Re: Selective deafness
Thinkpad X1 Carbon, Dell XPS
15 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2012
If you are comparing bargain-basement consumer-grade crap to Apple then yes I agree with you on the build quality issues. Comparing it to a business-class laptop and that's a different story. Dell latitude and Lenovo Thinkpads are so popular with businesses because they are built really well and don't cost the earth.
As for Windows 10 data slurping you can for the most part disable this, and the bit that is left isn't much to worry about. I'd be more concerned with your choice of browser and your surfing habits!
Couldn't agree more. All the glossy reviewers seem to miss the point this is a 3k+ laptop being touted as a mobile workstation yet it has no ports and will be a pig to maintain if anything breaks. Where's the onsite warranty option Apple? I get this might not be a free option like it is with some vendors, but at least allow me to buy this rather than having to go see a 'Genius'.
Apple need a separate 'Pro' division to the one that makes all the itoys. Most people who buy a computer (laptop or desktop) for work don't care so much about looks. Functionality, performance and reliability are much more important. If Apple would have made a pig-ugly laptop, but one with loads of useful I/O, user upgradeable RAM and storage, and pro maintenance I would buy one. Instead I'll be getting a Thinkpad.
This is pretty dumb. Huawei and other Chinese manufacturers have both the resources and a massive local market to release their own OS, and they have never been too shy with just copying stuff either. They will just replace Android with their own OS. They might not be able to sell these in the US, but there is this thing called 'the rest of the world', and that's a fairly big market. Not to mention the US will have absolutely no control over this at all.
All this nonsense has started because the keyboard is just too thin. It's an absolute pile of shite to type on, but why cares if it looks cool eh? I waited for a replacemnt for my 2012 rMBP and when the replacement was announced I just bought a ThinkPad. Limited to 16GB RAM, only 3 useable ports (need one for the charger) a dreadful keyboard and that crappy touch bar, the current MBP would cost me around £4k. Plus another £200+ in dongles! No thanks Apple.
Thankfully Lenovo have stopped trying to be Apple, at least with their ThinkPads anyway. I wish more manufacturers would do this - realise the strengths in their own products and build on that. This would be even better if Lenovo to moved away from the chicklet style keyboards and back to the ones they had in the 90's. Yes they were chunky, but they were a joy to type on.
You see coampared to some of the numpties I've worked with, who are supposed to know what they are doing and are very quick to point out how good they are in meetings, I'd quite happily take a gig training a load of OAP's how to use the internet. I think it would be a breath of fresh air compared to a corporate gig. Yes it would be frustrating at times, but to see the look of joy on someones face when they discover something or finally are able to do something right, not to mention the banter that old people seem to have between themselves, would be much more satisfying than watching you boss get brownie points for your hard work.
The biggest issue for me with the iPhone is that I could go from an iPhone 6 to an iPhone 8 and not really be able to tell the difference, but it would cost me the best part of £1k to do so. There is no sense of occasion when you get a new iPhone, after half an hour you forget you bought the new one, and only when you go to plug in your headphones do you remember.
And then there's the price. You really want the iPhone X, but it's going to cost a small fortune and is not really worth more than £500.
I've been involved in Windows, storage, etc for many, many years now, but of late have been getting more involved in AWS, Linux and agile workloads. If the NHS can embrace these concepts and move to an open source platform it would be of huge benefit. There are plenty of Linux skills around and there's simply no need to have ancient PC's running Windows XP. Yes some applications will need to be migrated/redeveloped, but gone are the days where an application should be tied to an operating system.
As for proprietary hardware, which there will be loads of in the NHS, suppliers will simply have to decide whether or not they want their contracts renewed. Once the messages gets through that Linux will be the new platform they will all follow suit or be replaced by competitors who will. And where there are no competitors, yes some money will need to be spent.
I'm not underestimating the size of the task here, or trivialising how important application availability is, but this culture of pockets of IT that exist within our public services, not just the NHS, has to change. Nor am I underestimating the costs - it will be damn expensive to make the move - but the long-term benefits will be worth it.
While both Apple and Microsoft are ignoring portions of their user base they are going in opposite directions. It appears MS only want the corporate world now ($400 for WHS replacement, are they smoking crack?), while Apple have no interest in this after ditching the X Server platform and having a very strong focus on consumer products.
How long do we think that it will be before they will do a u-turn out of necessity?