[access-uk] Re: An interesting article from The Guardian.
- From: "Tristram Llewellyn" <tris-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2007 11:55:14 -0000
"Normally I like the Guardian but I think this guys bashing Vista not only
because of it's teething problems but because it's popular to bash Microsoft.
Also the journalist comments about Ultimate and the 85% of home PC's it
won't run on."
There is a certain amount of truth in both statements there. Everybody hates
the biggest player because they are big bad corporation. It is a bit like
asking who like the current Government in power at any given time (regardless
of political persuation), Humans don't like things they feel they cannot
control or influence, for most people computer software and operation of large
corporate business are beyond knowledge and personal experience and feelings
are generally a little hostile. This is not to say that the better informed
don't criticise, if you seek out the really smart tech bloggers and podcasters
they do have things to say but they are often grounded in more detailed
knowledge and usually a little more balanced than being on tribal lines.
One (at least partial) truth is that most people don't have the time for the
answers, they just want a PC to work rather like a fridge or a washing machine
does, the truth is they don't right now. It used to be that those who used PCs
were a self selecting bunch of tech nerds, now because of price and ubiquity
people come into computers without often ever having any knowledge at all. It
would be like people trying to drive cars when they didn't really know which is
the clutch and which is the accelerator, and also not knowing what to do when
you aproached a box junction. When I started out you really had to know
something just to get a PC you wanted, or where even to get one from for that
matter. Those were the days before Currys or wherever sold anything except
Amstrad kit.
As for software itself, it has always pushed hardware to it's limits, it's
never been more true than now but has always been the case in the PC industry
(by which I mean all computers here). It may even be true that 85 percent of
PCs may not run VISTA probably. I don't know why that should be a surprise.
Unless I am very much mistaken much of the British public have a fairly
conservative attitude towards their computer, they buy and expect the thing to
last 5 to 7 years and don't understand that putting a brand new operating
system in is a less than trivial and possibly even impossible task on such a PC.
Further to this many non-technical non-computer literate people see software as
a thing, where in reality it is often an ongoing process where they think "I
buy this software for an awful lot of money in 2001, then it should work on
Windows VISTA when I get it tomorrow", no way!
The actual market for boxed Windows operating systems is tiny in comparison to
the market of machines pre-installed with it. The numbers of people running
upgrade advisor and installing Windows VISTA are small and probably half of
them shouldn't be doing it anyway because their machines really aren't going to
do justice to it. If the reviewer really was upgrading then he should ask
himself why, does the present meet the need or are you being sold something you
don't need yet. If you are consider yourself non-technical, you have really
got to ask yourself why you are upgrading Windows, what is in it for you, do
you really need it.
There is in fact an awful truth that most users will never want to face with
software and that is that PC software cannot be 100 percent bug free and still
cost a reasonable amount of money, or be developed within realistic timescales.
Equally most hard drives now which have such dense data and fine tolerances
they regularly produce read errors as a matter of course in their everyday
operation but have clever algorithms operating at low level that allow them to
reconstruct the data so that is correct, this happens possible thousands of
times everyday on modern PCs. Users never know about it because actually the
error correction works just fine except when the drive actually begins to
malfunction and produce errors that are beyond the capacity to recover, such as
when the magnetic medium is damaged. You could build a hard drive possibly
that did not produce errors but it would probably cost you about £500 to £700
just for the drive possibly more.
Did you know your Intel or AMD processor runs microcode (very small software)
within the processor, occasionally there bugs here even at low level. That
happened with the early Pentiums, the error was highly obscure but made a big
splash. These days when you download and install a BIOS update it could well
be patching the microcode that is installed in your microprocessor itself, it
may say Intel Inside on the box but there are small bits of code running inside
that make your box work and sometimes even that needs an update.
Software also has to be regularly updated because it can never be 100 percent
error free and therefore 100 percent secure. Updates have to be issued to plug
the holes, never mind catching up with viruses and new hardware that one may
have to accommodate.
This is a bit of a ramble, but in short don't read too much into the stories of
upgrade horror. These are stories that happen with every operating system when
it is launched. Many users will not go through that experience unless they
choose to update an existing machine, if you are in that category you must do
the research and become an informed buyer both in terms of your own knowledge
and of course what is out there. If you don't fancy the hassle buy a new box
with a Windows on it , but only if you know the software you already have that
you wish to install is compatible, ask some, look up the web. Better still
stick with what you have got if it works for you.
Regards.
Tristram Llewellyn
Sight and Sound Technology
Technical Support
www.sightandsound.co.uk
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