I started building pcs to replace cable boxes for people. The realization I had is that most people’s understanding of technology starts and ends with their phone.
And they don’t even understand their phones.
Most of them dont even understand themselve
A lot of them dont even undersand
I don’t even
‘Is this a windows computer’ ‘No this is a dell computer’
oh mine is a “dy”
New HP logo is indeed infuriating.
Don’t forget Temple OS
written in holy C
uhhhh temple os
bask in its glory
I started a class this year, a forensics class related to computers. The intro prompt is interesting, what computer do you have, windows or mac?
Yeah but you’re probably using a custom Linux distro (I forgot what it’s called now) to investigate either a Windows or a Mac system because that’s what everyone else has, and you’re not investigating yourself.
You’re probably thinking of Kali Linux 😅?
Yeah yeah that’s it. It’s not a very good destro generally speaking for general use but cyber investigations it seems to be the go-to.
I’ll be finding out in the next few weeks hehe
i used https://marshdeer.github.io/xkcd2501-generator/ to remake it:
(posted here in !linuxmemes@lemmy.world)
I use my own custom made OS called PenOS that doesn’t even really work or do anything useful, but it does spam the word PENIS across your screen forever.
This isn’t quite following the format. The “And X, of course.” line in the original is an example that’s more well known than the preceding examples, something that ponytail thinks is so obvious that it doesn’t even need to be mentioned (yet still something that the average person doesn’t know about).
If that’s true then how come I see non-programmers talk about the somewhat obscure OS developer, Dick Pick, all the time?
This feels like it was made by someone who was bored during their shift at the help desk lol
i’m reading this comment while bored at the helpdesk lol
A BSD. There are multiple
Nah that dude is just a post Unix purist about to launch into a 3 hour talk about how Plan 9 is (not was) the future.
GNU Hurd OS is the future though
And BEOS, of course.
Of course! How else am I going to play a video while I’m word processing?
Nah, the title and the field where a person active, including comp sci will not guarantee any of these knowledge savy things, also there are factor of sociability between people , one side can pretend and ignore other in spite or apathy.
My parents know one and it’s windows. One time my dad messaged me at work to ask if his laptop had windows xp, vista, 7, 8, 10 or 11, so he doesn’t even know the version differences :p
My mom may also say “samsung” as an operating system if you prod enough, but she also knows their laptop has windows 11, so she knows more than my dad
So that’s what the average non-tech person thinks about OSes
When I was a child, Windows 95 came out and people bought it without owning a computer, deciding they would get a household PC now.
That level of hype is biblical and it sticks.
Edit: Then of course, Bill openly said he likes Windows being pirated because it would be the OS of choice of everyone. People would only know Windows.
Yeah. A typical non-tech person is just as likely to say their PC is running on Microsoft or Google. Maybe they’ll say Edge if they are really knowledgeable.
I worked tech support in a call center, a thousand years ago.
Telling people to click on the “big blue E” was used nearly every call. Not much has changed.
In the case of the browser, they are still only describing use, not brand name.
They don’t know what a browser is. That’s just “The Internet”.
Edit: I got whooshed.
I was making a joke about edging.
Edit: It was pretty subtle, to be honest. Not my finest masturbation-related humor.
I once had a user all me to “install the latest version of the internet on her computer”.
My first thought was “that’s gonna take a hot minute…”
She was referring to wanting the latest version of internet explorer, of course, but it didn’t stop my “take everything literally” brain from going on a humorous aside imagining downloading the entire internet to this users machine.
Most of them are unaware of what an OS is even.
For real! I’m still unable to explain what an OS is to my 14-yo daughter. I tried several analogies but I always have the impression she says she gets it just to shut me up so she can carry on watching Tiktok videos.
New generations are dumber than any other gen! /s
Your dad seems miles ahead knowing windows versions compared to the average person.
I mean he was trying to run software which listed those as compatible, so he just copied the list :3
But yeah, thinking about windows versions at all is already a step ahead some
Yep, my first level tech support experience absolutely confirms this. The question what operating system the client uses has gotten me a wide variety of answers, and most of them did not have anything to do with operating systems.
I constantly remind myself of the George Carlin(I think) quote:
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize that half of them are stupider than that.”
Also important to remember Douglas Adams (when underestimating stupid people):
“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”
Have gotten to post that one twice this week!
gotta add the babbage classic :
On two occasions I have been asked, — “Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?” In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
That sounds like my ex colleague. He could not comprehend people typing non numbers into his input boxes on his little application and I had to break thing à down for him. He actually got upset over it. “It asks for a positive, integer value. What’s unclear about that? Why would you type text in?”
sighuses the word “integer” in a communication with the user
Oh honey…
Right? The guy was a 40yo engineer. A real nerd’s nerd. This might explain that :,D
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
It’s a feedback loop, if you make the universe idiot proof people don’t feel the need to stop being idiots.
If history is any lesson, the universe will win.
Adams was truly a modern philosopher of great note.
While I don’t disagree with this in principal, it’s important to distinguish between stupidity and ignorance. Most people don’t know about OSes because they’ve never needed to learn more than how to do basic tasks, and so are ignorant of how they work, what alternatives are out there, and why someone might choose one. This is very different to being incapable of those technicalities if shown a good reason to do so.
I always think about the effort to create a bear proof trash can in Yosemite that gave us the phrase “there is significant overlap between the smartest bear and the dumbest tourist”.
It’s easy enough to design and even build a bear proof garbage can. So long as you are OK with locking out 90% of the users.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/security_is_a_t.html
"There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.”
