OMG Nish, you were on the "front-lines" for phone support of AO-Hell ??? I used to be the same for MSN and the "roll-out" for Win98 - at Microsoft in Tucson, AZ...

I "know" what "common" computer people are... The kinds you had to decide in 30 seconds talking to a customer, if you were going to show them how to get into the registry, or that in the back of there computer "it had four or five screws"...

Some people are not "knowledgable" enough to deal with looking inside the computer, nor something as serious, as it is in Win98, the registry - you just don't let them go there...

I had customers that actually called, on MSN support, that would go out to there mail box and check there snail mail, because the durn computer told them, "they had mail" (true story)

Or, the one who almost had me believing they PAID $45 for AOL - until I realized they actually bought a MODEM, and AOL came in the box with it - unfortunately, they thought the modem was actually packing material, and threw that away...

MSN Phone Support sobered me into what "the real world" was like, what the "common" person was, and in most cases, the "standard" intelegence of them, when it came to computers. These are the kinds of people who are running Windows, on average.

True, Ol' Mighty M$ did bring us away from the Time Share Life, but, as with all things, when an apprentice becomes smart enough to compete with there master, they are left to go out on there own. Many "apprentices" are smarter than M$, and are going out on there own now...

You give credit where credit is due, doesn't mean you have to bow down to them as God, for it. IMHO, M$ fits a certain niche, people who don't know, or don't care, about what is "inside" that computer box, the kind of people who just want to "figure out" where the power switch is, and use a computer, go on-line, and say to MA, hey look, I got an email

M$ knew what market they were selling to, and made sure there product was as intuitive to them as it could possibly be. SERIOUSLY, I don't think any OS, other than from M$, can do the same thing. I HONESTLY think that any OS that "lowers" itself to that level, would have just the same problems that Windows has. Not bashing M$, or for that matter, Windows, or its users, just a factual observation. Windows is targeted, as you know, Nish, as AOL is, to the "simpletons" of the computer world. The ones who are clueless about RAM, a hard drive, or even what a IRQ or memory address are, they don't know what a lot of the acronyms are for, nor do they care, and that is just fine for them. As they would say, why should I have too???

I do not see a "common" OS, any longer, in the computing future - some people will never "grasp" another OS that isn't "just like" Windows, and then, as we are seeing, others who will be willing to risk ridicule and hardships to deal with a OS that is not Windows - for pain, or gain...

I am happy with Linux - and I mean all flavors - we are a "common" OS in my thoughts - If I had RedHat, I would accept someone who had Mandrake, or Debian, or SuSE, etc... I don't make distinction on "flavors"...

Enuf said, this time,
Cuddles