????this is the question> Microsoft sells an OS and then consumers have to buy instructions on how to use it properly (everything including tips and tricks from a separate Company??? ) Is it just me or is that fXXX up?I think microsoft is gettting away with alot more than antiftrust ing suits or what ever they csall it. Microsoft has the best scam going in my book! I can make something to sell and stupid people won’t blink an eye when they notice books on the shelfs at stores that will tell them how to REALLY operate the thing! Isn’t that a bit like buying a car and having to
to buy the CORRECT key to start it with from a different company .???hmmmmm
just a thought…..
Deborah

Topic

It isn’t just you

In reply to OS Intructions/ Tips & Tricks????

Yes, of course it’s, er, messed up.

But you have to remember that Microsoft can “get away” with this because people choose to buy their stuff.

People don’t choose to buy things that are easy to use. They choose to buy things that give them a feeling of power and superiority. The third-party books, the support, the certifications, etc. are all part of an industry that sells one thing: the ability for some people to feel superior to others and to the computers which would otherwise seem threatening.

An operating system that just works and is obvious doesn’t support this social game. What’s the point of becoming an expert in something that anyone can use? There’s no social dominance payoff.

People like dominance hierarchies. As long as they continue to like them (and they haven’t changed in millions of years), the products that succeed in the marketplace will be the ones that support this game.

I never thought of it that way

In reply to It isn’t just you

I guess that makes sense in a way. i just wish thered quit plagerizing each other and that someone could write a book that explains exactly what to do not why or how you can make it work…JUST TELL ME WHAT EXACTLY TO DO. I really don’t need all that therory that just blows out the window and is of no use! and Please please if they could only stay on one subject all the way to the end before changing subjects and making you weed thru the book ( cause when your looking up one thing another thingcatches your eye and you start to forget what you were looking up in the first place.
just a thought
Deborah ….maby I’ll write a book too! and join the club,,,,neener neener neeener I know more than you hoo

Brilliant Marketing ;>

In reply to OS Intructions/ Tips & Tricks????

Yes, you are exactly right. You should check out a few of the more powerful marketing books and magazines for ways to implement fun money-making schemes like these…

The sick thing isn’t that it’s done, the sick thing is that people buy it.

Interestingly enough, I had a representative from our HR database software call us this week. He said we should upgrade to their new version, and that we should then purchase their training because we would need this to use the new features. When I asked him why somewhat in depth, he responded by saying that there would be some “runtime errors that we would need to know to click through and others which we would need to report to them” and that it was “important to know the difference”.

The sad thing is: I didn’t make this up. We pay to own the right to use it under certain conditions for certain things, certain ways and then pay to help debug and pay to get training to learn to help debug. Maybe soon we will pay for the opportunity to help write code to improve it as compilers improve.

By the way, this was not a MS company.

Hence the name ” PC’s For Dummies

In reply to Brilliant Marketing ;>

at least that book cover doesn’t lie. were all just a group of lemens….follow me I’ll show you the way…..no…I’ll show you the way…no try it this way…” Would somebody PLEASE, just tell me the damn truth!
How many manuals do we need. Thats the main reason I stopped playing adventure games…. they made them so hard to do . And then you needed to look up clues from anywhere but the manual that came with it. I loved those games but when you have to do the same thing over and over again in a certain order that is never made clear in the first place. Oh that reminds me I want to create a game..should I learn code or use a program that is supposed to make game creation a snap?
thanks
Deborah

I guess it depends…

In reply to Hence the name ” PC’s For Dummies

on whether one wishes to make a game where you do the same thing over and over again like the others or something really original ;>
I don’t know about adventure games, but actually one of the best ways I have seen (I haven’t actually created a whole game though, mind you) is to write some “skins” and some levels and even “mod” packages for a favorite game and then get beyond the editors and keep going. The “Counterstrike” mod was a good example of this. I mainly do first person shooter stuff,so, again I’m not sure if this adapts.
Of course I’m thinking you were just giving a cynical example in the form of a question ;>

OS instructions

In reply to OS Intructions/ Tips & Tricks????

Even the simplest OS is a very complicated system, people absorb information at different rates and through different perspectives. Not to defend MS but getting a different viewpoint on a subject by refering to multiple resources can aid in understanding. If I may use your car analogy again but this time you want to replace the transmission. Are you going to use the owners manual as your only reference or maybe you’ll buy a book?
Thanks,
Pete

Hmmm…

In reply to OS instructions

Although after reading most owners manuals you can actually drive the car ;>

If MS were GM the car would go Mach10 and get 400 miles to the gallon, except of course for most of the time while it would be undriveable. However, you could be comforted in the fact that a patch was just around the next corner while you waited patiently reading up on the problem.

These aren’t the shop manuals she’s talking about. These are extended user manuals, of which there aren’t enough because it doesn’t really work right anyway.
It’s more like your trying to replace the transmission, but none of them actually work right anyway, so you need help figuring out where to add the bailing wire and carry the extra fluid to boot.
I do agree that more information is better, but a lot of the resources are full of redundant information, even in the MS product line, and the OEM manuel is totally worthless. I don’t think any user could read the oem manuel and actually use the machine. It’s too obvious thatthey do this to make more money, pure and simple, it’s good marketing. It’s the modern solution to many problems: Buy More, Rinse, Repeat.

to the topic

In reply to Hmmm…

I am not sure I understand. Are You complaining about the variety of books that exist to support different OSes or are You complaining about the fact that OSes are not stable? (well stable in the way one would like them to be)
I fully understand the confusion about the books. I administer Domino, Red Hat, NT, 2000, and Netware. For each one I have 3 to 4 books that I use as reference manuals.
As someone pointed out earlier is that if everything worked fine and was easy we would be out of a job.
The need for people who want to get their hands dirty in tweaking the OSes is what keeps our bank accounts running.
I would personally not enjoy having just one book for each OS. Different authors present info in different manners.
And yes, it would be nice if all the OSes distributors out their manufactured something stable but could one of You tell what is stable and reliable on this planet? Nothing man made, and nature is chaotic. We should not expect the impossible but we should striveto make it easier.

No difference

In reply to to the topic

There isn’t any difference between the question of the stability of OS’s and the number of books.

There’s an old saying in medicine: if there are many different treatments for a condition, none of them work very well. A book is a “treatment” fora condition called “arcane operating system.”

Hmmmmm again. <really old>

In reply to Hmmm…

Excellent reply however. Don’t tell me you’re growing on me.

Microsoft is not a scam, it is the most influential company in technology history. Within the technology era! MS brought information to the desktop, made it readily accessible to every moron everywhere.

Bill Gates is my hero, and should be yours. Not for the fact the he is the richest man in the world, but that he is the largest single-most contributor to mankind relative to technology. Bill and his wife are also the most charitable people in world history.

Corporate maneuvering aside, Microsoft deserves your respect. They do muscle the competition in their business space, but this is the nature of the beast. Kill or be killed. Succeed by any ethical means. Microsoft would not have earned my favor by being passive and conservative. All hail Microsoft.

Well, You obviously don’t like Hmmmm..

In reply to Hmmmmm again. <really old>

Although I don’t think it’s a sign of condescending replies necessarily (I use it as a brief “I’m thinking about this and…)

That difference (and whatever has driven you to seek out my posts personally) between us aside, I must state again (and you will find this in some of my older posts) I do respect Bill Gates personally and MS as a company a great deal. I have never referred to them as a “scam” I agree it is quite possibly ” the most influential technology company in history” at this time. MS did, as you say, bring technology to the masses.
I do not agree, however, that the Gates are “the most charitible people in world history”, although they are the largest contributors perhaps, there have been so many humans who have aspired tocharitable causes that have not necessarily built large fortunes first. My list of most charitible would certainly include the poor, like Christ, Buddha, Mother Teresa, Moses, My friend Tom who works with getting disabled people employment, etc. My list does, however, also include the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and the Gates. I was delighted when he turned his attention to world hunger and other pressing issues and have also encouraged and helped distribute the MS “People with Disabilities and Computers” project called “Enable”. On a personal note I also support MS products for Non-Profits – to whom the MS corporation has donated software product. I wouldn’t say Bill Gates is my hero, but I sincerely like what he is doing a lot in charity, and respect his business sense greatly.

What I am against is any software company, Linux, MS or freeBSD claiming to be everything. It’s simply not true. In my view, Bill Gates biggest strength is that he is the best businessman of our time, pure and simple. Not his money, but his business acumen. This is not an insult, it’s praise.

Nice sarcasm

In reply to Hmmmmm again. <really old>

The title says it all.

[Author]

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