[Linux-aus] So... was _this_ included in those TCO studies?

[Leon Brooks]

For your amusement:

    http://news.com.com/Courtesy+of+Linux+Australia/2100-1029_3-5792379.html

    On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer
    was overrun by spyware and adware [...] he did not simply get rid
    of the offending programs. He threw out the whole computer.

    Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a doctoral degree
    in computer science, decided that rather than take the time to
    remove the offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.

    [...] "[...] It was cheaper and faster to go to the store and buy a
    low-end PC."

    [...] throwing out a computer "is a rational response," said Lee
    Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project [...]

    The number of viruses has more than doubled in just the last six
    months, while the number of adware and spyware programs has roughly
    quadrupled during the same period, said Vincent Weafer, a senior
    director at Symantec [...] [mine have gone from 0 to 0 -- LB]

    "Things are spinning out of control," said David Gelernter, a
    professor of computer science at Yale. Gelernter said his own
    family's computer became so badly infected that he bought a new one
    this week. He said his two teenage sons were balking at spending
    the hours needed to scrub the old one clean of viruses, worms and
    adware.

    [...]

    Buying a new computer is not always an antidote. Bora Ozturk, 33,
    who manages bank branches in San Francisco, bought a $900 HP
    computer last year only to have it nearly paralyzed three months
    ago with infections that he believes he got from visiting Turkish
    news sites.

    He debated throwing the PC out, but it had pictures of his newborn
    son and all of his music files. He decided to fix it himself,
    spending 15 hours learning what to do, then saving all his pictures
    and music to a disk and then wiping the hard drive clean -- the
    equivalent of starting over.

OK, 15 hours learning. What's your time worth? AUD$30 an hour? Rip up AUD$450 
and toss it over your shoulder. But you can buy a new low-end PC (no screen) 
for AUD$370+GST retail. Then spend _how_long_ saving and wiping? Call it at 
least another six hours (AUD$180) for a novice, more likely 8 or 10.

And... where is that in the TCO studies? Or just pay a tech roughly $200 to do 
that twice a year? In the studies? Not.

Cheers; Leon

--
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Member, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://osia.net.au/             Member, Open Source Industry Australia
http://linux.org.au/            Member, Linux Australia