Second class computer citizens

Are you frustrated with computers? You're not alone. I count myself among the tens of thousands of computer users being treated as second class citizens by technology companies around the world. Why am I a second class citizen? Because I don't use the expected "normal" operating system. At home, on 90% of my personal computers, I use the Linux operating system. When I call up an Internet provider like Rogers or Bell Sympatico their official stance is that they do not support Linux. For me this isn't really a problem because I have enough knowledge to get my Linux machines working with Rogers Cable without help from their technical support line.

Bell Sympatico and Rogers also don't officially support Windows 95, though it is possible to use Windows 95 to access both Bell and Rogers with a little bit of know-how (Rogers being the easier of the two). Ninety percent of the time Bell and Rogers have a standard response of "if you're not running Windows 98 or better don't even bother talking to us." What ends up happening is people end up buying all new computers, which are NOT really necessary. Contrary to the latest trend, YOU DO NOT need a P4 3.2GHz computer to access the Internet. 3.2GHz is roughly 3200MHz. I have a computer at home that I use to do certain tasks, including web surfing, that is 110MHz (compared to 3200MHz), and it works with my Rogers High-Speed account just fine. (It runs Debian GNU Linux).

It would be nice if occassionally someone would say "hey dude/lady, lets walk through the problem." Now as someone involved in technical support/IT, I understand from a monetary position why it's so difficult to provide support for clients running older software. It would be a waste of money to provide support all the time for Windows 95 clients, but it doesn't mean you can't point them in the right direction. What does this mean? In a word, documentation.

Both Bell Sympatico and Rogers now tell their customers that they need Windows 98 in order to use thier respective software. What they don't tell their clients is that the clients don't necessarily need to use their software to use their high speed Internet service - it just makes it easier for the technians. Clients of these high speed services can in fact use other software (Tango/Enternet). The problem is of course that the Internet Service Providers don't want to support a whole bunch of different software.

Why do I have such a problem with this? Well, it's dishonest. When you tell someone you can't do something, implying that it's not possible unless you conform to a particular standard, you're not being 100% honest. It reminds me of my childhood. When I graduated from public school to high school my teachers told my parents where to place me in high school, what I should and should NOT take. I remember pleading with my parents not to listen to the teachers. I must have made a convincing case because they listened to me instead of to my teachers. Had I taken the route my teachers recommended I may have ended up a drug-addicted drop-out like some of my former friends. I look back and am truly saddened because a few of these friends had better public school test scores than I did, but because someone told their parents "this is their ability," when it wasn't quite true, it ended up being what they got molded into. The message of this rant, what some company claims is true, may not be.

The only solution seems to be education. Unfortunately this ultimately rests squarely on the shoulders of the end consumer. In my humble opinion we in the IT industry should try to make this as easy as possible by giving consumers access to information about how to do things that my not be a simple point-and-click process... but thinking and doing are usually two seperate things...

I'm a computer geek, so I know quite a bit about computers, but having this knowledge doesn't entitle me to better treatment than anyone else.