This madness has to stop. It’s time for a Computer/OS/Software Hard Reset

I’ve spent the last few days helping a friend un-bork their home PC. Seems that one piece of software through one auto-update jacked their machine to the point uselessness. So, as happens to many of us “computer people,” I’ve been spending some quality time with their PC resurrecting it from the dead.

This madness has to stop.

How many of you reading this have been in this same boat? Where your machine, or those of friends or families have gotten borked due to something outside your/their control? How often are you called on to provide personal tech support? How often you cringe when you get a call and it's starts with "My computer..."? Unless I miss my guess, to often.

This madness has to stop.

Has the computer age infected your TV? Phone? Car? Cell? Microwave? Oven? House lighting? Law sprinklers? Has the drive to make “everything easier by making it all computerized” instead made everything seemly harder and more complex? Like a complexity virus? Do you fear the day when household appliances loose their power because you remember the pain to get them setup and working correctly? Man I hate when that happens...

This madness has to stop.

How many times have you had to walk someone through using a piece of software just so they can use it at its most basic level? One that has so much flash and sizzle, buttons and widgets that it causes usage anxiety? How often do you see people using that magical, mystical 10%? To often I bet.

This madness has to stop.

How many hours have you fought your system to build a solution for your users? To get it to work and perform only to run into issues when they try to install it on their system? Then fought the good fight to try to figure out just what the heck is going on, why does it work in most cases but not that one? Why when the sun is up, but not the sun and moon? Been there, done that...

This madness has to stop. It’s time for a hard reset.

As an industry, we need to step back and take a good hard look at what we do, how we do it, why we’re at where we are today and decide if this is viable for the long term. Do we really want our kids and grandchildren to be hacking their registry? To worry about root accounts and command line configs? RPM's vs MSI vs this kernal and that OS? To worry about viruses, spyware, etc? To have to take classes just to know how to operate their PC just so they can keep it running? To foster a technology priesthood where keeping a system running seems to come through their as much knowledge as it does magic and faith?

Don’t we, as an industry, know enough to look beyond today and toward a tomorrow where our PC’s are not something we battle and sometimes dread but are instead are so integral that we couldn’t imagine a world without them and shudder at the thought of the “do you remember when’s”? Where using them is as simple as riding a bike? Where there might be a tiny bit of a learning curve, but once you learn it you never forget, do matter how many years pass?

Mac, Linux, Windows, I don’t care. Personally I don’t think any of them are right for the future. For a future were our PC’s work subconsciously, where our digital assistants are running with a “DWIM” (Do What I Mean) capability, we need to step back and re-think… re-think… well… pretty much everything. From hardware to interface to software. It’s time to sit back and re-imagine our industry and the products we provide.

Let's look at our basic assumptions and not assume that just because that's the way it's been for 20, 30, 40 years that that's the "right" way. Let's look toward our grand kid's future. Let's build a foundation that's viable for the long term. With flexibility to grow and prosper, and not the house of cards like our systems of today.

 

Look, I am NOT saying we need to go back to “before.” I love this age and would not have wished to have been born in any other. I can’t imagine life without computers and technology. All I’m saying is that if you take a long hard look at today, and then imagine a tomorrow based on today, what do you see?

We, you and I, have the power to change this. We CAN make it better. We just need to have the strength, vision and conviction to no longer accept “good enough” and to look beyond today’s foundations toward new digital future.

 

LOL… Wow, so flowery and pretty… Yet no substance. No concrete suggestions. Words are easy you say? Well sometimes words are all that's needed. Without a vision, it's hard to know where you are going. Don't all great leaps start with a vision?

Enough... Enough for now. Time for some more coffee, to re-program my back sprinklers, make an appointment to find out why my Check Engine light is on and to search the web with some error strings so I can fix my friend's Media player...