“lots of people are availing themselves of free Windows 10 upgrades rather than buying a new PC.”
Are these people retarded? Why would you want free spyware? I’ve got laptops that are still W7.
At some point the PC is doing all that the user wants so why buy a new one?
I would like a new PC but I do not want Windows 10 on it. I like my PC for lots and lots of things. I do own a Tablet and I like it for passing time but I do work on my PC. I want a screen I can see not some little port in my hand.
“The firm names “weak currencies, depressed commodity prices, political uncertainty, and delayed projects” as the weaker conditions impacting sales. “
Also the bad weather.
The evolution of the Microsoft Windows operating system's feature set is not helping drive sales of PCs, most of which are either used for gaming or work purposes.
We don't want all of our files read, indexed, and uploaded to the Microsoft cloud for mining purposes. We also don't want every keystroke and website we visit uploaded to Microsoft.
You have to block over a dozen ports ON YOUR ROUTER to prevent most data from going to Microsoft from Windows 10 snooping. Microsoft ripped out the ability of Windows Firewall to block these snooping ports, so even if you set them in Windows Firewall to block, Windows ignores the blocks.
Microsoft still gets an unknown amount of snooping done through an encrypted port you have to keep open to Microsoft, though. Plus, you have to accept all upgrades, as upgrades can't be blocked.
Microsoft has screwed the pooch for us and all of our family and friends. On top of that, they screwed the pooch on smartphones, with never allowing upgrades to be backported to earlier OS versions.
We have been watching the self-destruction of an American icon, and I can't be more pleased, any more.
We are going Linux, OpenBSD, and Apple, from now on.
I spent the afternoon trying to set up a new PC and load Office 2016. I couldn’t even load Chrome. The programs appeared, but I couldn’t access them or use them. I even tried again with Window’s Defender turned off. Finally, I got Microsoft on the phone. A woman I could barely understand named, “Bob” told me that the program was set to not allow downloads. She made a few command line edits and loaded Office. I thought she’d turned off the disallow. But, no, I still can’t load Chrome. I’m annoyed.
On my old PC, when Windows updated it deleted a bunch of programs, but I was able to reload them.
I moved to Fedora Linux as my main system.Not perfect, but I was tired of the Microsoft tax.
Or maybe it’s the Obama economy.
W10 ping
Anyone who allows Windows 10 on their PC or uses Google as their search engine cares nothing about their privacy and might as well be donating to the Hillary for President campaign.
When this one croaks, then I'll get another one.
You can have multiple operating systems on a PC. On my Dell laptop I have 4. Windows 10, Ubuntu Linux 16.04, Cub Linux (Chromebook clone) and Android-x86 (Android that runs android apps on my PC laptop). All of the additional operating systems are free.
Add a solid state drive (SSD) to your PC to really increase speed. A 120-gb SSD is about $40. With it my PC boots Windows 10 in 15 seconds and Ubuntu Linux in 15 seconds.
I will say, despite Windows 10 uninstalling and trashing some apps I never used, it has improved some things I like a lot. I have a 34” 21:9 Ultrawide monitor that lets me split the screen into multiple windows—a little like a dual monitor setup. Under Windows 10 I can hover my mouse over any of the windows and scroll up and down without clicking in the window to make it the active window. Outlook 2016 keeps track of files I’ve recently opened, and if I want to attach a file to an email I can pick the file from a drop-down list. Windows 7 & 8 required me to use Windows Explorer through the Attach icon, taking a couple more steps.
If you have an old laptop sitting around, turn it into a Chromebook for free with software from Neverware CloudReady .
I had an old Dell Inspiron 1545 that I had upgraded the hardware on, to a Core Two Duo T9500 with 8gb memory and a 120gb SSD hard drive. It ran Windows 10 okay, but it was still a little slow. I upgraded it to a Chromebook with free software at the link below and I am very pleased. Runs really fast. Soon will also run android apps when Google releases a Chromebook update. CloudReady gets regular free software updates in the background.
Except for the bootup logo (CloudReady), this looks and works exactly like a Chromebook. Cub Linux (use to be called Chromixium) is a close approximation of a Chromebook, but CloudReady is closer.
Installing CloudReady will erase everything on your hard disk. You can install Windows 10 or a Linux distro later for dual boot. I have not installed dual boot on this old machine. But if you are interested in dual boot, Google “CloudReady, Windows 10 or Ubuntu dual boot” for instructions.
This would be a great OS to give to an older relative or a child on a laptop or desktop. It would require almost zero support, unlike Windows or Linux. Also a great use for an older laptop. It is free for individual use and gets regular updates. It’s being used and supported in schools (for a $49 per year fee). But an individuals download and use is free.
You have to create the bootable USB install stick on Windows or a Mac or another Chromebook. This is not a live distribution. It does not run from the USB stick, you must install it on the hard disk. You download the CloudReady .bin/.zip file and use a Chromebook restore utility in Google Chrome to create the USB stick using the .bin/.zip file. It takes about 20 minutes to create the USB stick and another 20 minutes to install after booting the USB stick. You then sign in to the Chromebook using your Gmail / Google login. Basically, think of a Chromebook as Google windows. Chromebooks usually require an internet connection in order to operate as most of its files and software are in the cloud, but you can save work to the Chromebook and work offline, if necessary.
Neverware - CloudReady Chromebook software for USB stick
http://www.neverware.com/#introtext-3
I think something PC like will always have a place but I really see PCs eventually merging with tablets and phones especially as traditional bulky drive technology and other hardware components become obsolete replaced entirely by persistent memory technology. Eventually we will have one and only one computing device that we will use in even more varied ways. I recently tried out Android Auto in a rental and it worked surprisingly well. Instead of having an internal gps it just linked up to my android phone and used my phone to run the google gps app through the cars dash screen. I also had access to my audible books and other apps. It was perfectly integrated and that is really where technology is moving.
We don’t really need dozens of computing devices. We do need various screens so that we can work effectively with our primary computing device. No one is going to edit a word document directly on their smart phone. I personally would love if all I had to do is walk into my den with my phone press a button on the phone and it connect directly with the screen and then have everything I need immediately on the big screen. Sure I can accomplish that now but I’d have to go through a few more steps and buy a specialized monitor with widi support or a specialize receiver for screen mirroring. Eventually though the wireless screen sharing protocols will be integrated into everything. Clothes will have screens that you can interface with your phone, etc.
There will still be a place for persistent pc like devices but they will be very inexpensive and likely support protocols that make them inherently wireless processing extensible. Imagine not just doing a trick like sharing a screen across several phones but actually sharing processing so that the sum total is more powerful than each individual phone. Imagine a thousand people in a room each with a phone being able to connect together to become a virtual supercomputer. Right now the commercial technology isn’t there but some day it will be and with computer becoming exponentially cheaper those selling computing devices of any kind will have to keep pushing things to the next level to justify to the end consumer the need to purchase different variants of computing device when one will usually suffice.
Also Windows 10 is spyware. That certainly does not help!