Yes it has been an annoying trend, people want their systems fixed for almost nothing without spending any money on replacement parts. Funny that they don't act that way when a garage tells them the same thing about their car and how much they charge for labor.

Even harder is trying to convince them to switch to Linux. Without buying a new modem or wireless card, their old ones won't work under Linux due to not having a driver. I switched a few friends and family members to Unbuntu Linux only to switch them back after the Internet did not work for them and they refused to buy new hardware to make the Internet work. My Gamehead brother, aka Black Demon, luckily had a Realtek network card that worked under Linux. Just that WINE didn't work as well as he hoped and he got a lot of lag, and some of his games wouldn't run no matter what the WINE site said how to make them work. We are half-German and half-Irish and he learned German in high school and plays with people online from Germany so he learned a lot of swear words. He cussed about it such that even CRConrad would blush from hearing those words. :) I had to switch him back to XP, and he said he would only move to Linux when Linux native versions of his games are made.

I am making progress, my wife is a LPN in a nursing home and works with mentally ill senior citizens, so she has helped me out as well. My doctor keeps making adjustments to my medication so that helps as well.

My wife might be the President of a company I found, I've been teaching her what I learned in college about business management for her work as a manager at her employer. It helped her get promotions. I taught her a bit about using the computer so she can check the bank and credit card statements online and use email.

My parents are in their 70's and I taught them how to use their computer and email and web browser. They use Firefox and Thunderbird, so at least that gives them some protection. No problems with their system, just the time it takes to answer their questions and tutor them in using the software. TurboTax was the most recent challenge.