(no subject)

[demented-pants.livejournal.com]

You know those calls that make you laugh hysterically and weep at the same time?

Yeah, I just had one of those.

Me: "Thank you for calling xxxx, this is demented_pants. How may I help you?
User: "I don't know if you can help me with this, but I'm using Linux, and I think I may have broken both of my web browsers. My connection is fine but I can't get online with either of them."
Me: "Okay, I can try and help you figure that out. What distro are you using?" (Note: I am a PC consultant. I dabble in Mac support when I need to, but I get approximately one linux call every two months. Of the THREE that I've taken, two of them were people who hadn't followed the instructions carefully and wanted a registration code for the version of Red Hat they'd downloaded from the university servers, which they shouldn't have needed.)
User: "Distro?"
Me (thinking it was just a language issue thing, as that happens frequently): "Yeah, the version of Linux you're using."
User: "Oh, I'm not really sure."
Me (boggling): "Oh." (Trying to jog his memory) "Is it maybe Debian? Ubuntu? Gentoo? Slackware?"
User: "Oh, I think it was Gentoo."
Me: "Red Hat, maybe?" (Thinking, No, there's no way you're using Gentoo. If you were using Gentoo, you'd damn well KNOW WHAT DISTRO YOU'RE USING.)
User: "I'm not really sure. I had the computer custom-built."
Me: "Okay, without more specific distro information, the best I can suggest is to uninstall and reinstall using Terminal. But if you can figure out what distro you're using, we have a mac/unix support line between nine and five."
User: "Okay."

Now, in retrospect, he was probably using Ubuntu, but still.

How can you NOT know?

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Same way people don't know which version of Windows they're running.

[demented-pants.livejournal.com]

I guess you're right.

I'm really just not used to the idea of people using linux enough to break it who didn't put it on the system themselves.

Then again, I'm a lot more used to the EeePC model of linux computing for linux noobs than the "drop them in Ubuntu and let them sink or swim" model.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

At the support job I used to work at, I picked up the trick of asking what colour a cx's start button was. (this was back in '05, so there was still a lot of Windows 98 around) If the answer wasn't "green", you'd have them click and ask what it said down the side. Handy trick, that.

[demented-pants.livejournal.com]

Now'a'days we ask, "What shape is your start menu button? Is it a circle? No? Okay, you're using XP."

[medusa-nw.livejournal.com]

Oh god, if I had £1 for every person that says 'Internet Explorer' when I ask what version of Windows they use, I could buy many, many pints...

[demented-pants.livejournal.com]

mmmm, pints.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

I was once told that a customer's version of Windows was "Office".

Oh that was a long call.

[70schild.livejournal.com]

Oh GOD yes. I made the mistake of asking my neighbor what browser she used.

"I use Windows."

No no, I mean what does she use to go on the internet?

"Oh I just click the internet button."

Finally we went in circles and got where I wanted to go (which was stop using IE and install FF), and she said "I took a course for all this stuff last year, but I can't remember it all."

She uses the internet every day. :-/

[devilish69angel.livejournal.com]

same goes for customers saying mozzarella firefox

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

BEAT ME TO IT. i was just about to say that. had a customer not know whether they were using XP or vista (the only 2 versions our program can use). i'm like, hey now, it TELLS you when you start up the computer!

[shifuimam.livejournal.com]

I have a problem with people who custom build machines for others and dump Linux on there. It's one thing to install Windows and add some OSS like OpenOffice or whatever, but I had people in the dorms where I did tech support who were running Linux and had no idea they were actually running Linux.

Linux is great if you know what you're doing...not if you're an unwitting computer user, however.

[demented-pants.livejournal.com]

I am in agreement.

[barbituratecat.livejournal.com]

It's also really unfair to poor ISP techs who gets calls from said people :(

Like the guy I had, who was running Ubuntu and tried to install Win98 over top of it. He was using some cracked version, Gods know where he got it, and was missing all the device drivers he needed. He was not very happy when I told him Win98 was A) not supported by anyone, and B) not free. 'Why the fuck do I have to PAY to use my computer just because I want Windows on it?!'

[mattcaron.livejournal.com]

cat /etc/lsb-release often works.

[demented-pants.livejournal.com]

I'll try and remember that in the future. Thanks.

[simoncion.livejournal.com]

Boo!
This is not present on my Gentoo machines. *frowns*

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

"What version of Windows are you running?"

"I don't have Windows. I have Internet Explorer."

[barbituratecat.livejournal.com]

'I don't HAVE Windows. I have a laptop.'

[fuzzyr.livejournal.com]

and I had such high hopes when the users opened with "I'm using Linux"...

[demented-pants.livejournal.com]

I think that was my issue, too.

"Oh, good, someone who knows at least a LITTLE bit about computers."

No distro? Denied!

[anthalus.livejournal.com]

I can understand the distro part throwing the person off if they were running DSL over windows, and didn't realize it, but c'mon...

Had to be Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Kind of hard not to know if you are running Fedora or OpenSUSe, or even OpenSolaris.

[demented-pants.livejournal.com]

Or Gentoo.

Yeah, there wasn't any way at all homeboy was running Gentoo.

[devilish69angel.livejournal.com]

My favorite one today
Me: I need the mac, like macintosh, ID of your cable modem (i say this cause I have had people ask me where the maP was...how they get a p out of c i'll never know)
User: *fumbling* "ok I see a little silver sticker, and oh by the way this is a dell not a macintosh..."
Me: *headdesk*

[demented-pants.livejournal.com]

I get that all the time. Then I explain that, no, it's an acronym for Media Access Control. That one doesn't bug me so much because the first time I heard MAC address I thought the same thing.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

So why say "macintosh"? It'd confuse me and I *know* what a MAC address is. :-)

M-A-C for cat normally makes things clear.