Work from home might change the mix a bit. Not sure if most people working from home use their personal equipment or employer provided.
Windows 11
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Windows 10 is essentially software as a service, it's just there's no cost associated with it. You know, the whole thing with two big updates a year, those are semi annual service channel feature updates. Each semi annual release is supported for 18 months and then you are forced into the next newest version. For example, with the release of 21H1 last month, 1909 went end of service and users who didn't upgrade were pushed to 2004.
if you want long life and stability, businesses should use LTSC. Windows 10 1809 Enterprise LTSC (the newest version available) is supported until January 2029. I wish I had looked more into LTSC (or LTSB as it was called), big mistake on my part.
Besides email, with OWA, I don't allow users to use personal devices to access company data. When people ask me I give a firm NO to installing the VPN software on personal devices. I don't want them accessing SMB file shares on personal computers. Plus HR talked to me about this in regards to hourly employees having access to work off hours and then claim they were working. For those that know what they're doing, they could find the VPN client software online and through the guess and check method eventually connect. VPN logon credentials are tied to our Active Directory and I have the password policy set for expiration = 90 days. If someone managed to connect to the VPN and was working from home long term on a non domain joined device, their AD password would eventually expire and they would have no way to reset it without coming on site or asking me to reset it for them.
I sort of break my own rules. I have the VPN software installed on my personal computers, but don't really need it when at home since I have a G2G tunnel set up. But I don't access any internal network resources directly from my personal computers. I RDP into my work computer then proceed to access file shares, or our ERP and CRM systems.
Where these new machines or refurbs/NOS?
The other way you get screwed (not that you should) is if you bought consumer machines for business use.
You don't think there's going to come a time when demands are going to be more than those older machines can provide?? I mean, it's imminent. And that time is now. Before the desktop I built two years ago, my last build was my DD for 8 years. I thought it was fine - until I built the NEW desktop and realized how far behind I had been lagging. AS fast as technology advances, you should be happy you got everything you did out of those older computers but understand that they just can't last forever
I agree, mostly. It really depends on how you use your computer though. I built a computer for my brother based on a Intel® Core™ i5-520M Processor from old parts I had laying around. That chipset is 11 years old. It only has 8gb RAM and a nice 500gb SSD. I set it up as a dual boot Linux/Win 10 machine but he spends most of his time on the Linux partition. His needs are minimal. Mainly IMAP email (Thunderbird), WEB browsing (Firefox), viewing his PDF magazine subscription and an occasional spreadsheet (LibreOffice.) Older computers still have a purpose before sending them to the e-waste pile. I get that gamers and power users need newer technology every few years. But there is a large population of people that have very basic needs.
Ha! I'm still nursing my Digital W95 computer.
No, it's not good for much any more.Ha! I'm still nursing my Digital W95 computer.
What is it good for now (10 yrs ago?)?
That should be up to the end user to decide based on usage.
The old desktop was used by my non techy wife for email, web browsing, word processing, etc. For the past handful of years, the most resource intense thing the computer ran was Chrome, since Googles baked in spyware turned that browser into a hog. Since we’re removing Google from our lives, it has gotten better. There is nothing wrong with the computer. It was only replaced because she wanted a laptop, so I got her one of Christmas, but due to component shortages and extended lead times, it didn’t arrive until May.
The old laptop was replaced because the POS AMD video drivers would cause three or four of the Adobe CC applications to crash. I’m no media editing guru, but I’ve been slowly teaching myself Photoshop, Premier and Audition. The limited things I do in these applications are not that CPU/GPU intense. I had VMWare Workstation Pro installed on the laptop and had no problem playing in my virtual playground. I was running AD DS on a Windows Server 2016 in a VM on a nearly 10 year old laptop that other physical computers were authenticating to. Other than running hot at times, I had no problem with that laptop.
I am now doing more with Adobe CC. This 8 year old thing isn’t hampering my experience. Last year, a buddy of mine from work who is a Mechanical Engineer came over and we installed PTC Creo and SolidWorks 2019 and everything he is able to do on the two year old computer at work, he was able to do on my computer. 3D rendering was not nearly as quick and smooth. My GeForce 770 isn’t quite the Quadro P4000, but for $500 I could get a P4000 and keep the rest of the computer.
I grew up around a generation that expected things to last and didn’t treat everyday objects as commodity items. I have a 40+ year old refrigerator in my basement that was my grandfathers that I got when he passed away in the late 90s. Getting only 10 years out of a computer just seems wrong.
That's a valid question. I buy computers to satisfy a need. That W95 computer was purchased when I realized I could process my sister's music in the digital domain, obviating the need for expensive studio recording equipment. I used a CD burner to both read her CDs into that computer, and also make new ones for her. When MP3's were invented, I used it to convert wav files to mp3 and I made a website for her. To do that, I bought a 3D lettering and animation package, and also image processing software which could create animated GIFs. If you know of a good way to move applications from one version of Windows to another, I'm all ears.
All that was working and working well on W95 in... Ah... 128MB? It was amazing what you could do with such a weak computer back then. Oh, and I also tried to play back DVD movies. But alas, it was just too feeble minded and needed a hardware accelerator to play back a DVD with a software-only player such as XingDVD. Remember that? It was cracked by that guy who figured out DVD encryption so that he could play back his DVDs on his Linux computer.
That was my primary computer until my daughter was born and I needed a faster computer to process the videos I made using a JVC Everio (digital media) camcorder. So I bought a Compaq Presario that came with WindowsXP. Then Microsoft raised my ire again with an O/S so full of vulnerabilities, it forced updates on me for 4 hours straight before I could tell it to stop! I blew away WXP and put W2K on it. Then MS jettisoned W2K completely so I bought an upgrade to W7. That too worked well until all the new applications came out with SSE2 instructions and I was stuck. To get applications I needed, such as H&R Block Tax Software, which doesn't really need SSE2 instructions at all, I had to take over my daughter's hand-me-down, which I am typing on right now. Core 2 Duo still running W7.
IMHO that's the last good MS O/S worth buying. It even came with Media Center built-in. You should see what I accomplished with that and a tuner card. I also controlled my 722 with it, and recorded off my Hava Platinum (like a Slingbox only better). I can't do that any more with my H3. Well, if I can, I don't know how. No, I do not want to use my smartphone to control my receiver.
Since Windows 95 keeps coming up, who remembers the Weezer music video that was included on the install disk?
Not Windows 95, but at work we have a Windows 98 computer that is used on a regular basis. It's connected to a coordinate measuring machine via some proprietary cable that connected to a proprietary card. The software reads the coordinates, and plots them into an Excel 97 workbook. The thing cost $20 or 30K when it was brand new 20+ years ago, it would cost that to replace it today. It serves its purpose and there's no reason to replace it. Older hardware has value, especially when it comes to legacy hardware in industry. RS232 and PS2 keyboards/mice are big where I work.
My Start Menu looks exactly like it did on Windows 95, hopefully 11 doesn't break Open Shell.
My Start Menu looks exactly like it did on Windows 95, hopefully 11 doesn't break Open Shell.
Surprised no one mentioned the “Feature” in Windows 7 that prevented it from being installed on newer Intel CPUs because Microsoft wouldn’t release the HAL to allow it to run. That screwed us over on a project where the Vendor’s software ran on Win 7 (they hadn’t moved on to Win 10 at the time) and we ended up with a bunch of custom-ordered Dell PCs that we had to find other uses for because they couldn’t run Windows 7. And, the project leader had to scramble to locate these special-order PCs with the previous Generation of Intel CPUs.
We haven’t been able to pay for new PCs to migrate away from Win 7 and now here’s Win 11. I guess it’s good that we didn’t end up paying for new PCs twice…
We haven’t been able to pay for new PCs to migrate away from Win 7 and now here’s Win 11. I guess it’s good that we didn’t end up paying for new PCs twice…
I grew up in that same generation. Heck, my mom got a Sunbeam Toaster for a wedding gift - in 1953. Still had it and used it when she went into Assisted Living in 2014. I grew up with that toaster and look, Demon - you are in a smaller segment of computer users who know how to keep your machines updated, maintained and as relevant as possible. I do the same but there comes a point where technology is going to pull away. The reality is that most people are just consumers and live in a disposable world. When's the last time you saw a Zippo Lighter. I still have the one my dad gave me and U sed it every day til I quit smoking almost 3 years ago.
I have an old Acer mini laptop that came with Windows 7 on it. Even with Win 7 it was slow so I ended up formatting the C: Drive and installing Ubuntu (Slow), Mint (Slow), Peppermint (Slow) and finally Manjaro (I also have a Dual-Boot with Manjaro on my Desktop) and it's like a brand New Laptop that I use almost daily.
We could sit down over a glass of good Bourbon and talk about how we buck the technology system until we're blue in the face but at some point, that cordless phone with the Antenna you pulled out became a relic. Standard Transmissions in a family car became a memory
