🚀 go-pugleaf

andreas@karlsberg.usask.ca (Andreas Schiffler) wrote:
>DonRawlins (donrawlins@aol.com) wrote:
>: The entire non-issue of the automated registration is a perfect example of
>: how the whining anti-Microsoft community will ignore every published
>: attempt in an effort to propagate their narrow minded rhetoric.
>
>: Case in point.  MS announces that as an >optional< service to users they
>: will speed up the registration process by providing a utility to scan
>: their system automatically.  Not mandatory.  Clearly documented as
>: optional during setup.  Can be performed manually if that is what a user
>: desires.  In short?  An example of Microsoft providing a more >user
>: friendly< registration process.
>
>First of all, a registration process should only require me to send my name
>and the serial number of the copy if W95 I run in. NOTHING else is required
>for "registration" purposes. So all the other information beeing gathered
>has to be for other reasons. The only other thing I can think of that they need
>the information for, is when customers phone up Microsoft when something does 
>not work. But then, wasn't W95 plug and play??? Conclusion: they gather
>information for efficient marketing strategies and other purposes that we
>don't know about are are too dumb to imagine. Let's try anyways: if you know 
>what the average Joe-PC-user has on his desk you can customize your products 
>accordingly and sell more stuff.


You missed a crucial fact about plug & play:
   
    In order to use plug and play you must have 4 things:
        -Plug & Play system BIOS
        -Plug & Play devices and their drivers
        -Plug & Play aware operating system
        -Plug & Play aware applications.

With Win95 you have one (maybe two) of these four things:
the OS and applications (in this case, applets that are
a part of the OS).

Since MOST computers on the desks of the world are NOT
plug and play bios & devices, isn't it conceivable that
these users might need a little help getting their system
running?  As much in Win95 as in any other DOS?  Is it not
conceivable that the average user doesn't know a whole lot
about the hardware in his computer?  Is it not conceivable
that the support technician might want some precise 
information about that system, such as hardware and/or
software that might be causing conflicts?  Is it at all
concievable that the person on the phone doesn't really
care how you acquired your copy of PageMaker, that they
just want to solve the problem so they can get on to the
next customer?

Tech Support is just people, too.  Lighten up.