Newsflash - "normal" computer users can't handle things that require 6 steps.

[poofyhairguy]

I guess, taking the suggestions from this thread, I should have told him "The magic monkeys inside the tablet get tired, and start to mess up, and sometimes they just need to rest for a while." Rather than try to explain memory-management and heap fragmentation and contiguous application allocations.

Glad you are learning. Analogies are always better for normals. They would get lost at the word heap if you tried to explain what is really happening.

Ram isn't random access memory, it's the size of your virtual desk. A hard drive isn't a spinning drive filled with 1s and 0s, it is a virtual file cabinet, etc.

Always run to analogies when you can. Maybe you can come up with a better fit than monkeys down the road, but honestly what works works. My wife thinks the different launcher on her Note 4 is partial pixie dust.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Things like,
1) Updating your web browser (Firefox and derivatives, I'm look at you.)
2) Updating your anti-virus or anti-malware definititions
3) Even doing a basic Explorer copy+paste file backup to a USB flash drive or external HDD

End-users just can't figure these things out!

And you wonder why newer programs and OSes just keep getting dumbed-down.

1) Automatic since forever ago
2) Automatic since forever ago
3) This has always been the case, and some people are always just dense.

If you do a custom install or use some 3rd party derivative that requires you to manually update stuff then surely you aren't too lazy to click the update button.

OP = fail

 

[MongGrel]

Someone needs to make an Unfrozen Caveman IT Guy thing.

I won't go near Chrome myself personally myself.

 

[rudeguy]

Glad you are learning. Analogies are always better for normals. They would get lost at the word heap if you tried to explain what is really happening.

Ram isn't random access memory, it's the size of your virtual desk. A hard drive isn't a spinning drive filled with 1s and 0s, it is a virtual file cabinet, etc.

Always run to analogies when you can. Maybe you can come up with a better fit than monkeys down the road, but honestly what works works. My wife thinks the different launcher on her Note 4 is partial pixie dust.

Has to be Nova Launcher. That has the highest pixie dust density out there.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Has to be Nova Launcher. That has the highest pixie dust density out there.

You got it!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Not at all. I believe that I am actually quite good at explaining things. But some people don't want to "understand computers". To elaborate on Lxkllr's approach, some people want to treat a computer like a magic monkey box, and just "press buttons". They don't want to understand why they're pressing buttons, or that there is an order, a rime (*) or reason to it.

I guess I could instruct them to "click the red X in the upper-right corner to close the browser, weekly". They could follow that direction. But they wouldn't understand why they are doing it, or anything to do with memory management, memory leaks, etc.

Truth be told, I also leave my Waterfox open for months at a time as well. It is a very robust browser, overall, and can handle that. (Although there was a recent change in the Firefox code base that seems to limit how many images the browser can load over its runtime lifetime, for some strange reason. To my view, it appears to be a bug.)

(*) Waterfox didn't give me a spelling error on that word, but it doesn't look right to me.

Edit: A different friend wondered why you have to reboot an Android tablet every once in a while, why you couldn't just keep using it indefinitely. I guess, taking the suggestions from this thread, I should have told him "The magic monkeys inside the tablet get tired, and start to mess up, and sometimes they just need to rest for a while." Rather than try to explain memory-management and heap fragmentation and contiguous application allocations.

Well, I'd work on the condescension a bit, but essentially, yes.

CPU = Thing that does a lot of math. Everything is math.
RAM = Workspace for the CPU.
Memory fragmentation = Clutter in the workspace.
Rebooting = Cleans up and organizes the workspace.

The problem with your solution is that 16GB of RAM doesn't fix the issue, it just buys them time, so instead of having to reboot the computer every couple days, they have to do it every couple weeks. They've paid you money to "fix" it, but the problem still exists.

Sometimes (usually?) correcting user behavior is the solution; and if you've told them the truth (that behavior needs to change) and they refuse to go with it, well, I'm not very religious, but I've always sympathized with:

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!"

 

[Perknose]

Things like,
1) Updating your web browser (Firefox and derivatives, I'm look at you.)
2) Updating your anti-virus or anti-malware definititions
3) Even doing a basic Explorer copy+paste file backup to a USB flash drive or external HDD

End-users just can't figure these things out!

And you wonder why newer programs and OSes just keep getting dumbed-down.

Cliffs?