These are work machines. I don't install crap on them. The older machines have of course been formatted and returned to a replacement pool, and later scrapped.
Defragmentation i did, until the W500 that is. That one has an SSD:)
Can't say i ever had to do that with recent versions of Windows.
May 2005, ThinkPad R52 with Windows XP December 2006, Upgraded ThinkPad R52 to Windows Vista March 2007, Replaced ThinkPad R52 with T60 running Windows Vista December 2009, Replaced ThinkPad T52 with W500 running Windows Vista Juli 2009, Upgraded W500 to Windows 7
Sales and Marketing people have always been people incapable of coherent thought or doing honest work. They'll do whatever they can to get more money. The only thing worse than them are Executives.
But that's just how the world works, there's no use in lamenting this. It's certainly interesting to see this, but there's no need to act like this was some big surprise. Every company acts like this. A society composed of only honest people doing honest work probably wouldn't work - nobody has tried yet, though.
The world is a bad and cruel place. Everyone needs to learn that at some point.
The law and police protect civilization as a whole, not the individual. As such, as an individual, injustice may be done to without anything happening.
I'm sorry, but i still don't think school is about learning how the technical details of a computer works. In higher education, yes, certainly. But school is about teaching the very basics, and most schools i've known aren't exactly swimming in cash - hiring enough personnel that can maintain a completely heterogenous network is going to be quite expensive.
Standardizing the environment in a school on a single platform will make deployment, hardware procurement and maintenance cheaper and simpler, this way the school will need less budget and less personnel.
And the basics of using the Internet, safe browsing habits can be done on Linux, Mac or Windows. Usually, the school's administration is already using Windows, making it the logical choice in order to streamline procurement and deployment.
The argument from the freetards runs probably in the direction that you need to be current on software assurance to go from XP to 7, but going from Debian 2.x to Debian 3.x is free.
I'll agree with that in principle, but most people are so completely uninterested in anything that has to do with technology that this approach is hopeless.
Wrong. Children learn to work on the platform that's mostly used in Businesses today, giving them the necessary skills to obtain a job.
Invading privacy - WGA
Wrong. WGA does not "inspect" the users hard drive, it checks the Windows license. It's mostly used to combat fraud done by computer vendors which sell illicit copies for money. Users at home will purchase Windows with their PC and use OEM Activation, which does not need any user interaction. Enthuasiasts upgrading their PC will need to enter a key, but Activation is also quick and painless.
Microsoft dictates requirements to hardware vendors, who will not offer PCs without Windows installed on them
Not true. Microsoft requires vendors to only sell computers with an operating system to qualify for a discount. You can purchase laptops with Ubuntu from Dell, you can purchase ThinkPads running FreeDOS or SLED.
Vendors may also opt to purchase OSB copies at standard pricing, which has zero restrictions.
Microsoft regularly attempts to force updates on its users, by removing support for older versions of Windows and Office
Support for old software is discontinued everytime, by every vendor. Every Linux vendor and even free distributions like Ubuntu have a support lifecycle.
Microsoft has attempted to block free standardization of document formats
Well, i'll give them this point. But Microsoft has added support for ODF in Office 2007 SP2, however it was the ODF guys who weren't even able to spec out something basic as formulas in a spreadsheet specification.
Enforcing Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)
If you purchase DRMd content, you know exactly what you're in for. Windows just supports it. It's like a car that can lock the rear doors to children can't open the doors while on the road. Yes, some people may use that feature to kidnap someone, but that doesn't mean that locking rear doors is bad.
Threatening user security
This was true until Windows XP SP2, but Microsoft has really improved security since then.
All in all, it's a bunch of stupid FUD by hippies that eat their gunk from their toes.
Usually, here in Switzerland, when you change jobs you have 2-6 months of "Kündigungsfrist" (the equivalent to "notice" in the US). It is extremely unusual for an employee not to work during this time, as they will still get their regular pay. In some cases (e.G. executives in very large companies), they may still get paid but don't have to show up for work anymore ("freigestellt").
(Of course it's also possible to fire someone immediately - for example, if he stole from the company, though this also happens extremely rarely)
You're wrong. The Custom option can preserve your hard disks content, and you can transfer all your user settings using USMT (Corporate) or Windows Easy Transfer (Home User).
Slashdot Mirror
These are work machines. I don't install crap on them. The older machines have of course been formatted and returned to a replacement pool, and later scrapped.
Defragmentation i did, until the W500 that is. That one has an SSD :)
Yep, but BestBuys salesdroids are not aimed at people building hackintoshes.
Can't say i ever had to do that with recent versions of Windows.
May 2005, ThinkPad R52 with Windows XP
December 2006, Upgraded ThinkPad R52 to Windows Vista
March 2007, Replaced ThinkPad R52 with T60 running Windows Vista
December 2009, Replaced ThinkPad T52 with W500 running Windows Vista
Juli 2009, Upgraded W500 to Windows 7
Err, selling Windows Netbooks over Linux Netbooks makes perfect sense for them. They're more expensive and thus have higher margins.
Attending marketing seminars for free stuff? I don't think so :)
Sales and Marketing people have always been people incapable of coherent thought or doing honest work. They'll do whatever they can to get more money. The only thing worse than them are Executives.
But that's just how the world works, there's no use in lamenting this. It's certainly interesting to see this, but there's no need to act like this was some big surprise. Every company acts like this. A society composed of only honest people doing honest work probably wouldn't work - nobody has tried yet, though.
There are not OS X Netbooks yet, though.
In 2015 i want my Mr. Fusion and flying Hovercars, not SVG.
Average consumers don't do backups. Ever. Of anything.
You're on slashdot and can quote correctly - you're not an average consumer.
Amazon and Google are both IT companies at the core.
Facebook, well, too, to some extent.
However, most IT deployments are not in IT centric companies. They don't build their own software, like Amazon, Google and Facebook do.
I've seen this many times in German.
You usually don't put the cars that are for sale through crashtests. Just the same model. I know i'm nitpicking here, but it's still kinda important ;)
The world is a bad and cruel place. Everyone needs to learn that at some point.
The law and police protect civilization as a whole, not the individual. As such, as an individual, injustice may be done to without anything happening.
It's just how the world works.
What about when you know exactly what the problem is, how to solve it, but you're just to damn undisciplined to actually solve it?
I'm sorry, but i still don't think school is about learning how the technical details of a computer works. In higher education, yes, certainly. But school is about teaching the very basics, and most schools i've known aren't exactly swimming in cash - hiring enough personnel that can maintain a completely heterogenous network is going to be quite expensive.
Standardizing the environment in a school on a single platform will make deployment, hardware procurement and maintenance cheaper and simpler, this way the school will need less budget and less personnel.
And the basics of using the Internet, safe browsing habits can be done on Linux, Mac or Windows. Usually, the school's administration is already using Windows, making it the logical choice in order to streamline procurement and deployment.
Well, i don't know what kind of computer education you had in school.
But what we did is learn the very, very basics. Hands-Free typing, creating a document, etc.
In higher education, sure, multiple operating systems might make sense, but school is about the very basics.
I sure didn't learn how a pen was produced or how it works, we just had to use it.
Then they don't get the discount. They can still buy regular system builder licenses and sell these!
The argument from the freetards runs probably in the direction that you need to be current on software assurance to go from XP to 7, but going from Debian 2.x to Debian 3.x is free.
I'll agree with that in principle, but most people are so completely uninterested in anything that has to do with technology that this approach is hopeless.
Wrong. Children learn to work on the platform that's mostly used in Businesses today, giving them the necessary skills to obtain a job.
Wrong. WGA does not "inspect" the users hard drive, it checks the Windows license. It's mostly used to combat fraud done by computer vendors which sell illicit copies for money. Users at home will purchase Windows with their PC and use OEM Activation, which does not need any user interaction. Enthuasiasts upgrading their PC will need to enter a key, but Activation is also quick and painless.
Not true. Microsoft requires vendors to only sell computers with an operating system to qualify for a discount. You can purchase laptops with Ubuntu from Dell, you can purchase ThinkPads running FreeDOS or SLED.
Vendors may also opt to purchase OSB copies at standard pricing, which has zero restrictions.
Support for old software is discontinued everytime, by every vendor. Every Linux vendor and even free distributions like Ubuntu have a support lifecycle.
Well, i'll give them this point. But Microsoft has added support for ODF in Office 2007 SP2, however it was the ODF guys who weren't even able to spec out something basic as formulas in a spreadsheet specification.
If you purchase DRMd content, you know exactly what you're in for. Windows just supports it. It's like a car that can lock the rear doors to children can't open the doors while on the road. Yes, some people may use that feature to kidnap someone, but that doesn't mean that locking rear doors is bad.
This was true until Windows XP SP2, but Microsoft has really improved security since then.
All in all, it's a bunch of stupid FUD by hippies that eat their gunk from their toes.
This stuff is certainly strange in the US.
Usually, here in Switzerland, when you change jobs you have 2-6 months of "Kündigungsfrist" (the equivalent to "notice" in the US). It is extremely unusual for an employee not to work during this time, as they will still get their regular pay. In some cases (e.G. executives in very large companies), they may still get paid but don't have to show up for work anymore ("freigestellt").
(Of course it's also possible to fire someone immediately - for example, if he stole from the company, though this also happens extremely rarely)
Forcing people to ingest something or shooting them up on anything is already illegal.
That's cheap. Here, we pay roughly 45$ per box.
You're wrong. The Custom option can preserve your hard disks content, and you can transfer all your user settings using USMT (Corporate) or Windows Easy Transfer (Home User).
RSAT Tools were out on Friday. What kind of techie are you if you're unable to find them?