I was about to throw my Windows 10 laptop into a bag for a trip when I reflected that I hadn’t used the machine for about 10 days. So I fired it up and watched it spend about 2 hours syncing Dropbox (via LAN sync from a desktop machine on the same network; I had a few GB of new photographs and expert witness materials). Twelve hours later I decided to look at “Check for Updates” to make sure that Windows had taken care of itself. In fact there were still about six updates to be downloaded installed and the machine wasn’t scheduled to deal with them until the next morning at 3:00 am. So I told the machine to “install now” and then “restart now”. Part of the sluggishness may be that this 2012 machine has a mechanical hard drive (I wanted to upgrade to a Lenovo X1 Yoga, but they couldn’t ship an OLED version in time for this last summer trip so what is the point?).
I’m wondering if we’re at the end of an era where the Internet isn’t fast or ubiquitous enough to do everything in the cloud but we aren’t tied to our continuously connected desktops. Thus we become sysadmin slaves to our laptops (unless the laptop is our primary computer).
Related:
- My 2005 plea for turning the mobile phone into the desktop computer via a dock (the iPhone was introduced two years later, in 2007, so if this were actually a good idea one would think that it would have been done at some point in the last 8 years)
“the laptop is our primary computer”
The typical desktop these days is a laptop connected to a docking station. This allows portability, a desktop keyboard, and multiple monitors without any synchronization or cloud services.
I’ve come to the end of the era of updating my windows machine.
Dropbox and git and even onedrive are how I maintain sync and that’s pretty quick.
Keeping the browsers updated and running a virus scan once a week has kept me safe from all but 3 or 4 viruses for decades now.
My important stuff is backed up separately and in multiple places, so I’m okay with the notion of losing a cloud sync’d machine to a crypto virus, or even losing a cloud sync’d machine when the AIs run amuck in the server rooms.
I’ve never met a windows machine that was kept updated on windows fixes
that didn’t run slower than a bus during the morning commute and yet I’ve also never identified a windows bug fix or security fix that I just had to have.
I wonder why when I read this entry and related responses (and recalling my brief Lenovo) experience why you don’t just pay the Apple tax? While of course imperfect, we seldom have virus’s/malware or the frequent massive update issues that plague windows.
It is now possible to get Linux pre-installed on reasonably specced machines: see http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/06/the-xps-13-de-dell-continues-to-build-a-reliable-linux-lineage/ or https://puri.sm .
Modern software is more focused on raising valuations for the startups which create it rather than doing anything useful for us, hence the amount of babysitting. The babysitting is our creation of value for them.
Every time I read a lament like Phil’s (and there are plenty of such floating around, all Windows), I keep thinking of the once-promise of “the computers” – they were supposed to free us from drudgery of daily (office) life, the endless generation of, and shifting/ collating/ archiving of paper sheets, etc. Instead, they’ve become the centers of our attention, which makes us the slaves to technology. As far as I can see, the only HW/OS combo that attempts to lessen that human load is Apple, esp. the iOS.
@ LeftAComment mentions some mythical Apple Tax. Given Apple’s build quality and by and large record of dependence, it doesn’t seem overpriced, at least when compared with non-Apple products built with similar quality targets in mind, e.g. the latest Purism laptab [no typo – we need a new term for a tablet with a detachable keyboard, one that can also act as a laptop. So I made up this neologism, ALL MINE!!!!]
https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/20/purism-builds-a-secure-tablet-with-physical-wi-fi-and-camera-switches/
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/librem-11-a-2-in-1-to-protect-your-digital-life/
> As far as I can see, the only HW/OS combo that attempts to lessen that human load is Apple, esp. the iOS.
I prefer Linux but run it under a VM on windows, or on various cloud servers but I have numerous non-technical friends who pay the Apple tax and have no ends of trouble with their Macs often calling on me to bail them out.
When I do that, I take along my Windows laptop and with access to google and knowledge of how a real *nix system works, I can figure out what Apple didn’t tell them, or what they failed to understand, or what they failed to take care of.
Regarding “laptabs” — I do like the tablet/detached keyboard form factor for several reasons. I have been very pleasantly surprised with the Surface Pro which apart from its weight and its squished screen is pretty much what I want a travel laptop to be. And used at around $250 can’t be beat.
What works frustratingly well (because it has some big holes in it that keep it from being a real contender) are a Nexus 10 which along with a BT keyboard and mouse and Termux and JuiceSSH can run a great deal of typical *nix applications.
The worst is if you fire up a machine that has not been used for an extended period (say a year). Windows may attempt to install hundreds of updates and it usually chokes on them if there are too many to install.
Surprised not to see mention of Chromebooks. My brother-in-law and I both brought them along on a trip. They were great for uploading photos (unplug SD card from camera, plug into slot for him but into a USB-SD card adapter for me) over WiFi. One of the big traditions I’ve had on trips was trying to duplicate and isolate photos so if one bag was lost or stolen I wouldn’t lose all my photos.
Now I just have to go through photos.google.com and pick out the best ones.
If my Chromebook had broken or been stolen I would have been tempted to buy one in Italy. Never would have done that with various Windows or Mac laptops over the years.
Jim, perhaps I’m ill-informed, but aren’t Chromebooks entirely dependent on cloud services? If so, they’re basically dead weight when on the road off the beaten track. Nothing against clouds per se, but there are far more interesting places on Earth with none-to-patchy & slow Internet, than such with high-bandwidth speedy one.
I would have more faith in the Macintosh as a zero sysadmin device if not for having watched so many people struggle with and complain about sysadmin on Macs…
The Chromebook would be deadweight here in Paris. We are at the Cler Hotel, freshly renovated and about $250/night. Measured upload bandwidth when hotel is empty is 0.3 Mbits/sec. I.e., less than one percent of the speed of a good U.S. home connection. A Verizon iPhone cannot connect to any 4G networks so tethering is out of the question.
Escaping to Starbucks is not an option, either. Here in Paris they throttle to 0.5 Mbits up. The French are apparently consumers, not creators, in the Digital Age, and anyone with a cloud-dependent device will be similarly constrained.
Phil, you can try the café next to Kilometer Zero, the Shakespeare and Company bookstore at Rue de Bûcherie 37, opposite the Notre Dame (cross the Seine), also premier spot for picking up wannabe intellectual hunks and/or babes in Paris… they assured me last time that they would be upgrading to an industrial strength router. Catch the Poetry Reading tonight at 19:00, but get there early, or you might be left holding the deadweight laptop outside ;-))
@ James elsewhere: this sufficiently dense and autistic for you rhetorical q.
Incidentally, a RFC (C=clarification) for when you get back to greener bandwidth pastures (e.g. in harbour aboard the RC cruise liner): what is there to administer in Macintosh OSX desktop/ laptop that makes your “many people” struggle and complain? From my own limited experience of such, their biggest obstacle is absence of the second, RH mouse button, and similar. But shouldn’t you be above that?
Relating back to your 2005 post, Microsoft has this “Continuum” feature in Windows 10 Mobile (or whatever they call it this month). Their flagship phone, the Lumia 950, was introduced last winter, it seems like it might actually have the power to function as a decent desktop system.
Of course, since then they have put their entire mobile strategy on hold, seems unlikely they will try to compete in that sector (2% market share?).