Being the family on-call tech support guy can become a little draining at times, and usually when my parents call me there’s a 50-50 chance it’s going to be computer-related, but looking back at the past few years of familial troubleshooting, it’s not their fault: it’s Windows!

My Folks Have Been Using Windows for 30 Years

I still remember when my dad finally brought a copy of Windows 3.1 home, along with some additional RAM so we could finally (mostly) leave MS-DOS behind. Ever since then, we’d been a Windows household and by the time I left home we were on Windows 8!

Windows is what my dad still uses at work, and my mom has never known another operating system. At least I don’t recall her touching our home computer during the DOS days.

So it’s no surprise that they’ve stuck with what they know, and for the better part of those decades it’s been absolutely fine. Then Windows became an online operating system, and then it became a service selling you other services. Which has resulted in my weekly telephonic “my computer is broken” call from the folks.

I Spend Way Too Much Time Troubleshooting Their Computers

The fact of the matter is that a modern operating system should not lead to so many support calls. My parents aren’t computer illiterate. Heck, my dad taught me how to work the DOS command line and edit batch files before I started school, so this isn’t a case of clueless users.

Most of the time it’s because something that used to work just fine stopped working because something changed in Windows itself. My mom’s printer recently started refusing to print after the last update, and after struggling with it the easiest path is to just buy a new one, since this one is a few years old and was designed for Windows 10 and not 11.

Nothing They Do Requires Windows Anymore

The really frustrating thing is that nothing my mom or dad do on their computers strictly requires Windows anymore. The only apps they run are web browsers and office suite apps. So, conceivably, they could switch to Chromebooks (though Office’s web version isn’t great) or Macs. And, before you say it, no, I’m not going to even suggest they switch to Linux. The year of the Linux desktop might be closer than ever, but it sure isn’t this year, and I’m definitely not troubleshooting that over the phone.

Honestly, the best option (and I might be biased here) is macOS. This is what I switched to in 2019 after my Windows 10 laptop kept breaking itself after every Windows update, and I have never looked back.

The problem is, apart from having to adapt to macOS, my folks would balk at the price. They feel more comfortable with $300 budget laptops since (like reasonable people) their computers are just tools that have to do basic things. The problem is that there’s a cost related to the downtime these systems have. It might even be that Windows goes awry so often specifically because these are budget systems, but either way something needs to change.

Maybe It’s Time to Put My Foot Down

I don’t mind helping my parents with their computer problems, but it’s like having someone with a rundown old car they refuse to replace, who needs help with constant breakdowns and repairs. Which means I need to find a way to wean my folks off Windows.

Perhaps it means when Apple next discounts the last of their oldest MacBook Airs, it could be the perfect opportunity to pounce…