Hi Josh,
I do setup computers for some folks and they run quite well -- but
others don't. If I sat down and analyzed each situation I'm sure I'd
find the ones that continue to run great are probably the folks who
check email, surf alittle, nothing more, while those that do need
reinstallation do indeed spend lots of time online using the Internet
to its fullest plus downloading anything that looks of interest to 'try
it out' then uninstalling it a few minutes later.
There's no way to get an accurate cross section of statistics on
Internet users, though it'd be a great article or make for some
interesting reading. I'd love to see a survey, not for technical
folks, but for the general public, ask whether they use a software
firewall, hardware router, encrypted or open wifi, how often they
update their virus scanner or if they run one at all, etc, and get
their PC specs (processor speed and memory) and a general overview of
how they think the computer is running.
One person came to me about 6 months ago saying she was about to buy a
new computer because her current one was running slow, not keeping up,
and was just outdated. I asked her how old it was, and she said two
years old. After checking out the system, it was actually a Pentium
1.8Ghz with 256 Megs of ram, which should run good. In checking out
her system she had all sorts of crap downloaded... since she had SO
much data I tried cleaning-up and uninstalling stuff she didn't need,
but bit rot had already set in. In an afternoon I backed-up her data,
reinstalled, and she was back up.
The moral to the story is that so many folks just don't know... they
think their computer needs to be replaced because it's running slow,
and a wipe and reload will fix this. This is why so many folks (like
Leythos, me, even many of the tech folks on TV and such) suggest to
reload Windows every so often. It's the nature of the beast. Some,
like you and your friends I assume from your statements, have the beast
tamed, but most folks don't.
Have a great afternoon ---
Sam Alex
