Since I frequently have my laptop with me, this generally sparks a large number of those "so you know anything about computers?" conversations. Mostly these are just plain painful, but I learn about common trends in the mass market this way.
For example, 2 or 3 years ago people would often notice the laptop and ask about it. They didn't know much about laptops and so the questions were basic questions: "Can you go online with those?" or "Does it run Office?". Generally people were interested to know if laptops were actually real PCs since they hadn't had any firsthand experience with them.
These days, the questions have changed. Everyone is either buying a laptop, or has already bought one. Very few people are mentioning the classic desktop PC anymore. These people aren't mobile and don't "need" a laptop as opposed to a desktop, but they are buying laptops anyway. I suppose this is a combination of the falling prices of laptops, and the growing desire for a less "invasive" home PC... something that fits on a desk, doesn't require assembly and wiring, etc.
This trend toward laptops hasn't made most of these people more intelligent or tech savvy of course. The questions are still as painful as always.
One of the more depressing trends over the last year or so has been the nearly universal hatred for Windows Vista.
This isn't the typical mass-media fueled hype, nor the "hate the man" stuff you used to hear... you know, the common wisdom that says that Bill Gates is a rich monopolistic ass-hole and Windows is crap... go Linux!". Not this time. This is a pragmatic hatred fueled by firsthand experience.
I've been using Vista regularly for almost 2 years now (since late beta days). While I don't "like" it really, I personally would not go back to Windows XP either. I consider it a decent upgrade, but it certainly had a rocky start. I did finally turn off User Access Control though. I tried to get used to it, and like it, but as a developer too much of what I do requires admin access and I grew tired of the constant black screen prompting.
The number of people that report hating Vista or having actually downgraded to Windows XP was staggering to me so I started keeping track of these conversations formally back in mid-April. I created a simple text file to track the opinions as they were offered.
Today that list looks roughly like this:
Had Vista and Downgraded = 61
Has Vista wants to Downgrade = 23
Has XP wants to Upgrade = 5
Has XP refuses to Upgrade = 56
Has Vista and will stick with it = 4
Has Vista and likes it = 0
Bought or will buy a Mac = 5
That's 154 people and not even ONE of them claims to like Vista. Now, I doubt all of the people refusing to upgrade will actually refuse in the long run and I doubt all of the people wanting to downgrade will actually do so. But the trend is still crystal clear.
The largest group actually DID downgrade back to XP, which is a fucking insane number of people. Do you have any idea how difficult it is for an average non-technical user to perform an OS install? Of course most of these had a tech-savvy relative (or child as was often the case) do the downgrade for them. The fact that so many people actually went to the effort to downgrade is a very strong indicator that this is a very REAL dissatisfaction and not just the idle complaint that has always been there since the PC was invented.
Only 5 of the people I've talked to have bought a Mac instead of a PC, and none mentioned any serious intentions towards moving to Linux, though some of the more computer literate did ask me if I had an opinion about Linux (I never recommend Linux to non-technical users though).
What this tells me is that Windows Vista is a colossal failure in the market. Even Windows ME was better received than Vista (and ME was truly a pile of shit).
While people around here aren't running to the competition yet, if Microsoft doesn't get a new and better OS out the door fast, they will be in serious trouble.... if it isn't already too late.
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