[BC] Non Sheep are Whiners. Shut Up and Don't Complain

[Rich Wood]

------ At 09:33 PM 10/22/2007, Robert Orban wrote: -------

>If you don't like it, don't buy the industry's product (and don't 
>steal it either). It's as simple as that. Keep your wallet in your 
>pocket if you want to "send a message" that the industry will 
>understand. Use Linux and read a good book instead. Whining on a 
>listserv will get you exactly nowhere.

Actually, that's not completely true. I'm in the market for a new 
laptop. None of the models I want are available with XP Pro. I will 
not buy anything with Vista. I've been told that third party 
developers are writing drivers to allow machines created after Vista 
to run XP. Without those drivers the pointing surfaces, audio 
sections and other features of the machine won't work.

There's been enough "whining" in lists to prompt third parties and 
linux-like development of workarounds. I have thousands of dollars 
worth of software that'll be useless under Vista. If I'm going to 
have to trash it I might as well start over and switch to a MAC. I 
don't like MACs. I like the open architecture of the PC. I'd have to 
trash much of my peripheral hardware.

It may not bother you but some of us dislike being deceived. We 
dislike being deceived by IBUZ and by Microsoft. The "security" we're 
told about in Vista isn't the consumer's security. It's security for 
record companies and movie studios. I'm amazed by the sluggishness of 
Vista on very powerful machines. I can only imagine how XP Pro would 
scream on such a device.

Your suggestion amounts to rolling over and playing dead. It appears 
that there was enough "whining" to cause Dell to offer a few machines 
with XP. The latest issue of PC World has ads for small sellers 
emphasizing that their machines still can run XP. I remember the days 
when price fixing was illegal and forcing retailers not to modify the 
products they sell was illegal. Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples and 
others are forbidden by Microsoft to offer anything but Vista on new 
machines. Each one has told me "we have a deal with Microsoft" that 
prevents us from offering XP.

I really don't want to pay a couple hundred dollars for an operating 
system that sees me as a criminal and prevents me from doing things 
that the courts have ruled are perfectly legal.

I'm in the process of researching what I'll need to get a Dell 1720 
laptop to run XP Pro. I haven't had time to check it out but I'm told 
that supergeek.com will lead me to what I need.

I had a friend in Boston who was the brother of the first Prime 
Minister of Bangladesh. The one who was assassinated. He was amazed 
that the apathy of the American people. While it might not be my 
preference, he noted that his countrymen riot when the trains don't 
run on time. I was with him in the Boston subway and the train was 
late. He expected violence and was amazed when we all just stood 
there and waited. Our sheep-like response seems to make politicians, 
manufacturers and service providers feel substandard products and 
treatment is "good enough for government work."

I hope your customer service department doesn't consider customers to 
be whiners.

Rich