Windows 10 slow?

[Benm]

It's true that it will not activate automatically if you change the motherboard, but this doesn't mean you cannot get a free activation. You will have to go through MS support to get this done, but afaik it's not really hard. If you explain you switched motherboards because the old one was defective it should be no problem.

Obviously it's plausible you got a newer motherboard since the old one isn't manufactured any longer or something like that.

If you keep it all a bit credible they'll probably just give you free activation since investigating the matter is too much work. You could probably use this to 'cheat' and transfer a license onto a new system.

These things do not matter to MS: The number of people that build systems from components have dropped to a very low percentage by now. Desktop systems are a minority already and the vast majority of them are purchased new in a box including the OEM license.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Yes, Windows 10 subscriptions are coming, at least for enterprise | PCWorld

So there it is. What a surprise right?

 

[Benm]

Not a big surprise indeed. I wonder how it will pan out for home users though, i doubt they will go the same route with those. As it is most licenses are OEM ones that come and die with a device. Depending on how long your hardware lasts this may equate to something around $1 a month on average*, paid upon purchase of your new laptop.

* considering a laptop will function as a primary system for 2 years or so, for life after that as a media server or something you could keep windows but just as easily use a free OS for the same functionality.

 

[trencheel303]

my last laptop lasted me five years, is still pretty much fully functional, and if my £700 MacBook Air doesn't last me at least as long again I'll not be impressed. Are my expectations too high? I'm an IT guy too, so I know how to eke out performance and when to go easy on a machine ie due to its age... my old laptop used to overheat if I held it in a different position ..i just didn't hold it in that position anymore

 

[Benm]

It depends on what you mean by 'lasts'. It's possible the battery capacity will be reduced to an unusable level in 5 years time but the rest of the unit will be fine. Since apple deciced to go as far as glueing down batteries that may be a problematic fix.

That said the usual warrantees on laptops are 24 months so they should work for at least that long, although this often excludes worn batteries. Practically they can last far longer, but that depends on use. If you had a laptop that you used on mains power all of the time you might not even notice that the battery life was reduced by 90% over the years.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

With decent care, computers tend to last until they are obsolete in my experience. My 2011 laptop is still just fine, except of course for the batteries which if I had to guess I'd say are at about 30% of the original capacity. More than enough for a 1 hour meetings, but not much more.

 

[trencheel303]

The one in mine died about 6 months ago quite quickly. It had been fine and had most of is three hour capacity, and in the space of about a month it went from that to dead. I think the fact that for years at a time it was mostly used off the power outlet caused that. Its funny, now I have the macbook air I can't imagine having only a few hours on the battery, when five or so years ago it was about as much as youd get.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Mine are pretty much always hooked up to an outlet too. As of late I don't use them at all. Desktop at work, pc's hooked up to tv's at home. Dedicated desktop at home too, and tablet for short emails/facebook.

Galaxy Tab S2, 9.7" actually does reasonably well as a laptop replacement, with the addition of bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Given that I don't travel all that much, I'm actually not sure if I will ever buy another laptop again.

Hoping microsoft releases new versions for the surface pro line, so I can pick up a current version for a bit less, the 256gb, 8gb ram, i5 version would more than meet my needs. Samsung could have had a winner on their hands with the tabproS, but the processor is crappy, there is not enough ram, or expandable storage.

 

[trencheel303]

^regarding your middle paragraph, I had thought that, when I bought my iPad mini. But I slowly realised I just seem to like laptops. Although I'm not as much of a power user as I use to be (I hardly even play games on a computer anymore) I still dumped a pretty penny on the MBA because I like the convenience of full keyboard and good battery, and a mouse cursor.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Bluetooth mouse works just fine. Any bluetooth keyboard, including a full size one will pair with it, but I like the idea of a nice neat all in one package. It's not that I don't like laptops, it's more that aside from 2-3 trips a year I never actually use them, and when I do, it's mostly for menial stuff like email anyway.

 

[trencheel303]

You need to jailbreak an iPad to get a cursor, and possibly to use a mouse at all. Having said that, mine is jailbroken, and I still could never see me using it as a faux-laptop. Are Android devices more accommodating of peripherals out of the box?

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

I had no issues at all linking to bluetooth mouse, keyboard, and connecting a flashdrive via usb female to micro usb male adapter. I haven't tried connecting a larger expandable drive, but doubt it would be a problem.

Main issue for me is I work mostly through rdp, and it automatically adjusts to the native resolution of the display, which makes the text somewhat too small to read comfortably. For work on the device itself though, it's fine, and came with excel, word, and powerpoint apps included/free from samsung. The microsoft rdp app also works well.

 

[Benm]

You need to jailbreak an iPad to get a cursor, and possibly to use a mouse at all. Having said that, mine is jailbroken, and I still could never see me using it as a faux-laptop. Are Android devices more accommodating of peripherals out of the box?

Some are. On android tablets you can often just connect a mouse through a usb otg connector and a mouse cursor will magically appear. I've used this on things like the nexus 7, required no rooting or installing of an app as far as i remember. Not sure what happens if you connect a keyboard.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Android supports mouse and keyboard by default, but it's not an idea experience... Android on the desktop: Not really ?good,? but better than you?d think | Ars Technica