27 News Troubleshooter: Woman blames Dell for missing online classes

[alcoholiday.livejournal.com]

http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9667184

This made me cry... with lulz, of course.

Comments

[poly-scott.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I mean, seriously - who wouldn't go, 'Good. Keep the stupid lusers off my Distro.' It's hard enough to support the stupid on XP. Can you imagine supporting people who could VERY easily type sudo rm -Rf / and wipe out their whole file system? Ok, so I know that Linus patched that specific case in the kernel, but still - there about a MILLION ways for me to do that same thing. sudo dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda or several permutations thereof comes to mind as an example. hell, cat /dev/random > /dev/sda as root would be equally bad. As would : > / for that matter.

In short, if you just got your learners permit, please don't climb into an H3 and expect to start stunt driving. You'll wreck your Hummer, if not outright die.

[jokergirl.livejournal.com]

Actually, as a firm supporter of survival of the smarter I'd have to say, drive H3s all you like. As long as it's not on _my_ roads, of course...


;)

[sgt-easton.livejournal.com]

This is so full of lulz and fail I don't even know what to say.

"She didn't realize until the next morning her laptop defaulted to the Ubuntu operating system." - WTF? "Defaulted?"

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

Presumably, the online ordering system, in the section she probably didn't read about selecting her operating system.

[nem0.livejournal.com]

How the hell did she even end up with Ubuntu? Did she click on the cheapest computer Dell offered and not bother with any of the other specs?

Besides, why wasn't she more assertive with the Dell tech who tried to convince her to keep Ubuntu?

Not that Dell is entirely blameless in this process (when someone asks for something to be compatible with their classes, JUST GO WITH IT), but a teensy, nearly insignificant amount of knowledge (or calling someone who knows -- seriously, does this person not know ANYONE with computer skillz?) would have saved her all this trouble.

[gilded_lady]

My thoughts exactly!

[mariasama16.livejournal.com]

I agree, I bet she went for the cheapest computer and didn't spec it out. I'm also wondering if she even mentioned that she was trying to use this computer for online classes (possible ActiveX requirements?) and just asked the Dell tech, "what is Ubuntu, why is it not Windows, and how do I get Windows?". I hope for the tech's sake that they had good notes on that ticket.

[mariasama16.livejournal.com]

I'm also wondering if what is not mentioned, is whether or not the Dell tech mentioned that its more money to get any Windows OS on that machine and she didn't want to spend money. Which would have left a good portion of that call having the tech reassure her that it should work as she'd expect, other than compatibility issues. Again, WHY didn't she contact Verizon about it? "Hey, I got a new laptop and its got this Ubuntu thing and the CD you guys gave me doesn't work. What do I do next?" Same thing with MATC. Or heck, Googling it (http://www.justgoogleit.com) works just as well for any questions about OOo.

I have no sympathy for her. NONE. She basically got something she wasn't expecting, was told it'd work for her, and when it didn't, basically curled up in the corner and cried about it. She didn't try to search out anyone who might help her, or at least, that wasn't mentioned in the article. The fact that the tv station got her hooked up with her school tech support and Verizon and no mention of her attempting and failing to get help, makes me believe that she didn't try to contact either place on her own. So no, no sympathy from me.

[donnaidh-sidhe.livejournal.com]

I LOLed at the idea that she's expecting to get a degree.

[trayce.livejournal.com]

What is wrong with people that when they hit the slightest hurdle, they just fold and wibble into a heap? "oh no, this thing wont run MS Office! Oh well I'll just sit here and cry and fail all my classes"

WTF, all she had to do was contact the fscking school and ask them how to work around the software requirements. I see this kind of pathetic sitting on hands so much these days, god help us if theres a war etc etc

Mind you, Dell should be shot for how they handled this, she was obviously a complete noob who had no idea what she needed, and they should NOT have sold her a 'nix distro.

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

You're talking about the company that sold a full server box to a small office instead of a new desktop and a few network cards, then refused to do a return on it.

[trayce.livejournal.com]

Of course, its Dell. What was I thinking *slaps self*.

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

source?

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

I'm half tempted to give you the "let me google that for you" link, but instead, here is Dell sales thinks network cable = server (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/27/dell_standsby_server_order/).

[alcoholiday.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was the part that struck me most. I mean, it's not like there is a whole section of the industry dedicated to providing SUPPORT for the TECHnology :/

[doublefelix.livejournal.com]

I'd have to put the blame on both Dell and the purchaser, as Dell obviously very much supported Ubuntu but it seems wouldn't help her make it work the way she wanted. She, on the other hand, obviously put no effort into considering exactly what she was buying, and put no effort into getting her ISP to help her (though they might have just said "we don't support linux" and left her hanging).
Worst of all though, this article will probably just help add to people's fear of Linux, compounding Microsoft's FUD.

[arinoch.livejournal.com]

Sadly, she sounds like a lot of customers I've had the, um, pleasure of dealing with while I worked at Dell. Meaning, she didn't call to figure out how to get Ubuntu to work with her courses, but rather to bitch because Ubuntu wasn't Windows. If she was the least bit curious how to get the damn thing to work for her, she had the resources right there (Dell does send a certain amount of documentation). And her warranty does cover "how do I do x" style questions, specificly because ubuntu or not, she obviously doesn't know the first thing about her computer.

Oh, and re: the comment about that technician's ticket documentation? If they're not in the US, don't count on it. I've seen some pretty craptastic documentation from overseas.

[doublefelix.livejournal.com]

Ah, I had not gotten that impression from the article. Good for Dell for providing that kind of support, and more shame on the woman.

[alcoholiday.livejournal.com]

It doesn't sound like she even tried to call support at Verizon or at the school... when it didn't work she just threw up her hands and gave up. All too common I'm sorry to say..

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

I accidentally a Dell once. I had to an ambulance. The Ubuntu cd was accidenally, accidentally.

It's better if you Mad-Lib it:

[coyoteden.livejournal.com]

I accidentally __(verb)__ed a Dell once. I had to _(verb)_ an ambulance. The Ubuntu cd was accidenally _(verb)_ed so far up my __(orifice)_, I __(bodily function)__ed....

...accidentally.

[ace-brickman.livejournal.com]

please to be leaving the diggchan memes at diggchan kthxbai