Dell Inspiron. Microsoft Surface. I'm not exactly an expert on this, but those are two with which I have recent experience as someone was asking me to help upgrade and they cannot be upgraded.
It's possible that I'm talking out my ass and momentarily confused soldered-on RAM with SSD. I believe the Surface laptops have soldered-on SSDs. I know for a fact that some low-end Dell Inspiron laptops have soldered-on storage. And obviously things like Chromebooks, tablets, and phones. But it's entirely possible that this isn't that common at all and I just have some recent exposure to the few out there that do have soldered-on SSDs.
It's never come up for me since I neither have a Mac with a soldered on SSD, nor rely on data recovery for my backup needs, but a cursory Google search seems to show data recovery options for Macs at Geek Squad-like prices. You raise a good point about potentially voiding the warranty - yet another reason to backup. Have have some empathy for people who lose work while on the road. Hell, the reason I'm preaching is that I've lost data even though it was backed up, because it was backed up on the same machine that got hit by lightning - zotching both the main drive and the backup drive. But I don't have sympathy, because the mark of an intelligent ape is one that can learn from the experience of other apes. So if you are on the road, backup to a USB or SD card... just backup!
I don't know enough about the engineering tradeoffs to make the determination that it is a "horrid design". I do know that it makes a backup scheme even more important if you decide to buy such hardware (to be honest, I have no idea whether my HP Envy has soldered-on storage or not, I backup).
It's sad that we need such clarification, but yes, my advice is mostly for people who associate some value with their data. If you weren't going to consider paying someone to recover your lost data, it's probably not super-important that you back it up in the first place.
But even a total data consumer should do at least one backup of their (Windows/Mac) system when they first get it. It will save a lot of time down the road.
Yes, and to be clear my last laptop purchase was not an Apple - I'm not a fanboy, exactly - I just find that they get criticized for things that no other manufacturer even tries to do.
I get it, I travel abroad. If you are abroad and bandwidth-limited, invest in a cheap USB stick or SD card. Get one of the low profile ones that stay almost flush and just leave it in there - backup to that. When you get back to decent WiFi, your regular backup will resume but in the meantime you aren't completely exposed. Shitholes without bandwidth tend to be shitholes without data recovery services in any event.
If you aren't worried about your house burning down, then simply set up a small server and backup to that. Not backing up is super-stupid and will get you eventually.
Soldered-on SSDs are common in ultrabooks. Notebooks are always a compromise between speed, size, cost, etc. You can certainly be careful to buy a notebook with a removable SSD if you want, but it's not a given if you simply avoid Apple.
Several years ago, this would have been a problem. But now Apple lets you backup to an SMB share and many other manufacturers sell routers that will happily share an attached USB drive.
I suspect our opinion on Windows goes a long way to explain our relative positions. I find Windows to be barely usable for newbies and barely clinging to life for power users. Screen scaling is so bad (though I admit loads better now since April's update) that every old person I've ever helped with a computer has their LCD set to a non-native resolution to zoom the interface up. There are at least two distinct places to change most settings, for instance Networking can be accessed through the new Metro settings, but since not all things are available from there you must also know that there is a separate Control Panel. Most of the things that make Windows great for power users are really just compatibility hangers-on, and it has progressed little in that regard (I'd argue it has regressed).
But yes, you are completely correct - hardware support is excellent. If you are a professional, you almost certainly use Windows for this reason alone.
Good point, though technically the US maintained control over Cuba until the 30s via the Platt Amendment (and related treaties), including a 2nd occupation. In retrospect it seems to have been a poor policy, but hey, it was 1900.
Instead there has been active development that makes all of the above possible.
I get your point, and totally agree. It still doesn't make today's Linux desktop something that I'd recommend a non-computer geek photography or graphics design friend use. I can't imagine Adobe porting it over in the hope that... what, exactly? I don't think they would necessarily relish supporting another platform, so it's not exactly in their interest that desktop Linux catch on with creative types. They have Mac and Windows already, and soon tablets - so they aren't beholden to a single vendor at the moment. I just don't see the business case.
Userfriendliness is just an interface.
And for that, there is Android and ChromeOS. Maybe you don't see those as a compromise, but I certainly do. And this isn't a knock on ChromeOS or Android - good engineering is all about finding the right compromises, and I think they've done a wonderful job. But I wouldn't want to use ChromeOS as my only desktop. It's been a brilliant time saver in my house, but I still have a full-fledged OS on the computers that I use.
Look at the clusterfuck Windows has become trying to be both luser and power user friendly, and also work on tablets/touch screens. I'd hope that Windows isn't the sort of thing that Linux GUI developers are aspiring to.
If you use the "PPP" purchasing power parity ranking T&T is the richest independent country in the Caribbean. Once territories are included, it changes. Puerto Rico would be at the top of that list with 2015 data of $35,291.80 vs. T&T's $32,194.28.
Naw, it's not like that. Linux is great for certain things. For development, it rocks. As a server, it rocks. Embedded - it's pretty darned good these days.
As a desktop environment for an artsy type? No. Sorry - not recommended. I'm not even sure I care if it ever meets their needs. Honestly, a Chromebook with the Adobe suite would be just peachy for them, if it were available. The compromises necessary to make desktop Linux luser-friendly are not worth it, IMHO. Actually, we already have seen it and it looks like Android and ChromeOS. They are both great for their purpose and I do use them both, but I'd hate to see desktop Linux go that direction. Photoshop might work great in one of the new-fangled containers formats (some people recommend setting it up with Wine in a Docker container), but in general proprietary software fits poorly with the desktop Linux workflow. For instance, I used to use Crashplan and it stood out as the most pain-in-the-ass thing on the system. See also Dropbox. Things that update with apt (or your favorite tool) work best.
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No, I meant provide recovery options for soldered-in storage. Good luck getting that from Dell or MS.
Dell Inspiron. Microsoft Surface. I'm not exactly an expert on this, but those are two with which I have recent experience as someone was asking me to help upgrade and they cannot be upgraded.
It's possible that I'm talking out my ass and momentarily confused soldered-on RAM with SSD. I believe the Surface laptops have soldered-on SSDs. I know for a fact that some low-end Dell Inspiron laptops have soldered-on storage. And obviously things like Chromebooks, tablets, and phones. But it's entirely possible that this isn't that common at all and I just have some recent exposure to the few out there that do have soldered-on SSDs.
It's never come up for me since I neither have a Mac with a soldered on SSD, nor rely on data recovery for my backup needs, but a cursory Google search seems to show data recovery options for Macs at Geek Squad-like prices. You raise a good point about potentially voiding the warranty - yet another reason to backup. Have have some empathy for people who lose work while on the road. Hell, the reason I'm preaching is that I've lost data even though it was backed up, because it was backed up on the same machine that got hit by lightning - zotching both the main drive and the backup drive. But I don't have sympathy, because the mark of an intelligent ape is one that can learn from the experience of other apes. So if you are on the road, backup to a USB or SD card... just backup!
I don't know enough about the engineering tradeoffs to make the determination that it is a "horrid design". I do know that it makes a backup scheme even more important if you decide to buy such hardware (to be honest, I have no idea whether my HP Envy has soldered-on storage or not, I backup).
Well that escalated quickly.
It's sad that we need such clarification, but yes, my advice is mostly for people who associate some value with their data. If you weren't going to consider paying someone to recover your lost data, it's probably not super-important that you back it up in the first place.
But even a total data consumer should do at least one backup of their (Windows/Mac) system when they first get it. It will save a lot of time down the road.
Yes, and to be clear my last laptop purchase was not an Apple - I'm not a fanboy, exactly - I just find that they get criticized for things that no other manufacturer even tries to do.
I get it, I travel abroad. If you are abroad and bandwidth-limited, invest in a cheap USB stick or SD card. Get one of the low profile ones that stay almost flush and just leave it in there - backup to that. When you get back to decent WiFi, your regular backup will resume but in the meantime you aren't completely exposed. Shitholes without bandwidth tend to be shitholes without data recovery services in any event.
And there are no third-party shops that do Apple data recovery?
If you have your data on a removable drive, sure, take it wherever you want.
If you aren't worried about your house burning down, then simply set up a small server and backup to that. Not backing up is super-stupid and will get you eventually.
Soldered-on SSDs are common in ultrabooks. Notebooks are always a compromise between speed, size, cost, etc. You can certainly be careful to buy a notebook with a removable SSD if you want, but it's not a given if you simply avoid Apple.
Several years ago, this would have been a problem. But now Apple lets you backup to an SMB share and many other manufacturers sell routers that will happily share an attached USB drive.
If you have stuff that you don't trust to the prying eyes of the cloud, you can encrypt it before shipping it off there. Any other objections?
...or just buy a "computer" that works for you, and not to the manufactors agenda of complete and total vendor locking...
Because lots of other "vendors" have "stores" all over the place where you can take your "computer" to have the data restored.
Oh, and for God's sake, turn on backups people.
I suspect our opinion on Windows goes a long way to explain our relative positions. I find Windows to be barely usable for newbies and barely clinging to life for power users. Screen scaling is so bad (though I admit loads better now since April's update) that every old person I've ever helped with a computer has their LCD set to a non-native resolution to zoom the interface up. There are at least two distinct places to change most settings, for instance Networking can be accessed through the new Metro settings, but since not all things are available from there you must also know that there is a separate Control Panel. Most of the things that make Windows great for power users are really just compatibility hangers-on, and it has progressed little in that regard (I'd argue it has regressed).
But yes, you are completely correct - hardware support is excellent. If you are a professional, you almost certainly use Windows for this reason alone.
Good point, though technically the US maintained control over Cuba until the 30s via the Platt Amendment (and related treaties), including a 2nd occupation. In retrospect it seems to have been a poor policy, but hey, it was 1900.
Instead there has been active development that makes all of the above possible.
I get your point, and totally agree. It still doesn't make today's Linux desktop something that I'd recommend a non-computer geek photography or graphics design friend use. I can't imagine Adobe porting it over in the hope that... what, exactly? I don't think they would necessarily relish supporting another platform, so it's not exactly in their interest that desktop Linux catch on with creative types. They have Mac and Windows already, and soon tablets - so they aren't beholden to a single vendor at the moment. I just don't see the business case.
Userfriendliness is just an interface.
And for that, there is Android and ChromeOS. Maybe you don't see those as a compromise, but I certainly do. And this isn't a knock on ChromeOS or Android - good engineering is all about finding the right compromises, and I think they've done a wonderful job. But I wouldn't want to use ChromeOS as my only desktop. It's been a brilliant time saver in my house, but I still have a full-fledged OS on the computers that I use.
Look at the clusterfuck Windows has become trying to be both luser and power user friendly, and also work on tablets/touch screens. I'd hope that Windows isn't the sort of thing that Linux GUI developers are aspiring to.
Cuba. We gave up Cuba after they voted for independence. Puerto Rico has never asked to be independent, or they'd have it.
The point is that you can pick any metric you like and Puerto Rico is at or near the top in the Caribbean.
LOL. Well played.
If you use the "PPP" purchasing power parity ranking T&T is the richest independent country in the Caribbean. Once territories are included, it changes. Puerto Rico would be at the top of that list with 2015 data of $35,291.80 vs. T&T's $32,194.28.
They are the richest island in the Caribbean.
I'd never recommend anyone install Linux.
Naw, it's not like that. Linux is great for certain things. For development, it rocks. As a server, it rocks. Embedded - it's pretty darned good these days.
As a desktop environment for an artsy type? No. Sorry - not recommended. I'm not even sure I care if it ever meets their needs. Honestly, a Chromebook with the Adobe suite would be just peachy for them, if it were available. The compromises necessary to make desktop Linux luser-friendly are not worth it, IMHO. Actually, we already have seen it and it looks like Android and ChromeOS. They are both great for their purpose and I do use them both, but I'd hate to see desktop Linux go that direction. Photoshop might work great in one of the new-fangled containers formats (some people recommend setting it up with Wine in a Docker container), but in general proprietary software fits poorly with the desktop Linux workflow. For instance, I used to use Crashplan and it stood out as the most pain-in-the-ass thing on the system. See also Dropbox. Things that update with apt (or your favorite tool) work best.