This is kind of a continuation of a previous discussion, based on new evidence. The other day I was talking to a friend at work, who was telling me about some issues he’s having with his new Vista laptop. Since he bought it in Argentina, the OS language was in spanish, which tends to be a pain to use if you’re accustomed to using the english version. From Excel formulas changing names, different keyboard shortcuts, to badly-programmed applications that install to “Program Files” instead of “Archivos de Programas” (hard-coded paths instead of using the system variables), a lot of things go wrong.

So he was telling me how he wanted to set it to be English. I know from past Windows experience that doing so it’s a bit short of impossible, but bear with me for a second. After contacting Microsoft support, they told him that he needed to purchase a language pack. It was only about US$25, so he got it. Now comes the interesting part. When he was going to install it, some error occurred that prevented him from doing it. He contacted Microsoft support again, and now they told him, “oh, you need to have Vista Ultimate to be able to apply language packs”. WTF?? Now he has to upgrade to a really expensive version that has a lot of stuff he will never need, just so he can apply a legally obtained language pack? And there’s the aggravating that at the time of purchase he already had to upgrade to the Business edition, cause something as simple as the networking and mail in the Home Premium (I wonder what that premium accounts for) don’t work properly in a business environment.

So, again, why do people bend over time and again for Microsoft, when there are many different options available out there, that are at the very, very least just as good as Windows, minus the hassles, bugs and frustrations? Not only are Windows users the only users in the world that have to spend time dealing with viruses, spyware, BSOD’s and whatnot, now they are getting crap from the actual support, asking them for their first born just to switch languages. A feature, by the way, that it’s a default in every other desktop OS. Mac OS X has every language I can think of, and Linux has many that I don’t even know how to pronounce the name, so it’s not like something that it’s a big deal, neither commercially nor free.

But, when thoughts like this enter my mind, I’m suddenly reminded of two conversations I’ve had not that long ago, with people I regard(ed) as smart, that immediately made me understood the common view of the average internet/email/office Joe:

• Linux?? That’s for hackers!!”
• Mac?? That’s for publicists!!”

Geeks like me will say that the users are just stupid, and that they use it cause it’s all they’ve seen and it’s “safe” (a very geeky thing to say, I know), but the non-geek in me better asks himself, at what point do people become so brainwashed as to embrace those ideas and completely ignore the other options? It may have been acceptable to think that way in past years, when the other OS’s popularity perhaps wasn’t as widespread, but now it’s just inexplicable. Even long time Windows apologists are at least acknowledging the competition. Every time someone does that, a penguin gets it wings, and a tree sprouts an apple.