In office to pay..

Boss walks in, woman mentions something.. he throws hands up, says ~ "I can't deal with that damn thing today, any more.."

I'm across desk. {Cannot resist saying softly} "Windows, eh?"

Both stop - look at me, say simultaneously, Ye -e- ss.

They look e x p e c t a n t l y
Like: maybe I could offer a Way Out of their Wilderness (?!?)

Tacit: {{You. Poor. Bastards.}}

Thus prompted (really.. They Started It. I was just commiserating. Honest ;-)

Long(er) story shorter:

Yeah, it Was XP; I did Not want to know the actual details.
(They had heard of Apple. Not the occasion for a partisan opinion, ignorant of what they need to do) So I said that I didn't know their needs for the business, but OSX they would find to be quite less vulnerable, quite more stable and in the end less expensive: in terms of whatever was pissing them off today, and all the other days. I was trying for neutrality == I did not mention Billy once. Hard, that. ;-) Good exercise..

(Alas, couldn't send them to Andrew - nor do I know of anyone locally who could come at all close) Left them with suggestion: find the most competent local; have him show you on the menus: all the stuff to be turned OFF; set up your firewall and filters and Test Them (grc.com et al). Pay the $$ and take notes. I closed with, "I have heard that, it's possible to make XP ~useable - but it is not useable Out of the Box - you absolutely need to have the defaults changed by someone who Knows".

Or did I lie on that last? (useable? by the newbie?? Really? What an arsenal of prophylactics needed, regularly! - and who will teach them which and how?)

Kill Billy one defection at a time.