*shaking stick* Now get off my lawn, whipper snapper!
:P
Hey, some of us used to have to scrounge together floppies for Slackware, deciding whether we really needed X or not. Sad thing was, I went back to OS/2 at the time since it had better hardware support
Unlike previous releases where I jumped in fairly early in the beta process (beta 2 or 3), I waited to move to Karmic until the release. I also decided to do a clean install this time to ensure I wouldn't run into any upgrade issues.
Unfortunately, despite the supposed "papercut" fixes, this release seems far more prone to problems. On my Dell Latitude 620 (with Intel graphics, mind you):
About the only good thing I can say (which may also be attributed to the larger 500G drive I swapped in for the install), is that overall the system seems smoother and more responsive.
I'll do tech support for family (nothing further out than an uncle or a cousin though), and for actual close friends. Couple of requirements though: no Windows 9x. 2000+ is fine, but anything on 9x/Me kernel and my only offer is to upgrade them. Also, huge, huge requirement: bring the computer to ME. I don't want to make house calls. Note though that I say actual close friends; "friends" as in the neighbor down the street who I sometimes talk to in passing but don't really associate with much? No way. Too many people and too much problems.
I once would kindly look at any problem that people had. Then I noticed that most didn't want to bring the system to me (instead they want me to come to their house where their internet connection is down, and if I need something like a modem driver I was expected to drive back and forth to my house to keep grabbing tools, parts, downloads, or anything else I didn't think to bring with me). Also when they offered to pay, they basically meant $20 for however long it took. $20 for 3 or 4 hours work ain't exactly compensating anyone. What really pissed me off in the end though is that they'd be pushy on timetables. You call me and ask me to work on the system? Ok, when I get to it. If it's Tuesday I very well might not get to it until the weekend. However they'd drop something off and then call back every single day asking (sometimes with an attitude) if the system was ready yet.
In the end, it was just a hassle I didn't want. As I said I still do it for my family and close friends, but otherwise I'll just refer them to the local screwdriver shop.
Don't start celebrating prematurely. There's a good article on Quirksmode about why IE6 will continue to live on corporate intranets.
HOLY MACRO!