$14bn tax hit, Surface Pro screens keep dying, but it's not all good news at Microsoft

The Register ^ | 2/1/18 | Shaun Nichols

[LouieFisk]

The lesson: Never pay more than a couple hundred bucks for a PC. Avoid toys like the plague.

[Pearls Before Swine]

“Fondleslabs.” From the first line of the article.

I’ll have to remember that one!

[Noumenon]

Refurbs. Best way to go for common workstations.

[Dr. Sivana]

The lesson: Never pay more than a couple hundred bucks for a PC.

If you need features or power, you certainly have to spend more than a couple of hundred dollars. Business class desktops/workstations often come with substantial warranties, and my seven year old Acer Veriton i5 is still chugging fine. I spent more than "a couple of hundred dollars" on it. Heck, I spent that on the 1TB SSD upgrade!

My lesson is tat Microsoft never was a very good hardware company, unless you count mice and keyboards. In the past, when they came out with add-on cards and what not, it never worked out well.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

Glad I didn’t get the Surface Pro 4.
My Surface Pro 3 is still going strong.

[LouieFisk]

“If you need features or power, you certainly have to spend more than a couple of hundred dollars.”
—
Specifically, what are talking about re:features, power?

[LouieFisk]

“Refurbs. Best way to go for common workstations.”
—
And for home & general use PCs. Yup.

[ImaGraftedBranch]

My surface pro 3 is the best. Glad i did not upgrade yet.

[Riflema]

So, at 21% tax rate, this means they repatriated approx USD 66.66B. Nice. Keep the winning coming!

[steveyp]

2y Surf Pro 4 owner. Was also a Windows Phone Owner. Twice.

Surf Pro 4 developed the flicker. I put up with it for 4 months.

Traded it in and bought a MacBook Air. I have finally succumbed to Apple, but Microsoft’s total disregard for the screen flicker issue totally angered me.

I hated Mac. I bought a Mac Mini for my wife in 2011. I bought it so I could tell her, no I can’t help with your computer problems because I don’t understand Macs. I put a solid state hard drive in that thing and it is still performing awesomely. In 2018. A computer I bought in 2011. I bought my wife a MacBook Pro. She’s never asked me for help to solve a problem. Never.

I’m sold. I’m beaten. I have the Air and a IPhone SE (newer one). Like the form factor at 4”, it has the 6 guts. Performs great. Integrates with my stuff.

F Microsoft. I run 365 on the Mac, and that’s all I wanted.

[minnesota_bound]

The company I am at bought Surface Pros for the managers and above. The #1 call is the wireless not working.
The other is how to plug a network cable in as Microsoft did not include a normal port for one so you have to lug around a ‘dongle’ “Where is my dongle!”

Other issues are the docking station not working causing the Surface Pro to freeze or not boot up. Take the Surface Pro out of the docking station and it works. Of course the wireless doesn’t but hey most of it is working...... and it only cost a fortune to buy and cannot be repaired as it is glued together.

[Gene Eric]

Ditto

[Swordmaker]

Pingelations running up and down my leg for this one . . , ;^)

[Dr. Sivana]

specifically, what are talking about re:features, power?

In my case, it is running numerous functions on three related databases, one of which has two million records and over 1,000 fields. Exporting subsets to a spreadsheet as it is can take two hours. It would take all day on a couple of hundred dollar machine, and would likely crash it. Three D modeling, 3D printing, certain kinds of animation, high res rendering that requires mumtiple screens ... all call for more than a bare bones unit. And then there’s the bitcoin miners...

[dayglored]

The Register tears into Microsoft's Surface Pro ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

Thanks to Swordmaker for the ping!!

[dayglored]

> “Fondleslabs.” From the first line of the article. I’ll have to remember that one!

The Register has some great terms: boffins (technical professionals), punters (average users), TITSUP (Total Inability To Supply Useful Performance), fondleslab, many others...

[BBB333]

The Mac Mini is a real gem and WAAAAAY overlooked by most folks.
Your 2011 is an excellent machine.

I have one with a 1TB SSD and a 1.5TB spinner that I use for work and music and video. It runs all year and when we want to see one of our 500+ movies we just find it on our iPad and press play via the magic of Apple TV. Much easier than searching for a blu-ray and searching through menus.

I use Parallels and run Windows 7 inside my Mac Mini.

The wife has a new MBP running Windows 8.1 via Parallels.

Happy Freedom Day!

[cartan]

Even my old Surface 2 is still working just fine. It even gets updates. No flickering screen, either…

[zeugma]

The Register has some great terms: boffins (technical professionals), punters (average users), TITSUP (Total Inability To Supply Useful Performance), fondleslab, many others...

The first two are long-term Britishisms. Have seen TITSUP on both sides of the pond in various iterations. Fondleslabs though, is a new one on me. Absolutely love it. I suppose they apply it to any tablet.