My first bleeding edge computer

Those M1's are impressive machines! I've been an IT (network and systems engineer) guy since 2004 so, like most car mechanics, just have old computer systems in the house...my laptop is 12-years old and Windows is doing nothing but updates so I recently scrubbed the hard drive and loaded the Ubuntu O/S...now it screams!!! Should've removed Windows years ago...never having it on another laptop again. My house computer is even older with Windows Vista but that's only used as controller for the scanner/printer and modem. My iPhone X Max is just fine!!

 

2 > 1

I’ve got the MI beat



I have old proprietary stuff I still fire up and do work on that in some cases is 40 years old.

also like vintage equipment for games, etc

 

I just picked up a used HP laptop from eBay very cheap (less than $150). It is HP EliteBook Folio 9480m which is at least 6 years old, I believe. It is the same model as the one issued by my work for working from home. For my work, this workplace-issued HP laptop with 2.0GHz i5-4310u 8GB 128 Ssd Win10 is fine. But for security reasons, I have no administrator privileges, so I can't even install an app or change the system setting without asking IT. The one I picked up is the same model but better spec with a higher CPU and larger HD and more RAM (500GB, Intel Core i7 4th Gen., 2.1GHz, 16GB). I intend to wipe the Win 10 OS system and install the LTS Ubuntu on it to use as a personal desktop. If everything works as I expect, then I should be able to use the same docking station connected with triple 24" monitors and external drives, and other peripherals. I have an identical docking station plus triple 24" monitors, MS Sculpt ergonomic keyboard, and Kensington ergonomic trackball set up at my work desk. Taking the laptop and connecting to the docking station is all I need to do to recreate the same workstation environment at home and office. Now, with an extra laptop for my personal use, switching from a work desktop to a personal desktop should be as easy as swapping the laptops onto the docking station.

 

Yeah, it ought to be for the price you pay for it. I can never justify paying the price they charge on a new laptop no matter how good and how fast it is, especially because I know that it is too going to be obsolete in a few years. There will be always faster and better newer machines in the future. A $150 obsolete used PC has enough life left in it for me to use it for the purpose I need it for. I don't use it for gaming or video editing. For mostly media content consumption, web browsing, and light creation, I don't need a screaming fast CPU. Just like I never need a Ferrari for running to a grocery store... not that I can afford a Ferrari anyway. LOL

 

Yeah, but they sure are FUN!!!


(Flame throwers too, probably!)

 

My wife and I both have Lenovo Thinkpad laptops running Windows 10. They are I5 with SSD and MS Office. They work well enough for us. When Windows 10 first came out they announced that it would be their last operating system. It seems that Microsoft has changed course since they are now offering Windows 11. These two Thinkpads have been trouble free until our last features update. After that update the computers rebooted and all I had was a task bar at the bottom of a black screen. The Start button and the taskbar icons didn't do anything.

I have 256 gb SD cards that I leave plugged into the SD slots in our Thinkpads. I save a copy of the last backups on. It allows me to keep the last backup with the computer. I had to boot to that SD card and restore the computer to my last backup in order to recover from that update glitch. After the restore, Windows reinstalled that last update again and everything seemed fine but we were informed that our laptops lack certain security features and they don't meet the minimum standards to qualify for Windows 11.

When they drop support for Windows 10 we will probably just migrate these computers to Linux Mint. I have Mint on a seldom used old laptop in the garage. I run Linux there because I occasionally need to find a Youtube video for help on some car repair that I am working on. When that old laptop had Windows on it, when I first turned it on, most of the bandwidth was taken up for ten minutes while it caught up on a month's worth of updates before it was useful to me. With Mint I just turn it on and it is ready to go.

 

I have been using Zorin for some years, but I’m thinking about trying Mint myself.
They’ve been far and away the MOST popular distro for a while now, and they seem not to have bloated out the way Zorin has.

Unless your company forces you to, there is simply no reason to use a windows box these days unless, like me, you use XP in “airplane mode” when dealing with older software or peripherals requiring a serial port.
There are, literally, dozens of abandoned 15-year-old computers scattered around the offices in my turf.

Every now and then I will dual-boot one with an older Zorin distro and stick XP on it for just these situations.

 

Yeah…one of the few disappointments with the MBA was the camera - but we’re not anything CLOSE to power users and the 720p video camera is….good ‘nuff.
And…..Let’s face it, for 800 bones (base model M1 factory refurbed) it’s a stinking GREAT ‘puter….puny SDD, no ports, wimpy camera an all.