The iPad and the PC's dirty little secret

Pretend for a moment you're not a techie.  You don't have a computer science / engineering degree.  You haven't spent years maintaining PCs, installing software, ... you are, let's say, Uncle George.

Pray tell me, as a mere user of PCs, what is the significant improvement from Windows 95 to Windows 7? Saying it's newer is not an answer, nor any of the newer-in-disguise answers (e.g., Windows 95 is not supported by Microsoft, new hardware doesn't come with Windows 95 drivers, etc.).  Saying it's faster is explaining Intel's advancements, not Windows.

How do you tell Uncle George in what way the progression from Windows 95, 98, Me, XP, Vista, and finally to 7 has changed the way he uses computers -- in a way that he understands and recognizes?

You can't, of course.  Put Uncle George on Windows 95 on your dual-core machine (assuming you could find all the right drivers for it), and he would probably just tell you 95 is a lot faster.

This is not an anti-Microsoft complaint; put Uncle George on Linux and the only bash he'll use is when he takes a sledge hammer to the computer.

OK, so if Windows hasn't improved his perceptible user experience ("more stable", "less malware" are all questionable), has it gotten easier for him to maintain his system?  Has the progression to Windows 7 greatly improved Uncle George's ability to administer his systems? (Is that laughter I hear?)

After 15 years of Windows improvements (we'll skip Windows 3.x out of charity for Microsoft), the PC is still basically unmaintainable by common people.  Buy a new PC, load it up with anti-virus and Norton utilities, set them all up to go, and within a few years the system will be slower, buggier, and more likely to be infested than ever.  PCs have not been made usable by the common man.  (The common woman has a shot at it, I believe ;-) ).  Remember streaming video? So does Uncle George, but it seemed to get jerky and slow a few years ago for no good reason and he's given up on it.  What happens to PCs?

Look at other things of similar complexity:  Just because Uncle George gets lost and drives down the wrong road it doesn't mean his car develops a malevolent mind of its own and start shooting other cars.  Cars don't run on Windows.

And that's where the iPad comes into play.  So many people jump on Apple's case about its vetting of applications and rules for developers.  And, yes, Apple is thinking of its shareholders first.  But it is definitely thinking of Uncle George second.  You can't get a virus on an iPad.  No program you install is going to keep Netflix from crisply streaming video.  The iPad isn't going to insist on rebooting right this very second because some third tier application has decided to upgrade underneath you.  I guarantee you that the performance of your iPad is going to be as good on its third anniversary as it is on its unboxing day.

And that's the dirty secret of PCs.  When Uncle George figures this out, he may wonder why he bothers with a PC at all.