Do we occasionally do PRODUCTIVE work?

[Doctor Q]

I had to laugh when I saw this Top 10 Windows Downloads list from CNET.

The top 10 consist of:

4 apps to deal with spyware

1 app to fix problems in the Windows registry (problems caused by spyware?)

3 apps to share files on the Internet (files such as spyware?)

1 app to package files (so you can share them on the Internet?)

1 app to chat with people about dealing with spyware, fixing the registry, and sharing files​

If PC users spend all their time defending and fixing their PCs, then who is actually producing anything useful?

My guess? Mac users!

Has anybody measured what percentage of the time PC users are creating anything of value (real work) rather than spending their hours fixing problems or dealing with software maintenance, crashes, and other efforts it takes to keep the computer in a state where, in theory, they might be able to do some real work?

Do those numbers differ for Mac users, as some of us would like to assume?

 

[mad jew]

...But the Mac users spend hours chatting through online forums, mainly about the inefficiencies of the PC world.

 

[dylan]

...But the Mac users spend hours chatting through online forums, mainly about the inefficiencies of the PC world.

Hahaha. Sure beats baby-sitting windows though.

 

[Doctor Q]

...But the Mac users spend hours chatting through online forums, mainly about the inefficiencies of the PC world.

I would have been doing something productive, but I had to reply to your comment.

If I do find any stats about this, I'll post them here. In the meantime, we can speculate that we Mac users spend our time more productively and perhaps we waste our time more productively too.

 

[dmw007]

...But the Mac users spend hours chatting through online forums, mainly about the inefficiencies of the PC world.

But it beats a PeeCee user's routine. Mac users are so productive that we get our work done in no time, so we simply spend the rest of the day online chatting.

In the meantime, we can speculate that we Mac users spend our time more productively and perhaps we waste our time more productively too.

Absolutely!

 

[sushi]

I had to laugh when I saw this Top 10 Windows Downloads list from CNET.

The top 10 consist of:

4 apps to deal with spyware

1 app to fix problems in the Windows registry (problems caused by spyware?)

3 apps to share files on the Internet (files such as spyware?)

1 app to package files (so you can share them on the Internet?)

1 app to chat with people about dealing with spyware, fixing the registry, and sharing files​

If PC users spend all their time defending and fixing their PCs, then who is actually producing anything useful?

My guess? Mac users!

Has anybody measured what percentage of the time PC users are creating anything of value (real work) rather than spending their hours fixing problems or dealing with software maintenance, crashes, and other efforts it takes to keep the computer in a state where, in theory, they might be able to do some real work?

Do those numbers differ for Mac users, as some of us would like to assume?

Typical PC User:

- I have this problem with my PC...

Typical Mac User:

- I was on my Mac creating this real cool...

It does make one wonder how PC users get anything done. Their conversations seemed to be focused on fixing or keeping their computer working.

...somtimes I almost feel guilty of using a Mac since it is so easy!

 

[dmw007]

...somtimes I almost feel guilty of using a Mac since it is so easy!

Sometimes I feel the same way...........


...................................no, not really.

 

[mad jew]

I would have been doing something productive, but I had to reply to your comment.

Nice.

If I do find any stats about this, I'll post them here. In the meantime, we can speculate that we Mac users spend our time more productively and perhaps we waste our time more productively too.

There's nothing better than efficient time wasting according to 97% of all mad jews.

 

[EricNau]

I waste my time arguing with PC users on why I don't waste my time with PCs.

 

[sushi]

I waste my time arguing with PC users on why I don't waste my time with PCs.

LOL. Isn't that the truth!

 

[Felldownthewell]

...But the Mac users spend hours chatting through online forums, mainly about the inefficiencies of the PC world.

Yes, but PC users spend hours chatting to some guy in Bangalor named Bob Smith from Bhubaneshwar...our way of time wasting is so much cooler, if not as profitable for the 3rd world...

 

[dmw007]

I waste my time arguing with PC users on why I don't waste my time with PCs.

LOL


But the arguing with PeeCee users provides instant satisfaction!

 

[Macmaniac]

I work in a Mac repair shop so I get so see nothing but busted Macs. You would be amazed how annoying installing Tiger is after the 50th time.

 

[dmw007]

I work in a Mac repair shop so I get so see nothing but busted Macs. You would be amazed how annoying installing Tiger is after the 50th time.

Are you implying that installing Mac OS for the 50th time is more annoying than installing Windows on a PC for the 1st time?

 

[Makosuke]

Heh... on VersionTracker, what they claim are the top 5s:

Windows:
Error Nuker (registry repair)
Spyware Nuker XT
Norton Ghost (for cloned backups... costs a lot more than Carbon Copy Cloner)
Microsoft Publisher (acutal productivity!)
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 (old graphics card drivers?)

OSX:
Toast Titanium
HandBrake
BitTorrent
Flip4Mac WMV (hah... beat WMP so badly MS gave up and used it instead)
TehTool Pro (oops, that one's for troubleshooting)

OS9:
HexEdit
Amadaeus II
DSP-Quattro
Nikon Capture
Linksys Wireless Drivers

(though it's worth noting that all of these also run under OSX--not sure if that factors in to their counts)

Based on this limited sample, it would seem that Windows users spend most of their time fixing Windows and the rest working or playing games, Mac users spend most of their time either downloading or ripping movies, burning them, or watching them (thought Windows users were supposed to be the P2P nuts), and OS9 users spend their time doing productive things.

(In a way, that last one makes sense because the only people still on 9 who are at all computer savvy are pros who don't want to change their workflow.)

Also, I'd like to go on record: Between work and freelance tech support, I've installed Windows XP and Tiger at least a half dozen times each, and I can say conclusively that installing or upgrading to Tiger and getting it set up is drastically easier, and takes a fraction of the time of XP. Of course, that means I get paid more for the XP installs (mostly just watching progress bars anyway), so I can't complain, but I'll take 50 10.4 installs over 50 XP installs any day.

 

[SC68Cal]

It keeps me paid though. As long as people are not computer-literate, I'm still in a job.

My only wish is that we used Linux or Apple computers, just because I only would have to set the machine up ONCE, and never have to worry about any security issues or computer crashes, and all the other headaches that Windows entails. Also, remote desktop would be AWESOME and having a Powermac G5 to run it with would be super awesome.

Windows as a platform is just a compromise. Everyone is too afraid to take the leap off the sinking ship and swim to another ship. Nobody realizes that OpenOffice and StarOffice and the other productivity suites open and use Microsoft Office files, and you don't need to pay $400 per license. It's sad.

 

[SC68Cal]

I work in a Mac repair shop so I get so see nothing but busted Macs. You would be amazed how annoying installing Tiger is after the 50th time.

I just pop the disk in, let it install, and I go grab a soda. I don't see what's so bad about that.

 

[jeremy.king]

I had to laugh when I saw this Top 10 Windows Downloads list from CNET.

Curiousity got to me so I checked the Top 10 Mac Downloads...

Discounting the extra Limewire download.

1. LimeWire
2. Adobe Acrobat Reader
3. Ares
4. RealPlayer
5. VLC
6. MSN Messenger
7. Quicktime
8. Photoshop
9. Flash MX
10. Download Accelerator Plus!??!??! WTF?

 

[Boggle]

Why doesn't that list surpise me @ all?

 

[IJ Reilly]

Wait, you can download Photoshop? Why didn't I get the memo?

 

[jeremy.king]

Wait, you can download Photoshop? Why didn't I get the memo?

Yep

 

[ecche]

I work in a Mac repair shop so I get so see nothing but busted Macs. You would be amazed how annoying installing Tiger is after the 50th time.

That's interesting!
Could you give us a breakdown of which problems you deal with most? I am sure we are all aware of the individual machine' s problems, but of course it would be interesting to hear which problems you often encounter in your daily work.

 

[Makosuke]

Well, I don't work in a shop so I can't give as statistically meaningful a breakdown, but I do support for one small business, a small non-profit, a slightly bigger university lab (my day job), a couple of home offices, and probably a half dozen friends and home users from time to time.

Cumulatively, it works out to about 20 Macs (including one XServe) I see on a regular basis, and about 15 Wintel boxes (including one Windows 2003 Server), plus maybe another dozen or so Macs and a couple Dell laptops and a Dell desktop that I see from time to time when there's a problem. (Amusingly, those Dells are so unreliable that folks who owned them all ended up buying Macs for their next computers--statistically, the most effective way to get someone to switch to the Mac for me has been to let them buy an inexpensive Dell and use it for a while.)

Based on this small sample, the most common non-tech-savy problem Mac users run into is lack of basic housekeeping. For example, someone will go for weeks without ever sleeping a Mac that only has 256MB of RAM and not understand why it's slow, or have Word open with 20 documents, Mail with a couple dozen messages open, and something like 500 (I'm not exaggerating) files saved directly to the desktop, then go for weeks without restarting and complain that the thing is acting up (sorry, but a G4 iMac just doesn't like to have that many windows open onscreen at once). And, of course, not

Next most common problem is just asking too much of an old computer--wanting to run the full CS suite on a G4-400 with 300MB of RAM or such.

Number 3 is when there's a major power glitch and the PMU gets screwed-up--seen that happen several times, though it always seems like a miracle to folks when I "resurrect" their dead computers.

Last would be drive failures, but this is true for all computers I work on. They just go sometimes.