Crystal Clear

I’ve had the opportunity lately to try to find online computer help for some software issues on computers that I use. I noticed a striking difference depending on the operating system for which I needed help.

Just about every forums for help on a Microsoft Windows platform had the same answer for just about every problem: Is your anti-virus up to date? Have you checked for spyware? Did you try rebooting? Did you reinstall the program? If you still have a problem, reinstall operating system. At some point, you may fix the problem you are having, but unless it is a virus or spyware issue, the actual cause of your problem usually remains a mystery.

However, on forums for help with Linux operating systems, you may actually find someone else who had the same problem you had and the steps to fix it. If not, you may be asked to post debugging info, which means you’ll usually receive a response from a developer. You might end up at a bug report which means you’ll have to wait for the fix. You might have to reinstall the program (or install the latest version where the problem is fixed), but you’ll never have to re-install the OS for a program problem.

I know that I like to know why things stopped working even if I can get it to work again. A black box solution, where I have no idea, always leaves me wondering if it will happen again, without warning.

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