If you stick with the Dell corporate models, ie: Optiplex/Latitude/Precision, there IS no bloatware. Admittedly you do pay a bit more for the corporate models, and you cannot walk into WorstBuy/Costco and buy one, but the quality/warrantee/support on these models are significantly better.. Source: Retired sysadmin, who supported said Dell corporate systems for more than 10 years...
I'm a retired sysadmin, supported Dell products exclusively for the last 10 years before I retired. The advice about Dell is spot-on, but with ONE stipulation.. With Dell, its kind of like there is two separate "Dell" companies.. One that makes the cheap consumer-grade stuff you find at CostCo/BestBuy, with brand names like "Inspiron/XPS/Alienware", then there is the "company" that makes the corporate models, namely Optiplex/Latitude/Precision... The consumer-grade machines come with very short warrantees, offshore/phonetree "support" and they're LOADED with bloatware/crapware.. The corporate models, however, come with 3-year warrantees, US-based support, and a clean copy of the OS, with only necessary drivers loaded.. You do pay a bit more for the corporate models, and they're only available thru the Dell website. Prior to about 2000, I used to build my own systems, but once I learned about the Dell Outlet, with their refurb'ed systems, that come with a significant discount over a build-to-order from the regular Dell website, all of my systems, both workstation and laptops, have come from there... Unless the time needed to build the system is worthless to me, I can't build a system for what I can get a Dell Outlet refurb for... YMMV
Wait till MS gets desparate to get all their little telemetry geegaws on Windows 7 and they resort to making the "updates" show up as "security" rather than "recommended"... The only way you'll be able to avoid them is to completely disable WU.. and THAT is really not a good idea.. The poor folks who are on Windows 10 home are sooooo screwed.... I'm soo glad I dumped the Windows ecosystem when I retired from computer support and moved all my systems to Linux back in 2010...
I supported Dell corporate systems for the last 10 or years of my working career, and recall that you could go out to the Dell website and download service manuals for all of the Dell models we had, namely Optiplexes and Latitudes, I've been out of that world since about 2010, and when I bought my current laptop, a Dell Precision M4400 in 2012, I, naturally went to download the service manual for it, and found there was no such thing anymore.. All there is now is a quick-reference guide for each model... Pretty fucking sorry, Dell... And now I see they're pulling the same shit as Lenovo with the MITM certs... Now all I can say is FUCK YOU TOO, DELL... No more new Dells for me and mine.. Used only..
Not too late to try *him* for treason.. Him and a vast majority of the previous and current administrations should be behind bars for treason.... Just my (and a lot of other Americans) opinion...
Good God! THIS!! Back in July 2013, I took a bad fall, and since I couldn't get back up without excruciating pain in both legs, I got taken by ambulance to the hospital.. The doctor that examined/attended me sent me in for an MRI, but only ordered it from the waist up. Since the pain was in the legs I asked him why he didn't include the legs. He said it was not neccessary. Since I couldn't raise either leg from the knee down, he had it in his mind that I had some kind of neurological problem, thus the upper MRI.. He would not listen to requests by both me and my wife, a recently retired RN with 20+ years experience at that very hospital, to get an orthopedic consult.. Finally my wife went and rattled some cages up in the executive office, and got a orthopedic dr to check me out.. The very first thing he did was get me an MRI of the legs.. Once it came back, he told me I'd managed to blow out the main ligaments in both knees and I needed repair surgury.. We found later that the original doctor was a neurologist, so everything to him was neurologically related... We raised a stink with the hospital and I'd seriously considered filing a complaint with the state medical board on that doctor, but never did, as the hospital cut our copay for this stay in the hospital (nearly a month) in half, according to their risk-management office... Since then I have a bad taste in my mouth about doctors...
I've found that WebMD is a good resource to find out what to "ask your doctor" about.. I judge it FAR more reliable than television ads paid for by "big pharma"....
I'm an unreformed 1960s conservative and I agree... Holy Shit.. A conservative and a "leftie" agreeing on ANYthing? Has hell frozen over??? Listening to some of the side-effects of these drugs, you'd wonder why ANYONE with half a brain would ever take them.. Then of course you have a lawyer commercial next that tells you if you take these drugs and experience any of the side effects, "You may be entitled to substantial compensation"... All you can do is shake your head at the sheer stupidity...
I have seen an ad for a drug on one of the national tv channels then immediately following that commercial was a lawyer commercial, advertising that if you'd taken THE SAME DRUG IN THE PREVIOUS COMMERCIAL and had experienced the listed side effects, you should call "1-800-BADDRUG", and you might be entitled to substantial compensation... All I could do was shake my head at this.. I wonder if the station/network got their asses chewed for that slipup.....
Some of them think otherwise.. I had some pain in my knees, went to see the orthopedic doctor that I'd consulted a year or so before with another knee problem. Turns out my doctor had retired, and I was referred to this new doctor. I met with him, we chatted for a bit as I explained where the pain was.. He seemed like a pretty good "replacement" for my old doctor. He took xrays, and when I came back later to see what the problem was, the first thing out of his mouth was I needed surgery. I told him I'd have to think about it, and get a second opinion... I told him this in a very polite, conversational way, but his whole demenor changed. He got a frown on his face and he told very merudely that perhaps I'd better go see another doctor ANYWAY.. Prior to my saying the "magic words" - second opinion, he'd been this very personable doctor, once I stated that, it all changed.. Needless to say I found another doctor right away.. Most doctors understand that when the word "surgery" is used, its best-practice for the patient to get a second opinion... Apparently NOT with this doctor, and his precious ego... A bit of reading about the problem he found on WebMD showed that the only people who normally had surgery for this problem were young active sports players.. I was, at the time, in my late 50s and played no sports..
NOTHING would make me happier.. I'm wearing out the mute button on my tv clicker, with all of these mindless ads for drugs with clever names, a speed-read of a list of side-effects that would scare any normal person to death (hint: most have the possibilty of death somewhere in the list), and a ending with "Ask YOUR doctor if XXXX is RIGHT for YOU!!!"......
Once again Mr Snowden hits the nail on the head.. I just wish there was an ad blocker that worked as well as uBlock for TV and radio, but alas there isn't, so I suffer there...
I made the mistake of going into our local Frys one year on black friday.. I don't know WHAT I was thinking, or if I'd completely lost my mind, but just driving into the parking lot *should* have told me to GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE, with the parking lot full and my having to park waaaay out near the freeway... But nooo, stupid me walks all the way in, under that giant slot machine over the door, and terror immediately sets in. If you've ever been in a Frys, you've seen the 40-50 checkout "stalls" they have, where maybe 1/4 to 1/2 are actually in use.. Well ALL of the checkstands were in use AND the checkout line snaked down the normal line and then into the store proper and looped around the back... I don't remember WHY I went there, but I immediately did an about-face and hightailed it out of there.. Dunno WHAT THE FUCK I was thinking.. Found out later from a neighbor the wait to check out was nearly an hour, and I asked him what HE was thinking to go there on black friday.. Apparently he got a cheapshit laptop for under $200.
I wonder what items I've turned OFF that will *magically* get turned back ON by this.... hmmmm, MS?? Sooooo glad I don't use Windows as a daily use system any longer. I "upgraded" the OEM Windows 7 that came with my laptop over to Windows 10, just to get familiar with it, as I'm kinda the neighborhood tech support, and wouldn't want to look all derpy when neighbor with Windows 10 comes knocking on my door for assistance....
When I *do* watch TV, the mute button on my controller gets a Olympic-style workout.. *some* commercials I can tolerate, but others, such as the endless fucking drug commercials with the cutesy-tootsy names, and the fast-talking announcer telling you all the side-effects you can expect, then telling you to "ask *your* doctor if XXXX is right for *you*.... Those get the mute within the first second.. You wonder with all the serious side-effects reported on these stupid drugs why *anybody* in their right mind would take them.... We recently dumped Cox cable for TV, keeping internet with them, as they're the fastest in my area.. If it had been *just& me, I'd have completely dumped tv, but wifey is addicted to her shows, and maked me sign up with Directv, at least saving *some* $$$ over Cox.. Everything I care to watch is streamable...
Not to mention any SERIOUS webhost is NOT going to be running Gnome/KDE/whatever, so the usual "infection vector", namely the browser (FF/Chrome) is not present and therefore is not going to be able to do its dirty work.. Frankly, I can't really imagine *how* this malware would get onto a properly setup Linux-based webhost.. Perhaps I'm missing something, after all I've only been using Linux professionally since 1994 or so...
Thats me too, last time I flew was in Sept 2004. In 2005, I turned down a pretty good job that I'd actually gotten a tentative offer on. The job entailed about 25% travel, and after much thought, I told them, "Thanks but no thanks...". The manager I'd have been working for told me they were having trouble filling the position, as I was the 3rd offer they'd made where the potential employee turned them down because of the travel... Really glad I turned them down as I found a MUCH better job about a month later with ZERO need to interface with the TSA....
Things like FireJail on Linux, and Sandboxie on Windows are pretty handy to prevent browser-introduced crap getting on your system.. I strongly suggest my clients who are still on Windows to buy a copy of Sandboxie and run their browsers in it.. Firejail on Linux runs Firefox (or any other browser) in a nice little jail.. Pretty handy to keep the shit out..
Well, I'm not the OP, but in my case, I run Linux on my laptop, and since I have an SSD, it already boots pretty quickly, IF systemd improves on that, I'm interested.. Since I don't bother to use standby or hibernate, I reboot it a LOT... I'm currently on Ubuntu 14.04, so I only apparently have partial systemd in this version, but I'm under the impression that the next LTS from Ubuntu will have full systemd.. IF systemd improves boot speeds, AND does NOT fuck up everything else, like I hear so many reports about, I'll be a happy camper.. Otherwise, I guess its either going back to my "Linux roots" with Slackware or OpenBSD..... We will see...
Tell me my tinfoil hat is on too tight if you want, but I *strongly* suspect its NOT going to be *too* far in the future when those of us who refuse to use Windows and use Linux instead will be charged with violation of a yet-to-be-passed law, but one that is almost surely to be passed by the authoritarian thugs that currently infest most governments. For all we know, this sneaky Transpacific Partnership abortion thats making its way thru the halls of congress may have the beginnings of such in it, and since we, the unwashed plebes, are not privy to its contents, heaven only knows what is in it. Both the US and UK are diving at a faster and faster rate down towards blatant totalitarianism.. When you look at the many traffic analylsises that have been on Microsoft's latest offering, you start to wonder if they've not gone into partnership with the NSA to fill up that giant datacenter in Utah with everything you do on your Windows machine. This being the main reason I suspect it won't be too long before those of us who don't suck at the MS tit, will be persecuted for using an OS that doesn't feed the MS/NSA behemoth... Before you accuse me of being paranoid, stop and think about what I said.... Glad I'm 65 and not a youngster growing up in this ever-increasing totalitarian world...
The AC has it right.. If they're THAT corrupt to even consider a policy like this, they deserve your continuing disgust, and if you do business with them, to cease doing said business with them....
If one of those suckers happens to hit near LA or NYC, millions of people get to meet their maker.
If one of these suckers hits ANYWHERE on the planet, Millions, if not Billions of people get to meet their maker.... You'd have to evacuate the whole damn planet...
I recall the crap gals named Katrina underwent during/after Hurricane Katrina, since my wife's name is Patricia, I sincerely hope she doesn't get any of the same, being that this is supposedly the most powerful recorded hurricane in history...
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If you stick with the Dell corporate models, ie: Optiplex/Latitude/Precision, there IS no bloatware. Admittedly you do pay a bit more for the corporate models, and you cannot walk into WorstBuy/Costco and buy one, but the quality/warrantee/support on these models are significantly better.. Source: Retired sysadmin, who supported said Dell corporate systems for more than 10 years...
I'm a retired sysadmin, supported Dell products exclusively for the last 10 years before I retired. The advice about Dell is spot-on, but with ONE stipulation.. With Dell, its kind of like there is two separate "Dell" companies.. One that makes the cheap consumer-grade stuff you find at CostCo/BestBuy, with brand names like "Inspiron/XPS/Alienware", then there is the "company" that makes the corporate models, namely Optiplex/Latitude/Precision... The consumer-grade machines come with very short warrantees, offshore/phonetree "support" and they're LOADED with bloatware/crapware.. The corporate models, however, come with 3-year warrantees, US-based support, and a clean copy of the OS, with only necessary drivers loaded.. You do pay a bit more for the corporate models, and they're only available thru the Dell website. Prior to about 2000, I used to build my own systems, but once I learned about the Dell Outlet, with their refurb'ed systems, that come with a significant discount over a build-to-order from the regular Dell website, all of my systems, both workstation and laptops, have come from there... Unless the time needed to build the system is worthless to me, I can't build a system for what I can get a Dell Outlet refurb for... YMMV
Wait till MS gets desparate to get all their little telemetry geegaws on Windows 7 and they resort to making the "updates" show up as "security" rather than "recommended"... The only way you'll be able to avoid them is to completely disable WU.. and THAT is really not a good idea.. The poor folks who are on Windows 10 home are sooooo screwed.... I'm soo glad I dumped the Windows ecosystem when I retired from computer support and moved all my systems to Linux back in 2010...
I supported Dell corporate systems for the last 10 or years of my working career, and recall that you could go out to the Dell website and download service manuals for all of the Dell models we had, namely Optiplexes and Latitudes, I've been out of that world since about 2010, and when I bought my current laptop, a Dell Precision M4400 in 2012, I, naturally went to download the service manual for it, and found there was no such thing anymore.. All there is now is a quick-reference guide for each model... Pretty fucking sorry, Dell... And now I see they're pulling the same shit as Lenovo with the MITM certs... Now all I can say is FUCK YOU TOO, DELL... No more new Dells for me and mine.. Used only..
Not too late to try *him* for treason.. Him and a vast majority of the previous and current administrations should be behind bars for treason.... Just my (and a lot of other Americans) opinion...
Good God! THIS!! Back in July 2013, I took a bad fall, and since I couldn't get back up without excruciating pain in both legs, I got taken by ambulance to the hospital.. The doctor that examined/attended me sent me in for an MRI, but only ordered it from the waist up. Since the pain was in the legs I asked him why he didn't include the legs. He said it was not neccessary. Since I couldn't raise either leg from the knee down, he had it in his mind that I had some kind of neurological problem, thus the upper MRI.. He would not listen to requests by both me and my wife, a recently retired RN with 20+ years experience at that very hospital, to get an orthopedic consult.. Finally my wife went and rattled some cages up in the executive office, and got a orthopedic dr to check me out.. The very first thing he did was get me an MRI of the legs.. Once it came back, he told me I'd managed to blow out the main ligaments in both knees and I needed repair surgury.. We found later that the original doctor was a neurologist, so everything to him was neurologically related... We raised a stink with the hospital and I'd seriously considered filing a complaint with the state medical board on that doctor, but never did, as the hospital cut our copay for this stay in the hospital (nearly a month) in half, according to their risk-management office... Since then I have a bad taste in my mouth about doctors...
I've found that WebMD is a good resource to find out what to "ask your doctor" about.. I judge it FAR more reliable than television ads paid for by "big pharma"....
I'm an unreformed 1960s conservative and I agree... Holy Shit.. A conservative and a "leftie" agreeing on ANYthing? Has hell frozen over??? Listening to some of the side-effects of these drugs, you'd wonder why ANYONE with half a brain would ever take them.. Then of course you have a lawyer commercial next that tells you if you take these drugs and experience any of the side effects, "You may be entitled to substantial compensation"... All you can do is shake your head at the sheer stupidity...
I have seen an ad for a drug on one of the national tv channels then immediately following that commercial was a lawyer commercial, advertising that if you'd taken THE SAME DRUG IN THE PREVIOUS COMMERCIAL and had experienced the listed side effects, you should call "1-800-BADDRUG", and you might be entitled to substantial compensation... All I could do was shake my head at this.. I wonder if the station/network got their asses chewed for that slipup.....
Doctors are human and not all knowing.
Some of them think otherwise.. I had some pain in my knees, went to see the orthopedic doctor that I'd consulted a year or so before with another knee problem. Turns out my doctor had retired, and I was referred to this new doctor. I met with him, we chatted for a bit as I explained where the pain was.. He seemed like a
pretty good "replacement" for my old doctor. He took xrays, and when I came back later to see what the problem was, the first thing out of his mouth was I needed surgery. I told him I'd have to think about it, and get a second opinion... I told him this in a very polite, conversational way, but his whole demenor changed. He got a frown on his face and he told very merudely that perhaps I'd better go see another doctor ANYWAY.. Prior to my saying the "magic words" - second opinion, he'd been this very personable doctor, once I stated that, it all changed.. Needless to say I found another doctor right away.. Most doctors understand that when the word "surgery" is used, its best-practice for the patient to get a second opinion... Apparently NOT with this doctor, and his precious ego... A bit of reading about the problem he found on WebMD showed that the only people who normally had surgery for this problem were young active sports players.. I was, at the time, in my late 50s and played no sports..
NOTHING would make me happier.. I'm wearing out the mute button on my tv clicker, with all of these mindless ads for drugs with clever names, a speed-read of ......
a list of side-effects that would scare any normal person to death (hint: most have the possibilty of death somewhere in the list), and a ending with "Ask YOUR doctor if XXXX is RIGHT for YOU!!!"
Once again Mr Snowden hits the nail on the head.. I just wish there was an ad blocker that worked as well as uBlock for TV and radio, but alas there isn't, so I suffer there...
I made the mistake of going into our local Frys one year on black friday.. I don't know WHAT I was thinking, or if I'd completely lost my mind, but just driving into the parking lot *should* have told me to GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE, with the parking lot full and my having to park waaaay out near the freeway... But nooo, stupid me walks all the way in, under that giant slot machine over the door, and terror immediately sets in. If you've ever been in a Frys, you've seen the 40-50 checkout "stalls" they have, where maybe 1/4 to 1/2 are actually in use.. Well ALL of the checkstands were in use AND the checkout line snaked down the normal line and then into the store proper and looped around the back... I don't remember WHY I went there, but I immediately did an about-face and hightailed it out of there.. Dunno WHAT THE FUCK I was thinking.. Found out later from a neighbor the wait to check out was nearly an hour, and I asked him what HE was thinking to go there on black friday.. Apparently he got a cheapshit laptop for under $200.
Also, just to be clear- "pairing" computer with phone, against my permission, with ultrasonic, is pig disgusting.
Also, just to be clear- "pairing" computer with phone, against my permission, with ultrasonic, is CRIMINAL disgusting. Let's not insult the pigs...
Isn't that actually the "Fail Update"?????
I wonder what items I've turned OFF that will *magically* get turned back ON by this.... hmmmm, MS?? Sooooo glad I don't use Windows as a daily use system any longer. I "upgraded" the OEM Windows 7 that came with my laptop over to Windows 10, just to get familiar with it, as I'm kinda the neighborhood tech support, and wouldn't want to look all derpy when neighbor with Windows 10 comes knocking on my door for assistance....
When I *do* watch TV, the mute button on my controller gets a Olympic-style workout.. *some* commercials I can tolerate, but others, such as the endless fucking drug commercials with the cutesy-tootsy names, and the fast-talking announcer telling you all the side-effects you can expect, then telling you to "ask *your* doctor if XXXX is right for *you*.... Those get the mute within the first second.. You wonder with all the serious side-effects reported on these stupid drugs why *anybody* in their right mind would take them.... We recently dumped Cox cable for TV, keeping internet with them, as they're the fastest in my area.. If it had been *just& me, I'd have completely dumped tv, but wifey is addicted to her shows, and maked me sign up with Directv, at least saving *some* $$$ over Cox.. Everything I care to watch is streamable...
Not to mention any SERIOUS webhost is NOT going to be running Gnome/KDE/whatever, so the usual "infection vector", namely the browser (FF/Chrome) is not present and therefore is not going to be able to do its dirty work.. Frankly, I can't really imagine *how* this malware would get onto a properly setup Linux-based webhost.. Perhaps I'm missing something, after all I've only been using Linux professionally since 1994 or so...
Thats me too, last time I flew was in Sept 2004. In 2005, I turned down a pretty good job that I'd actually gotten a tentative offer on. The job entailed about 25% travel, and after much thought, I told them, "Thanks but no thanks...". The manager I'd have been working for told me they were having trouble filling the position, as I was the 3rd offer they'd made where the potential employee turned them down because of the travel... Really glad I turned them down as I found a MUCH better job about a month later with ZERO need to interface with the TSA....
Things like FireJail on Linux, and Sandboxie on Windows are pretty handy to prevent browser-introduced crap getting on your system.. I strongly suggest my clients who are still on Windows to buy a copy of Sandboxie and run their browsers in it.. Firejail on Linux runs Firefox (or any other browser) in a nice little jail.. Pretty handy to keep the shit out..
Well, I'm not the OP, but in my case, I run Linux on my laptop, and since I have an SSD, it already boots pretty quickly, IF systemd improves on that, I'm interested.. Since I don't bother to use standby or hibernate, I reboot it a LOT... I'm currently on Ubuntu 14.04, so I only apparently have partial systemd in this version, but I'm under the impression that the next LTS from Ubuntu will have full systemd.. IF systemd improves boot speeds, AND does NOT fuck up everything else, like I hear so many reports about, I'll be a happy camper.. Otherwise, I guess its either going back to my "Linux roots" with Slackware or OpenBSD..... We will see...
Tell me my tinfoil hat is on too tight if you want, but I *strongly* suspect its NOT going to be *too* far in the future when those of us who refuse to use Windows and use Linux instead will be charged with violation of a yet-to-be-passed law, but one that is almost surely to be passed by the authoritarian thugs that currently infest most governments. For all we know, this sneaky Transpacific Partnership abortion thats making its way thru the halls of congress may have the beginnings of such in it, and since we, the unwashed plebes, are not privy to its contents, heaven only knows what is in it. Both the US and UK are diving at a faster and faster rate down towards blatant totalitarianism.. When you look at the many traffic analylsises that have been on Microsoft's latest offering, you start to wonder if they've not gone into partnership with the NSA to fill up that giant datacenter in Utah with everything you do on your Windows machine. This being the main reason I suspect it won't be too long before those of us who don't suck at the MS tit, will be persecuted for using an OS that doesn't feed the MS/NSA behemoth... Before you accuse me of being paranoid, stop and think about what I said.... Glad I'm 65 and not a youngster growing up in this ever-increasing totalitarian world...
The AC has it right.. If they're THAT corrupt to even consider a policy like this, they deserve your continuing disgust, and if you do business with them, to cease doing said business with them....
If one of those suckers happens to hit near LA or NYC, millions of people get to meet their maker.
If one of these suckers hits ANYWHERE on the planet, Millions, if not Billions of people get to meet their maker.... You'd have to evacuate the whole damn planet...
I recall the crap gals named Katrina underwent during/after Hurricane Katrina, since my wife's name is Patricia, I sincerely hope she doesn't get any of the same, being that this is supposedly the most powerful recorded hurricane in history...