About four years ago my mother decided she wanted to buy a new computer and asked me what I would recommend.
Since she lives in a rural area of Missouri - though I really wanted to recommend a Mac - I decided to help her with the purchase of a Dell (www.dell.com) running Windows XP. At the time she bought the machine she also purchased Dell's extended warranty which provided telephone technical assistance and on site computer repair. I also made certain she bought virus software after the 90-day free trial version expired.
For the first year or so, all went fairly well with my Mom's Dell. Since e-mail, light Internet browsing, and an occasional game of Solitaire was all she used the computer for, XP worked for her.
Then it happened. Despite my warnings, she accidentially downloaded and opened an attachment that contained a virus. The computer ended up having to be taken to the local computer repair shop where technicians were happy to clear the machine up and charge my mother handsomely for their services (which was about a 15 percent of the original purchase price of the computer).
More time passed. Last week, Mom told me she was unplugging her computer for a few days while the current Windows virus threat blew over. I told her that unplugging the computer wouldn't keep the computer from getting the virus, as the machine could only be infected when she was connected to the Internet (she's on a slow dial-up connection).
Finally, I told Mom she might want to consider buying a Mac. She agreed but said she really doesn't have the money to do that right now.
The moral of the story is that I should have recommended a Mac from the beginning of my mother's computer experience. I thought at the time that her limited use of a PC running Windows would work okay, but I was sorely wrong.
You live and learn. She definitely is experiencing "that Windows feeling."
Oh, That Windows Feeling!
Tuesday, August 23, 2005 at 12:00 PM Posted by zxmacman
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3:05 PM
Tsk, Tsk. A good son wouldn't have led her astray to begin with. I say this as a son who over the last year has bought my Dad a April '04 15" Powerbook, my Mom an '04 12" iBook, and gave my sister my April '04 PowerBook.
11:18 PM
my sister and my girlfriend are in the same boat as your mother was. i gave my parents an imac (summer 2000) for free, but my sister and girlfriend will not budge even after 2 trips to a technitian within the last 3 months. my girlfriend is the same. i think the real problem these days is that not many windows users bother to maintain their computer. its almost as if they don't care until something bad happens and then blames somone else on a problem that could be easily fixed by maintaining their computer or switching to mac.