1. My PC had been bombarding me with messages for several weeks, starting with "Upgrade to Windows 11 - it's really great!" which I ignored. The messages got progressively more threatening until they ended up with something like "If you don't upgrade then we shut down your PC", so against my better judgment, I caved in yesterday.
The inevitable result was that it took me over half an hour to turn it on this morning, and another quarter of an hour to open, update and save a simple spreadsheet and then send one email. Why do they bother? It was working fine.
2. Last year, I bemoaned the dearth of USB ports on modern PCs.
I had a good clean of my desk yesterday, including removing everything from on and under the desk, scrubbing everything down and plugging it all back in with less cable tangle. Oops! There on the back of the monitor (it's a Lenovo all-in-one job) are another three USB ports for my permanent stuff (keyboard, mouse, external hard drive), leaving me with two at the side for occasional stuff (CD writer, USB stick, charge cables for iPod and phone).
3. When we were kids, our Dad taught us the rudiments of typing on a proper old fashioned typewriter. We bashed away happily for a bit and then asked how you do capital letters. Our Dad explained you press down the shift key, and illustrated by pressing down the left hand shift key. So for the whole of my life I used the left hand shift key and never realised the right hand one existed.
My daughter asked me recently why I never use the other one and told me where it was. Well bugger me! There it is, right in front of me, twice as large as the left hand one with the same upwards arrow on it. How did I never notice?
I still can't bring myself to use it though. I always keep my left hand little finger resting on the left hand one, and it requires a conscious effort to use the other one, i.e. if I need to type a capital P or 'close parantheses' single handed.
Deiying
1 hour ago
8 comments:
Win 11 hasn't made any difference to the speed of my laptop, but as far as usability goes Win 7 was good enough for me.
AKH, I'm sure it was. We've all used Windows for years in whatever version was pre-installed on the PC or laptop and it just is what it is. Has anybody in the world ever thought "I can't wait until the next upgrade?"
Beats me why anyone ever bothers with Windows in this day and age - unless you have some piece of Windows only software that you absolutely HAVE to use (and there are usually workarounds for that scenario.... see below).
If you really (really?) need a 'fat' client why not 'upgrade' to Linux instead? Runs faster on older hardware, is free (as in beer), has lots of app choice and has a UX closer to MacOS.... if you like that sort of thing.
OTOH, if you mostly just browse the net, or use web based apps, then ChromeOS from Google is way, way better - hell you can run a full blown version of AutoCad in a browser, or Office 365, or Adobe creative stuff if that is yer thing, so any objections to this route from a software perspective are pretty much a thing of the past.
A colleague runs a Chromebook for heavy duty software development using Microsoft Visual Studio Code with all the bells 'n' whistles and would never go back to Windows as an OS.
Yes, yes the next objection is usually 'but I don't have a Chromebook, and I don't want to pay for more hardware' - well, you can even run it on old PCs/Laptops via Neverware Cloudready (which is part owned by Google) for free.
"If you don't upgrade then we shut down your PC",
Which is part of the reason why I migrated to Linux back in the last century and have never looked back. Plus all the software is free and rarely crashes.
S, I can't help feeling that Google is Microsoft-in-waiting.
@B
Not wrong about big G.
But if all you do is browse the web with the occasional use of an 'app' then why bother with Windows - ChromeOS is 'mother-in-law' proof and it all comes back to the same thing for consumer, and increasingly business, tech... commit to a platform from a big vendor which suits you. In today's world that isn't necessarily Windows.
I installed my first 'distro' in '98 and loved the knob-twiddling possibilities Linux offered (stop sniggering at the back!). I even have a copy of the first edition of Linux Answers magazine from back then - the forerunner of Linux Answers. I swapped to Linux on the desktop exclusively in 2002 when freed from 'corporate' constraints although the family kit is very much MacOS focused because my kids and the fragrant Mrs Shiney insist despite my frequent protestations.
Becuase its my money, my business has run Linux at the server level since we started out in 2003 - back then we ran Red Hat 8 until we switched over to Debian based operating systems, now on Ubuntu 18.04 in the 'cloud'.... no on-prem 'tin' for us, oh no.
And we wrote our own ERP/Accounting system which is Open Source so giving stuff back as well. You can get in on GitHub if that is your thing.
TTFN
PS - I've always liked your Dilbert avatar.
I have Linux and Windows PCs.
For Windows I think the killer program is ICE I am not sure if the same looks in Linux
(I haven't checked recently though).
For panoramas it is great.
About upgrades I agree 100%
Forced full system upgrades(malware essentially) are usually for essential security updates. Windows was never really designed that well and could not forecast the 'trusted' future of IT. Maybe this a good thing and will bring forward the advent of Web 3.0 where trust is no longer required and corrupted/monopolised.
On the Shift key, think about it like Location Value Covenants which you have never seen.
Why is no one talking Linux here(pronounced 'linnux' with emphasis on the double nn, as its inventor likes to be called: Linus/'Linnus')
I guess slave compliance is something to do with it.
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