Tech support

Margie’s folks have a Mac.

They’ve had one since I’ve known them, all the way back to the cute little Mac Plus era, when if you wanted something that was graphical and friendly to use, the Mac was where it’s at. Plus, they had Mac-knowledgeable people providing them support, since while my father-in-law can build an entertainment center from scratch, a computer technician he’s not.

That’s my job.

Well, it used to be my job. It’s been [too many] years since I was regularly cracking open cases and swapping parts and all that good techie stuff. My paycheck doesn’t mind, but it gets a bit harrowing when it comes to my turn in the “Family Support Game.” You know that game. “Oh, you’re a [fill in the blank]. Can you look at my [fill in the blank]?” Whether it’s “contractor/sagging deck” or “doctor/inflamed throat” or “computer guy/failing computer,” it’s part of the great social economy that Margie and I have benefited by, and therefore must provide benefit to.

So, they limped along for many years with woefully underpowered machines. Finally, a couple of years ago, they got one of the first, lowest-end iMacs. The cute little all-in-one units, in turquoise.

Well and good.

Except the CD drive has gone out. Well, that sucks.

And Apple has never liked folks to individually service their machines, so it was either the Ks take their iMac into the shop, or someone else fix it.

Meet the designated-through-attrition “someone else.”

Now, I’ve been complaining for over a year (since last Christmas, at least) that in addition to a lowest-end machine, they’re hobbled with Netscape 4.7. Which means, among other things, that they can’t really read this blog, since 4.7 doesn’t do CSS. (It gets frelled on some Javascript stuff, too.)

But I can’t really do anything about it without a damned CD drive. Yeah, I can try downloading Netscape 7 from the web … over their, ah, rather sketchy 28k line (it’s not the modem, it’s the line that limits them to about 28k). Or I can order the CD … which needs a working CD drive.

Following me here?

So Saturday, at the independent behest of both Jim and Ginger, I headed over to Fry’s. Fry’s is unique among most computer stores in that it even has a Mac section. This has been another cross, finding anything computer-related as a gift for them. The marginalization of the Mac as a platform, especially for low-end entry-level machines, is wildly (and sadly) obvious to anyone who is not a Mac aficionado and is shopping for Mac-related stuff.

Another strike.

So, I find the Mac section. Lots of incredibly cool-looking, cool-sounding equipment. Lots of clear plastic, chromed surfaces, and the sort of stuff on display that makes a former Mac-owner like me drool a lot.

But that’s all the high-end gew-gaws. When it comes to the parts …

Well, what Jim and Ginger both wanted was a CD-RW. And they badly need one, almost as badly as a CD. So that’s what I was shopping for, an external (no case-cracking) CD-RW for their iMac.

All the ones they had in the Mac section required Firewire. Their low-end Mac … well, did it have a Firewire port? I know it had a phone jack, and USB ports (both full), but did it have Firewire?

I asked one of the helpful Fry’s guys. Why, yes, of course it does. Which is a good thing, because all the USB-based CD-RWs in the PC section all have very prominent “For Windows PCs only!” stickers.

(Yes, I’m sure there’s any of a dozen ways I could have finessed this. But I’m only a 3rd Level Technician, maybe a 4th Level one, still — and the levels keep draining away.)

Get home.

Nope, no Firewire port.

Damn.

And I’m at a Best Buy the next day, and I’m now noting that all the CD-RW drives they have there that indicate any support for the Mac all require OS/9.1 or above.

Jim and Ginger have OS/9.0.

I could upgrade them, of course.

With a CD drive.

Oh, and Netscape 7? That runs on OS/8.6 … but OS/9.1 or higher is highly recommended.

Now, I’d joked earlier in the week that they really needed a plain ol’ Windows PC. And Ginger shocked me by mentioning that they practically had one — they had a system box, plus keyboard and mouse (but no monitor) that was being donated by Ginger’s company to a local school, but that through various (legitimate) methods had been obtained by them.

And, frankly, they weren’t at all averse to switching to Windows. They both use them at their offices, and their perception (accurate, I think) is that the overwhelming advantage that Macs had several years ago, in terms of stability and quality of the OS, have narrowed beyond the point of the hassle they’re going through in trying to deal with their Mac.

So … for Christmas we wrapped up a new flatscreen monitor for the PC, and I offered to build them a Windows PC, functioning, by the end of our stay here.

God have mercy on my soul.

Before the flames begin, let me get two things straight.

First, I think Macs are still keen. Apple has made some faboo machines, glorious to look at, and even pretty spiffy to use. I think the gap has objectively narrowed between Windows and Mac machines, certainly over the past decade. Whether it has completely closed is an argument I don’t care to get into because it’s not one I can argue well. For high-end users, it’s certainly an interesting debate.

The issue at hand is not whether Hypothetical User X would be better served by a new top-flight Mac or a Windows machine. It’s whether these Particular Users (my in-laws) would be better served by the bottom-line iMac they presently own or by a rebuilt Windows machine, in terms of what they need, what service (professional or casual) they can obtain, and what the rest of us can buy them as Christmas presents.

I am nowhere arguing that a Windows machine will be rock-solid (bite your tongue), but, damn, it will have wider-spread supportability from their social network than the Mac does. And I won’t be reduced to a half-shelf of software to buy them things from in the future. And when visiting and asked for tech support, I won’t be completely at sea.

(Curiously enough, my own parents are going to be upgrading their PC from their old 5/166 to a new machine — either that or replacing the motherboard. I’ve been a much more distant advisor in that project, for one major reason: they have a friend, Pete, who is willing to do the conversion and upgrade and knows what the hell they are talking about. In many ways, what I’m going to be doing for my in-laws is a technically much simpler task. I think.)

The PC my in-laws have obtained, of course, has at least one major flaw.

It’s lacking (had removed from it) a CD drive …