Same here

We have 6 Lenovo Windows 7 laptops that shipped with Win8 recovery DVDs that remain unused.

Cost about £20 more than a win8 version.

We also have 9 unused licenses as part of our MS partner sub.

Only one license is actually in use.

As for tablets and phones, no windows here.

What nobody has mentioned here is that less and less people need a PC at all.

It isn't just Tablets eating the PC's Lunch, it's smart devices, TVs, Bluray players, even Android media streamers.

I can web surf, email, FB(if I actually wanted to) or watch HD video on an Android TV stick, dual core A9 processor, Mali GPU, 1GB of ram and about the same size as a disposable cigarette lighter.

Or I can do so on my Bluray player, or my Tablet, or my TV, or if I want to wait for it to boot up and watch the lights flicker from the power draw, on my PC.

android

Recently been experimenting with Android as a desktop.

Don't laugh, but it works better than TIFKAM.

Running on a 1.7Ghz dual core arm processor with 1gb memory, 40gb storage (expandable) HDMI> 1080p monitor, powered from the usb port on a TV. Watching iPlayer now, comes with an office suite.

Cost me less than £50

kiosk mode

Can see a lot of applications for this, a cheap touch screen device with wifi that can be placed anywhere. just lock it down,, install software, add a card reader and you have ePOS

who makes it

Yorkshire tea served medium strong, milk no sugar, in bed on Sunday morning.

But, and this is the important part-made by somebody else.

signatures

Our engineers use android phones to clear breakdown calls, and finding a stylus that allows a customer to sign on a touch screen is quite difficult. most of them are not easy to use.

Grocer's

I wonder if a scan would show up the thinking that causes a grocer's apostrophe to appear in a headline

win8 launch encouraging win7 purchases

"But in a bizarre turn, IDC figures showed a 7 per cent spike in the commercial PC segment"

Hardly bizarre, businesses are upgrading to win7 PCs to avoid win8.

My local supplier is offering win8 PCs cheaper than the same machine with win7

To be honest, I think it stinks.

BUT....(and here is the punchline) only because TIFKAM can't be deselected at will for those who it doesn't work for.

The underlying OS is a definite improvement on 7. Even for many office users, who only use one or two applications, it will not be a big problem.

The patches that restore the start menu are a nono for many business users, simply because of their narrow support window.

I personally use over a hundred applications on my work laptop. I support 6 different MFD manufacturers, all of their software, and cutomers that use them, and use loads of different applications, from Office to Photoshop to Equitrac.

I have to run 6 VMs just for the cost recovery server tools.

For me, it is great big fail.

Facebook by another name...

Personally, I tried Linked-in and realised that it is just Facebook for fat old business types.

And frauds

I looked up an old colleague, and apparently he's been "headhunted" for every job he has held in the last 20 years.

Yeah right, I know that it actually went like this:

1.Left in a huff because he went after a team leader position and didn't get it.

2.Left before the area manager could sack him

3.Was made redundant when they closed his division

4.Jumped ship before the downsizing got him

He has also claimed to be in roles he never held (luckily, the firms in question no longer exist as such, so no one can check).

Mind you, he was always a Bull**** merchant.

Scuse me, but

I am I the only one who noticed that the green and blue lines in the first graph are almost mirroring each other (not identical, but quite closely).

Which sort of defeats the main argument.

It would seem that if Wages rise, profits drop, and vice versa.

Mine's the one with a brown envelope sticking out of the pocket.

Not all are acceptable

Maybe I use mine for too long. I checked on a website up a while ago, and all the old phones I have are not considered suitable for recycling.

He has made some good points.

Let's face it, TIFKAM is a mess.

Besides the lack of consistency and usability on a desktop, Live tiles just create a screen full of noise, and they are being sued by another company who couldn't sell them either.

How many people actually used Active desktop? Desktop gadgets? Personalised menus? all basically "new ideas" that ended up as annoyances.

The thing is, you could turn them off or choose not to use them. Not so TIFKAM or the Ribbon (yeuck).

How much of the eye-candy survives, and how much is actually of any use?

Sinofsky's gone, 8 is tanking, MS have gone very quiet while they try to recover something from the wreckage.

We always downgrade to vanilla 7 anyway.

Removing the HP crapware is so time-consuming and causes all sorts of stability issues, so we always wipe them and install vanilla 7 anyway.

There are all sorts of rubbish on them from Mcrappy encryption to Notone AV, to all sorts of hp branded nuisances.

None of them serve any valid purpose on a business machine.

More than likely a corporate pause

Like those editions that MS would like you to forget:

ME, Vista, 8

Most large companies will skip 8 altogether.

I think MS know that already.

Been here, refused to buy the tshirt

Remember Active desktop? and the 2 people you know who used it for more than a week?

And Aero... which is apparently "really Cheesy" now?

"a bit rubbish " is a stunning understatement.....

Unity is Ok with me

I quite like Unity, been using it for a while now.

Compared to say Win8, it is quite a nice easy to use interface.

It is especially good for newbies and non technical users.

Mind you, since I bought a tablet, I mainly use my desktop for writing and image manipulation, so I'm in Android more than any other OS these days..

Where's the godwin's law factor?

You're all nazis

Just more unecessary junk packaging

Of course this will use up more limited resources and increase pollution levels in landfill, but obviously that's worth it to preserve the lives of illiterates with no sense of smell.

I notice that 3D is not mentioned ... at last.

I'm sure I had my specs in this coat.....

Maybe 8 is just a ploy to clear out the XP holdouts.

Sysadmin "Will you look at this!" (shows IT manager win8.... short pause as it sinks in)

IT manager "Right, we'd better get all the XP machines moved to 7, buy some extra licenses just in case, then dig in until windows 9".

Expect an upswing in win7 licensing around September.....

Fees clawback?

I don't suppose they will be recovering the fees from this a**hole will they?

Another Vista

Yes, if properly patched and with suitable hardware Vista is OK. Thing is that 7 works better, on a wider variety of hardware, and requires less resources than Vista.

Many corporates skipped Vista, in fact, I rarely see it. Most of my customers are still on XP, and they will be skipping Vista for 7.

Most of those who actually installed Vista were less tech-savvy, or had no choice at the time.

Out of a couple of thousand businesses, I have only seen one total Vista rollout. In fact I have seen more all-Mac rollouts than all-Vista.

Most are now running a mixture of 2003, 2008, XP and 7.

Some I have talked to (including my own company) are planning to update to 7 in the next few months just so that they can avoid 8.

8 isn't actually that bad for those among us who use 3 or 4 programs. For techs like me who have to install and use over a hundred, it is just rubbish. Which is a shame, because underneath the metro interface, it is a nice fast OS.

cowardly?

Incidentally , for those who are going on about sacking someone via email being cowardly, apparently lots of *ssh*les these days dump their p[partner by text message.

Fired myself

In my last job, I had to compile the figures proving that my team leader post was no longer required.

As I was looking forward to my redundancy payment and I already had another job lined up, I was well motivated, but it did feel a little weird.