MacBooks and laptops

The shop called about my laptop and said that the WIN10 update that failed to install is corrupted. I wish I had my wits about me and just let it sit overnight. Sometimes that works... But I panicked. They're going to move everything to a solid state drive with the current WIN10 version. This will retain all of my software and files so I'll be back to normal. This will let me transition at my convenience and give me a backup system, since the hard drive is the most likely component to fail (fingers crossed.)
 
Without fondness, I remember the constant fears whenever it came time to upgrade Windows, as there was always a good chance that the upgrade would fail. With a Mac, upgrades can occur in the background and unless I'm sitting there, I may not even know that it has been upgraded unless I notice that something has changed. Eventually, a Mac will get old enough that a new update is not compatible, and it becomes obsolete, although it still works, but an obsolete Mac is usually a decade old or so, and can still be sold for a few hundred dollars.
 
To me, all personal computers no matter what brand or operating system have become too complicated for the typical person to deal with. Kind of like modern vehicles with all the computerized junk that is always updating or failing at a critical time. At this point in life, I'd almost appreciate a "computer terminal" where all I had to do is input commands and someone else could maintain the mainframe.
 
@Ken Anderson Windows updates have often just spun in a "Waiting" status for a period of time and suddenly installed. It's a real nail-biter.

@Beth Gallagher I've built several desktop computers, but before then (and before Windows) you had to know how to create an AUTOEXEC.bat file and a CONFITG.sys file (on the IBM platform.). Macintosh always had mice and click icons. Then Bill Gates copied them in a sucky kinda way (there were lawsuits.) But the allure of dos/Windows was Microsoft opening it up to 3rd party hardware/software companies (a great sales tactic that contributed to the mess.)

Funny you should mention dumb terminals and mainframes. Businesses are hesitant to migrate to WIN11 for security/spying reasons (and users do stupid stuff on their systems), and it has me wondering if companies might go back to the days of centralized processing and internet exposure, with some form of dumb terminals on users' desks. It would sure simplify maintenance and support...and save $$$$ in licensing fees. Just keep Microsoft away from it.
 
John Brunner said:
@Ken Anderson Windows updates have often just spun in a "Waiting" status for a period of time and suddenly installed. It's a real nail-biter.

@Beth Gallagher I've built several desktop computers, but before then (and before Windows) you had to know how to create an AUTOEXEC.bat file and a CONFITG.sys file (on the IBM platform.). Macintosh always had mice and click icons. Then Bill Gates copied them in a sucky kinda way (there were lawsuits.) But the allure of dos/Windows was Microsoft opening it up to 3rd party hardware/software companies (a great sales tactic that contributed to the mess.)

Funny you should mention dumb terminals and mainframes. Businesses are hesitant to migrate to WIN11 for security/spying reasons (and users do stupid stuff on their systems), and it has me wondering if companies might go back to the days of centralized processing and internet exposure, with some form of dumb terminals on users' desks. It would sure simplify maintenance and support...and save $$$$ in licensing fees. Just keep Microsoft away from it.
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Yeah, I was around in the 1980s when Windows and the stolen GUI interface was a thing. I started out as a mainframe support analyst in the "Big Blue" days of 10 million keypunch cards, impact printers, and miles of tractor-fed printouts. Corporations these days have to have stringent firewalls and security in place because hackers never take a day off, and company employees are the question mark in the equation.

For many years internet access was strictly limited because you could never know when some random employee would be clicking on porn sites or email links and dragging viruses into the system. I had to provide system logs to get a fairly high-level executive fired when his search history included child porn.

Sorry for the off-topic meander. Now back to MacBooks and Laptops...
 
Beth Gallagher said:
Yeah, I was around in the 1980s when Windows and the stolen GUI interface was a thing. I started out as a mainframe support analyst in the "Big Blue" days of 10 million keypunch cards, impact printers, and miles of tractor-fed printouts. Corporations these days have to have stringent firewalls and security in place because hackers never take a day off, and company employees are the question mark in the equation.

For many years internet access was strictly limited because you could never know when some random employee would be clicking on porn sites or email links and dragging viruses into the system. I had to provide system logs to get a fairly high-level executive fired when his search history included child porn.

Sorry for the off-topic meander. Now back to MacBooks and Laptops...
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In a sense this is about laptops at a high level. If Apple is using a phone processor in a laptop, the next logical move is to create peripherals for phones (docking station?) and store everything on the Cloud. And if corporations decide to limit their exposure, Dumb terminals just might return ( emulation software can run on any legacy machine.) We may be migrating away from laptops to some degree, with WIN11's jumping the shark as a cause.
 
I have several laptops and computers running Linux. They are all configured the same with needed software and files, so if one fails I can switch to another in minutes like nothing happened.
 
John Wick said:
I have several laptops and computers running Linux. They are all configured the same with needed software and files, so if one fails I can switch to another in minutes like nothing happened.
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How have you found the reliability to be?
Are there updates put out, or just new versions you have to seek out?
Are their support/user groups?

I'm seriously thinking of going to UBUNTU, but I'm not sure how much time and effort I want to put into it.
 
@John Brunner

Linux brings stability to a level Windows never imagined. Most of the major distros (versions) have updates for 3-5 years. Ubuntu is arguably the most popular and has a huge community with tons of support. All banking institutions, the military, the government, large corporations, internet servers, ect. use Linux.

You can download a Linux distro and make a bootable USB stick trying the live image without making any changes to your current operating system. Another good choice for a new user is Linux Mint. I have been exclusively using Linux for almost 20 years. Many distros today make switching to Linux very low stress and easy. For Windows specific programs there are many Linux alternatives that are similar and just as functional.

To make the transition super easy you could install Linux on one computer or laptop and keep Windows on a second experimenting at your own pace whenever it suits you. Eventually you will feel super confident and comfortable leaving Windows behind forever. Even an older computer that hasn't been used for a while can be resurrected to run Linux responsively.
 
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After crashing a nearly new (at the time) Gateway computer trying to install Linux, I have purchased a few computers with a couple of versions of Linux installed, one of them being Mint. It worked, and still does, and, while I would far prefer Linux to Windows, it didn't offer anything that I didn't already have in a Mac, and there were far more - or more intuitive - third-party stuff available for the Mac, so my Linux machines are something that I boot up every now and then, but don't use regularly.
 
Ken Anderson said:
After crashing a nearly new (at the time) Gateway computer trying to install Linux, I have purchased a few computers with a couple of versions of Linux installed, one of them being Mint. It worked, and still does, and, while I would far prefer Linux to Windows, it didn't offer anything that I didn't already have in a Mac, and there were far more - or more intuitive - third-party stuff available for the Mac, so my Linux machines are something that I boot up every now and then, but don't use regularly.
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When my last laptop died, I went to a repair guy to have my files recovered and he sold me an ancient laptop with UBUNTU on a boot memory stick to have as a backup. I bought it because there are no more Yellow Pages, so you gotta have some way to access the web to find repair services.

This experience has made me realize how stupidly complex (and easily destroyed) things have gotten. I do all my banking and bill pay, my retirement account, a small investment account, my doctor appointments/communication, and a ton of other stuff all on the same at-risk machine. These days I only write 2 checks each year: real estate taxes and personal property taxes. If my county did not charge a fee for credit cards, I wouldn't even be writing those checks. Then there's all the data I keep on spreadsheets and documents...product instructions, appliance/vehicle ID Numbers/serial numbers, place/date of purchase, etc.

It's insane...and a little unsettling.
 
I remember a long time ago I was a big time gamer and my computer was central to my hobby and very important to me.

Now a computer/laptop/tablet/phone is just a simple tool that allows me to browse online and take care of banking and bills. Having more than one device that are all budget class makes them unimportant and disposable.
 
John Wick said:
I remember a long time ago I was a big time gamer and my computer was central to my hobby and very important to me.

Now a computer/laptop/tablet/phone is just a simple tool that allows me to browse online and take care of banking and bills. Having more than one device that are all budget class makes them unimportant and disposable.
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I used to- and to some extent still do- buy the best computer I could afford at the time, because I did things that were made easier by a good quality machine. Now, I no longer run a BBS, and rarely create websites or do SEO for anyone, and I don’t have to depend on a bunch of resource-heavy programs. While Macs are not cheap as compared to Chromebooks or low-end PCs, the cheapest Mac will do everything I need it to do, while PCs running Windows or Linux, although Linux is way better than Windows, frustrate me if I try to use them for work. I can browse websites with them but I can do that, and more, with any of my Mac’s.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
To me, all personal computers no matter what brand or operating system have become too complicated for the typical person to deal with. Kind of like modern vehicles with all the computerized junk that is always updating or failing at a critical time. At this point in life, I'd almost appreciate a "computer terminal" where all I had to do is input commands and someone else could maintain the mainframe.
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What's a mainframe? ;)
I just wait till my computer no longer meshes with my internet service and they force me to get a new one.
 
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