Shaping your next desktop upgrade
Big bang or baby steps
Video What's the next desktop upgrade going to be? A hardware refresh? A new version of Microsoft Office? Windows 7? Or an upgrade to all three at once?
Is this mega-grade-upgrade a triple threat to the mental health of your users, or a once-in-a-decade opportunity to sort out their desktops for the better?
Andrew Buss of Freeform Dynamics and Intel's Rob Sheppard think the three-in-one approach is potentially a good idea - and that a hardware-plus-Windows refresh might sort out some of the laptop performance problems that have made the working lives of some Reg readers an encrypted, batteryless hell.
In this video, the two of them, plus our regular host with the most, Tim Phillips, discuss these challenges and share some of the insights on how to tackle them received from our beloved Reg readers. You can watch it for free right here ®.
COMMENTS
Windows is Dead
The best upgrade on can do is away from Microsoft products entirely and into the open office / Linux environment. For year we have paid a premium for Microsoft products only to require constant retraining, endure their lack of internal quality control and the almost deliberate back doors for virus writers that all Microsoft products seem to embrace. Have you ever noticed how all MS products run slower over time almost forcing the migration to a newer OS/Office... etc? So skip the white papers from some MS certified hack and investigate the stable, refined and mature world of computing that Red Hat and Unbuntu provide. You may also find that simply upgrading to an open source OS actually out performs the latest MS bloatware running on a machine with twice the horsepower - I tried it and it does!
Linux
I too remember that glorious moment when I first tried Linux. I popped a pristine Fedora live/install cd into my laptop and pushed the power button. The machine flared to life and shortly displayed a cute and friendly penguin. Below that were the iconic words, "Kernel Panic."
It was all downhill after that. BTW, the penguin in the icon seems to be missing his horns.
Next upgrade?
I'm planning my next upgrade to Linux Mint 10 when it comes out. Don't need Vista 7, MS Office, or new hardware.
Yeah
Amen to that brother, though you might have mentioned more than Red Hat and Ubuntu. There are lots of distros to suit all levels of experience like PCLinuxOS or openSUSE, and because most are available at no cost you are able to try them until you find one that suits you. Who knows you might decide that Linux from Scratch or Arch is just what you need! Take a look at distrowatch.com to see what there is.
