So I'm at my friends house right now, and I was on BetaArchive a minute ago, And he asked me, "What's BetaArchive?" And I answered with, "It's a website that preserves old software and discusses beta software. And he answered with "Well what do you mean old software? Like Windows XP?" lol? He thinks Windows XP is old, And I said, "Dude have you ever heard of Windows 95 or Windows NT?" And he said no! xD n00b

PS He's right next to me laughing that I'm making a topic about him.

Considering Windows XP is 11 years old now, it is fairly old 95 though is let's see... is 17 now.

windows... ugh. he'd probably be amused by AmigaDOS's 1.2 speak programme.

Omg yes I'll have to show him DOS and he'll probably think it's from like 1960 xD

mmh... one question.. what's the age of your friend?? maybe he was not even born in 1995 show him windows 3.1 when there was not "start" button and try telling him about the commodore 64 when games were stored on cassettes... maybe he will get involved in old software/hardware too....

Maybe he isn't that computer literate.

No offence, but Windows XP is only ten years old, since it was released in October 2001 (remember that nearly all of 2001 is only ten years ago, since it is still extremely early in the year).

Also, Windows 95 is still only sixteen years old, for the same reason as above. Windows 95 was released in August 1995, so it still has many more months to go before it reaches its seventeenth birthday.

Finally, it seems that some people (not naming anyone in particular, and no offense to Jecag) believe that, for example, in January 2000, October 1980 was therefore twenty years ago, not because it was actually twenty years ago in count, but it was still culturally "twenty years ago", because it was essentially provided by the popular culture that was in turn provided by January 1st, 1980, and that anything that was part of the same year was also culturally "older", even though it wasn't actually numerically older.

Also, some people apparently think that only the calendar year really matters, and that the rest is just a matter of being "exact", and/or that even in cases where it's still the same amount in actual counting, the later calendar year somehow lessons the fact that it's only "X" years old.

Finally, in my opinion, this person has almost certainly seen older versions of Windows being used, but probably doesn't have so much experience with computers in general.

EDIT: Fixed the date (changed "October 2000" to "October 1980" - there was a mistyping).

I gave a rough estimate, So sue me WinPC. In case you haven't realized I'm not trying to be exact, but I am trying to make the point that Windows XP is at /least/ a decade old.

An apology would be nice.

Some people in my school claim to be computer literate but don't know how to use Windows XP. So I link them to a video of Wolverhampton Girls for no reason.
They brag about how good their store-bought PCs are but they can't run "BLAK OPZZZZ!"

The others admit that they're not computer-literate but they do remember the good ol' times of Windows 98SE/ME.

In case you somehow missed it, I already said no offense to you or anyone, and also, I even said that I wasn't talking about anyone in particular.

You do realize, though, that there are people who are like that (just look up the news, and you'll see what I mean). I was just making sure that other people didn't make wrong calculations in the future, and I wasn't speaking to offend you or anyone in particular, but rather, I didn't want other people to be confused (especially other people who also lack experience with technology in the same way as Windows XP's friend, which is what this topic was about in the first place).

Also, for Windows XP's friend (whatever his personal name and/or user name is), in case you're reading this, Windows NT 5 was first released to the public on February 17th, 2000. The first major version was Windows 2000 (5.0). Windows XP (5.1), the second major version of Windows NT 5, was released on October 25th, 2001, and Windows Server 2003 (5.2), the third major version of Windows NT 5, was released on April 24th, 2003, over a year after the Client counterpart, Windows XP, was released.

Finally, if you want to see the strangest and by far most extreme cases of "computer illiteracy", go to Computer Stupidities. There, they even have stories of people opening the monitor, in the believe that it was also the system unit, as computers have often been portrayed (this was especially true with such systems that actually were built in that way, such as most Macs, and certain PCs, starting with the IBM PS/2). Windows XP's friend's case, believe me, is quite tame, in comparison with much of what's on Computer Stupidities, including a guy who felt that his notebook PC was running too hot, so he drilled these "air holes" to make it run cooler, and then wondered why it wasn't working anymore!

Then please don't use my name and bring me into it like that, you aim it towards people by using name basis.

Back on topic:

yesterday:

Brother: Can't you download a PDF for that?
Me: Why?
Brother: you know, how pfds store music and movies and ebooks and software
Me: ....no they don't... only ebooks...
Brother: ??? wat?

He's 13, But he knows how to build a PC.

I lol'd at the saying of "BLAK OPZZZZ" xD And yes anybody who claims that they're good and doesn't know how to use WinXP needs to retrace their steps.

Not to make this go any further, Just saying he said, "No offence to Jecag."

The best thing to do with such "computer illiterate" people, I think, is to teach them how computers really work. That's what probably happened with many of those cases that were reported at Computer Stupidities.

It's what I get for living in one of the worst cities in the UK.
They also think proxy sites are "1337 uber school hax".

My mom actually did ICT courses way long ago and she's now an XP fangirl. She couldn't get her head around Windows 7 so she gave her laptop to me.

I know computer illiteracy can be quite amusing occasionally, but we shouldn't really laugh at those with less knowledge than us about a particular subject. I mean, some people don't really have a need to know much about computers. I do agree that some people are just idiots, such as Windows XP's dumb classmates with their "LOL IT WONT RUN BLAK OPZZZZZZZ", but some people have no reason to, for example, know of operating systems older than XP or whatever.

It's a lot more funny when computer-illiterate people get angry with tech support because they think they know stuff which they don't.

Yeah, But whatever area someone is teaching them about, They'll ask a question on how that's made, like a program, Then you'll explain (Well, try to explain) programming to them, which I'll admit I did not understand very well when I was introduced to C#* but yeah.

Here's one for you. One day I asked my brother if he wanted to see a pre-release version (Windows 7 RC) of Windows I had running on my PC. His response, "What's Windows?". It is only the OS he uses everyday when playing his games. It was incredible. BTW my brother is 13. He should know what Windows is.

Eh. I wouldn't give him that much credit. So many people who use their computers every day still respond "It's an HP" or "It's a Dell" or "It's a Lenovo" when asked for their Operating System, not the computer's manufacturer.

I know what you mean. It is just incredible to me that some people don't know what Windows is though.

When my sister was ranting about Macs, she said "You're not a computer expert if you don't know that Microsoft makes the best computers"
She also hates being in the media classroom at my school. (She was a Spanish teacher)


That's pretty much me and my sisters. I had to explain to them what the cache was. They were like "WHAT'S A CACHE?" even after explaining to them.
They also didn't know how to use Ubuntu. Come on, that's like Baby's First Linux, my mom managed to get her head around Ubuntu...

I lol everytime people get mad at tech support because they don't understand. xD

I have 2 stories:
1st:1 year older friend of mine dont know what os is
2nd:this friend knows that his os is windows xp but every app im telling to him he says "does it have virus" even if i check it 2 times...

Just install Microsoft Security Essentials on it or something, And you can usually tell just by looking at it if it's fishy or not.