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Paul Weaver wrote: > On Tue, Jul 11, 2006 at 10:49:35PM +0100, Theo Zourzouvillys wrote: > >> While my grandparents had a washing machine that lasted 25 years, my mother >> gets through one every 2-3 years (5 kids!). I've only got through 2 kettles >> this year alone - but i blame the amount of coffee i drink. my mother has >> had just one kettle in 4 years... or at least one that looked the same last >> time i was there. >> > > A domestic kettle shouldn't die in a few months, no matter how many > times you boil it. Get you're money back. > > >> Explain why computers are any different? People seem to forget that windows >> 98 is now 8 years old, and ME is 7 [1]. A very long time in computer terms. >> 6 years before that we were lucky to have DOS, let alone windows. >> > > Perhaps, but I'm of the opinion we throw away too much stuff already. > People chuck perfectly good TV's because a capacitor goes. With mass > production abroad, it's cheaper to buy a new appliance than to fix the > old one, however it means full landfills, > > A computer that hasn't had any hardware failure will do the tasks today > that it did 8 years ago. > > >> Going back to the car analogy: i'd think you are a complete idiot for putting >> the public at risk if you were driving around a car lacking basic safety >> features. even more so if you were actually advising the use of dangerous >> cars. again, exactly the same thing with computers. >> > > Cars kill people, computers don't, get some perspective. > > >> I'm heavily up for computers requiring a certain "software safety standard" - >> for both the software and the user [3] (the hardware already has in form of >> CE in Europe) before being allowed to connect to the internet. Hopefully a >> law will one day require this. >> > > Oh great, that means that anything you run will have to be certified, > meaning spending money. So much for open source. If I patch some > software I have to spend money on getting it "allowed"? Electrical > devices are certified because they can kill people. Bad software on home > PC's can't. > > >> I'm sure the same bunch of you will be complaining then, too. "Oh no the >> government are forcing us to use certain software/algorithms, ohh no! whine >> whine whine, microsoft mumble mumble mumble!". >> > > So freedom is an alien concept to you? > > >> it's exactly you people that will help cause the law in the first place (NO! >> WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T UPGRADE!!!). >> > > My inlaws computer runs ME. It's dog slow (10 minute bootup) because of all the > gunk they *have* to have installed on it, but it does what they want it > to do. You'd rather they paid £400 and bought a new computer, or spend > £200 on an XP upgrade, which wouldn't work. > > why spend £400 on a new computer? You can probably get all the performance you need by sticking in a new processor/memory. And perhaps a new (second-hand) motherboard if that's not an option. Tom te tom te tom -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html