NewsForge: Tired of Supporting Friends’ Computers? Migrate Them to GNU/Linux

“A few months ago I moved from New York to Florida, leaving
behind all of the friends and family that depended on me for
computer support. At least once per month I used to get a phone
call asking me to go to someone’s house and reinstall Windows or
fix some other software problem. Rarely was there an actual
hardware problem–usually all I had to do was back up some personal
data and reinstall Windows. But it’s impossible to do that
remotely, and I had no desire to spend hours on the phone after I
moved walking people through driver downloads and various other
tasks related to setting up a Microsoft operating system. So, two
weeks before I left, I moved several of my accidental ‘clients’ to
GNU/Linux and helped them make the transition. The result, after
six months, is an end to the annoying phone calls and a much easier
time diagnosing hardware problems…”

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