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I still have my "lifetime" User Friendly membership card signed by Illiad and "Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell, a User Friendly Guide to World Domination" from O'Re

I still have my "lifetime" User Friendly membership card signed by Illiad and "Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell, a User Friendly Guide to World Domination" from O'Reilly. I wish I had found a copy of the first UF compilation book, and that my copy of "Ten Years of UserFriendly.org" hadn't been destroyed in a move. For those of us who have been doing this for a very long time, User Friendly was the salve to the dry business side of Dilbert. Think the xkcd tech support cheat sheet (https://xkcd.com/627/ https://xkcd.com/627/) but with far more snark and characters.

laumars 5y ago
Dilbert was a lot more generic too. I think most companies reflected Dilbert in one way or another. But User Friendly was a lot more specialised. At least that’s how I remembered them.
- techsupporter 5y ago
  Agreed. Dilbert was for if you worked in an office building doing pretty much anything. User Friendly was for a very specific niche of people who either worked at mid-sized ISPs (like MandieD wrote: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30593421 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30593421) or who supporter or empathized with people who worked at mid-sized ISPs. "Thank you for calling Columbia Internet, this is Miranda."
  - FireBeyond 5y ago
    Mostly. Every once in a while Dilbert would surprise: Dilbert: My company asked all employees to act as salespeople to friends and family. I think you could use this, mom. Dilbert's mom: Why would I need a primary rate circuit? I've already got a frame relay drop to my web server in the sewing room. Dilbert (thought bubble): This is going to be a tough sale. Dilbert's mom: Hello-o-o! Earth to Dilbert! This is packet data ... Source: https://www.gocomics.com/dilbert-classics/2019/11/19 https://www.gocomics.com/dilbert-classics/2019/11/19
    - fmajid 5y ago
      Scott Adams used to work for Pac Bell in San Francisco before he went full-time on Dilbert.

laumars 5y ago

Dilbert was a lot more generic too. I think most companies reflected Dilbert in one way or another. But User Friendly was a lot more specialised. At least that’s how I remembered them.

techsupporter 5y ago
Agreed. Dilbert was for if you worked in an office building doing pretty much anything. User Friendly was for a very specific niche of people who either worked at mid-sized ISPs (like MandieD wrote: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30593421 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30593421) or who supporter or empathized with people who worked at mid-sized ISPs. "Thank you for calling Columbia Internet, this is Miranda."
- FireBeyond 5y ago
  Mostly. Every once in a while Dilbert would surprise: Dilbert: My company asked all employees to act as salespeople to friends and family. I think you could use this, mom. Dilbert's mom: Why would I need a primary rate circuit? I've already got a frame relay drop to my web server in the sewing room. Dilbert (thought bubble): This is going to be a tough sale. Dilbert's mom: Hello-o-o! Earth to Dilbert! This is packet data ... Source: https://www.gocomics.com/dilbert-classics/2019/11/19 https://www.gocomics.com/dilbert-classics/2019/11/19
  - fmajid 5y ago
    Scott Adams used to work for Pac Bell in San Francisco before he went full-time on Dilbert.