[dba-Tech] So long, Norman

On 2012-06-04 1:49 PM, Jim Lawrence wrote:
> Let's be honest, without mincing words; the hardware you are talking about
> was a cheap unpowered piece of junk. It was physically falling apart and was
> suffering from a dozen pieces of game software... Nothing frys a system like
> high resource demanding game software on flaky low-end hardware.
>
> My personal experiences have been quite different. I bought a good solid
> laptop, not cheap but definitely not over priced. That laptop is six years
> old and it has virtual every communications, web-design and software
> building product, graphic design and manipulation software, database and
> testing software running on it. It has been dragged to every office, in a
> dozen towns, that I have worked in and it has been used to setup servers,
> stations, router, switches, burn software, connect remote techs, testing
> software, storing data and manage documents. I work on this computer 8 to 12
> hours a day, almost every day. It is a little unpowered for the new age as
> it is Tosiba Satellite, only has a dual core, has two GB of RAM and 120 GB
> HD.
>
> It runs like it always has; solid as a rock.

My experience is very like that. A 2GB XP SP2 laptop with 160GB HD has 
run abourt 12h/day in lots of locations for about six years with only 
one persistent problem, and  that's due to a Dell design flaw, not to 
Windows.

Dodgy hardware will often look like Windows instability. Of three 
desktops, two were made from kits, routinely crash, and need a lot of 
TLC. The one made by HP, no more expensive than the others, is steady as 
a rock.

PB

-----

>
> When it comes to Windows computers you are a really a terrible tech and I
> think it is more willful than by accident. ;-)
>
> Jim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Hans-Christian
> Andersen
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2012 9:02 AM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] So long, Norman
>
>
> John,
>
> These are mostly just observations of other people lately and my experience
> supporting it at my company. I haven't been a Windows user since 2005 or so,
> but it was also the reason I left Windows back then.
>
> I'm not sure it is specific to gaming. As a recent example, my wife's Win7
> laptop had very few games installed (its graphics card was the Intel GMA
> sort, not powerful enough to run most games) and really only just a handful
> of additional applications. She mostly used it for surfing, but its now
> un-usable. No blue screening, just lots of pausing, freezing and general
> slowness to the point of frustration for her, but there is nothing obviously
> wrong with it.
>
> This is probably the 4th reinstall of Windows on that laptop (HP) in the
> last 4 or so years, but she's got a new laptop now, so I may just throw
> Linux onto this machine to extend its life.
>
> I'm not saying that every Windows machine will eventually be completely
> crippled, but I always known them to develop quirks over time and become a
> less stable system overall (not stability in terms of blue screening, but in
> the sense that it is not behaving as expected ie. applications not starting,
> freezing or crashing), often for no identifiable reason.
>
> If this hasn't been an issue for you, then you are obviously doing something
> right, but it's not clear to me what is being done wrong in the cases I have
> witnessed/experienced.
>
> Hans
>
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