The power socket for my laptop has really truly finally died this time, and after a new power cord, a new keyboard, sugru to hold the disintegrating case and power socket together, I think the dratted thing is finally on the way out this time. Who knew a Vaio would be so fragile? Although I think it's lasted me since 2011, so I suppose that by modern standards its lifetime was not excessively short.
Laptop purchasing is a horrid nightmarish confusopoly, even choosing with the help of Pp who builds his own machines. In the end, I have ordered an Asus N550JK. It will come with Windows 8*, oh no, and it will no doubt take three days to ensure it is all set up as I want it. Drattitude.
* Before anyone pops up to say 'why not another OS'...- I'm sticking with Windows. I fully expect Windows 8 to be baffling and horrible, but any OS I don't know is bound to be baffling and horrible, and this way at least I should be able to keep most of the software I know how to use. Just the idea of going through it all to find out if it will all run on anything else fills me with dread, let alone the idea of having to find non-Windows alternatives and learn their quirks. I like learning, but not that kind!
Don't get me wrong, I love Linux as a server OS, everything I build is hosted on Linux and I turn away any work that requires a Windows server. But for a desktop machine, I want my oooooold familiar horrible applications that have calcified habitually around me like a shell over the years. I did briefly consider going cloud-based with a Chromebook, but I have enough hassle with Google randomly changing their mind about their web interfaces all the time, I would like to keep some control!
Laptop purchasing is a horrid nightmarish confusopoly, even choosing with the help of Pp who builds his own machines. In the end, I have ordered an Asus N550JK. It will come with Windows 8*, oh no, and it will no doubt take three days to ensure it is all set up as I want it. Drattitude.
* Before anyone pops up to say 'why not another OS'...- I'm sticking with Windows. I fully expect Windows 8 to be baffling and horrible, but any OS I don't know is bound to be baffling and horrible, and this way at least I should be able to keep most of the software I know how to use. Just the idea of going through it all to find out if it will all run on anything else fills me with dread, let alone the idea of having to find non-Windows alternatives and learn their quirks. I like learning, but not that kind!
Don't get me wrong, I love Linux as a server OS, everything I build is hosted on Linux and I turn away any work that requires a Windows server. But for a desktop machine, I want my oooooold familiar horrible applications that have calcified habitually around me like a shell over the years. I did briefly consider going cloud-based with a Chromebook, but I have enough hassle with Google randomly changing their mind about their web interfaces all the time, I would like to keep some control!
Comments
I had a wonderful Samsung netbook, but bought another Samsung to replace it and it was the worst computer I have ever owned (yes, worse than my Amstad 1512, which I loved.) It gave up the ghost after less than two years...
Admittedly, most of the things that have gone wrong with it have been fixable, but I have NEVER had a laptop where I've had to take the damn thing to pieces so many times. I eventually got to the point where I left half the screws out, because I was constantly having to open it up to fix things and it has way more screws than it needs to keep things in place.
I'm too fond of Windows 7 to upgrade to Windows 10 until I have to. But I am getting very, very annoyed that each time I customise the taskbar not to show either the notification or the icon, each morning the icon comes back in place. Way to annoy me, Microsoft.
Windows 8.1 is actually a lot better than Windows 8 and, if my experience is anything to go by, Windows will keep pestering you until you upgrade. It's a bit daunting because it mentions complete backups and hours, but in the end it doesn't take too long.
8.1 still has the silly Metro thing but you can set it to boot straight into the Desktop. It has a rudimentary Start Menu, but I just pin all the applications to the taskbar. You can run XP-based applications on it, but you need to select the right compatibility mode or they tend to crash.
That sounds hopeful about 8.1, thanks for the tips! I had assumed I wouldn't need to know 8 at all and could breeze from 7 to 10, so I really have no idea about it.
I've just bought the ASUS Eeebook, the X205TA (I loved the original ASUS netbooks, and was very happy when ASUS went back into the category), but have not done anything with it because my internet and landline went down that day and stayed down for ten days. I will do set-up tonight. Luckily my house-guest is a 20-year old with a diploma in robotics and mechatronics, and some knowledge of various programming languages, so I shall press her into service as necessary.
I always thought netbooks were a good idea, but I tend to want to do everything on the same device, and some of the things I do I need more processor power for, so working on a minidevice never quite happened. I do have a phone which in theory I should be able to work on, it's quite a powerful little computer, but in practice I never do, and the poor thing has been relegated to being a small camera that occasionally takes phonecalls or is required to display a recipe when I'm cooking.
I think the problem these days is that you have a spectrum of devices available from basic phone through smartphone, tablet, netbook, laptop, to desktop, with each of them available in various sizes and strengths. The only sensible thing to do is to pick some convenient points and ignore the ones in between.
So at the moment I have a basic (not smart) phone (with a week of battery!) for keeping in touch, a desktop for day to day purposes, and a netbook for travelling, whereas LoA goes for intermediate steps: a smartphone and a laptop (as well as the desktop for writing on and killing me with).
My phone contract is up for renewal and it seems sensible on one level to go for a smartphone, but that's a move up the spectrum: I'd lose the battery life and portability of my existing phone, but the gains in terms of web access aren't great as my netbook covers off most of that. Maybe I should have both phones and just swap SIMs about so I can pick and choose :-)
What I really want is a coherent modular suite, where say a very basic phone connects to a laptop to make it a 4G device, and the laptop docks with a proper monitor and keyboard to make a desktop. Shouldn't be hard to do technically, but I bet it'd be expensive :-)
Thinking about it, this is probably an evolution of the way that I didn't like leaving books in a locker at school, so would carry a huge bag full of books from lesson to lesson. Consistency above all!
At the moment I am on one of Pp's desktop machines. It isn't set up right, nothing is in the right place and it makes me snarl. :-/
I don't like the idea of a phone that can do stuff, because it's one more thing to keep track of.
I have moved over to using OneDrive to keep documents synched across the desktop and netbook, and accessible from other PCs too. But it's not very reliable :-(
I think the problem these days is that you have a spectrum of devices available from basic phone through smartphone, tablet, netbook, laptop, to desktop, with each of them available in various sizes and strengths. The only sensible thing to do is to pick some convenient points and ignore the ones in between.
So at the moment I have a basic (not smart) phone (with a week of battery!) for keeping in touch, a desktop for day to day purposes, and a netbook for travelling, whereas LoA goes for intermediate steps: a smartphone and a laptop (as well as the desktop for writing on and killing me with).
My phone contract is up for renewal and it seems sensible on one level to go for a smartphone, but that's a move up the spectrum: I'd lose the battery life and portability of my existing phone, but the gains in terms of web access aren't great as my netbook covers off most of that. Maybe I should have both phones and just swap SIMs about so I can pick and choose :-)
What I really want is a coherent modular suite, where say a very basic phone connects to a laptop to make it a 4G device, and the laptop docks with a proper monitor and keyboard to make a desktop. Shouldn't be hard to do technically, but I bet it'd be expensive :-)