Unix and Linux → Re: Why I'd Rather Run Windows 8 Than Linux

In a business, you spend what you are allowed to spend. And yes they were buying some garbage back then.

Thanks largely to Microsoft, in the PC world today's state-of-the-art system may be tomorrow's all-but-useless boat anchor. Other, non-PC computing environments aren't necessarily like that, and may retain considerable utility and value for many years.

Yeah, I remember how businesses ran budgets. An i5 will definitely "future proof" a purchase more so than a Chromebook/Stream dink processor will. Outside business land though, dropping an i5 in a machine when a Chromebook will do is costly w/ little return.

And damn. I haven't had that kind of luck with hardware for some time. Ever since Windows 7...and sometimes XP, a simple system refresh would fix any mystery quirks that might come along.

I got plenty of run out of my XP units. 5 (10?) years of run time's a pretty nice amount to ask out of hardware life. You make it sound as though you need to recycle MS-loaded computers every year in order to even keep functional.

As do I, generally, but in the business world computer equipment these days is often on three-year leases, so turnover there is higher. A Windows upgrade may have to wait for the lease to expire, but if it doesn't (an in-place upgrade is done), then you may find that your existing equipment just isn't up to the job and has to be replaced or at least upgraded anyway. This has been true historically, in any case. The latest actions by Microsoft may have effectively put an end to this.

At the last big company where I worked, they started off with the in-place upgrade thing but switched to purchasing replacements when people started complaining about performance and stability issues after their upgrade. (They bought these replacements in bulk, so their price per unit was remarkably low.) I know that I had at least three different PCs/laptops in the nine years or so that I was there. I don't know what the their lease situation was at the time, but I do know that they were desperately trying to consolidate and virtualize as much equipment as they could in order to get a handle on things.

Where I am now (a much smaller company), when I walked in the door the place was stacked to the rafters with "old" computer equipment which wasn't really that old when it got replaced. They'd assumed that this equipment would have some residual value, but instead they couldn't even give it away, and they were facing some real challenges just getting rid of it. AFAIK, any new stuff which walks in the door today is leased, but there is still some older equipment such as mine around that is still perfectly functional and running XP; I know of others running Win7. I've been told that there will be no OS upgrades here until either the hardware dies or some other matter forces the issue and causes a replacement.

For my own personal preference, I would opt for some higher end specs when looking for a laptop. Simply because even in my personal life, I'll do some photo editing, while listening to music locally or streaming it, with multiple tabs open at the same time in my web browser, with email running, a few Finder/explorer windows opened, remote desktop opened, etc, etc. Admittedly I don't have all that running every time I'm using the laptop. But like I said, it's nice to have the extra horse power when I need it.

What I do at work is, create a clone of the laptop right after I have everything installed (and bloatware uninstalled) and all the Windows updates are finished. That way if we ever have an issue where no maintenance will fix it, a re-imaging of the laptop usually will fix it.

Eh, I just wait for good sales from »www.microsoftstore.com/ . While Windows 8.1 w/ Bing was a good step forward, MS has a policy of zero bloat on any computers/tablets/etc. they personally sell.

Only good for consumer tablets & laptops though. Desktop and/or high end laptops? Prepare to pay out the effing nose. I really don't know why MS only keeps competitive w/ Surface, Netbooks, and 15.6" laptops.

One word... greed.

Oh and that site you linked to, seems cool but there are no Windows Pro versions that I can tell. Everything on there appears catered to the home user.

There are some Pro devices on there, the Venue 8 Pro for example. However, it is indeed catered to the home user since corporate buyers already specify no bloat/image their systems anyways. Companies of any size tend to build their own custom image which they can then deploy across all of their systems.

It is. Microsoft Store's are MS' attempts to counter Apple Store appeals. Whether or not it works, I couldn't say. I just know they make a very good place to buy future home user hardware.

...and yeah, technically there are a few pro devices on there. Surface Pros come w/ professional. But it definitely is not the site's main focus.

Or gaming desktops for that sake. Look at the introductory gaming rigs on their site. Basically want a bajillion dollars for a "gaming approved" computer from Microsoft. WTF.