Mac OS... No Thanks!

[Burgerman]

Theres hundreds. Look at the dell 13 inch with infinity edge, so a 11 inch laptop with a 13 inch screen...
Its also the thinest lightest and most capable laptop there is. Makes the apple offering look crap.


Just looked. https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops ... 370-laptop
discontinued... So you will need to look a little further and see what replaced it.

I just did. https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops ... 390-laptop

The best most powerful, slimest, fastest and best featured laptop on the market. Not cheap. https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops ... 390-laptop I have the all cabon fibre chassis, business lattitude version. Its 4k screen, and uses gorilla glass etc too. Tiny, but big screen. And so light it blows away.

[Scooterman]

Thank you for suggestions BM, I think I will go with windows. Otherwise I'm going to have to partition the HDD and run boot camp again on a Mac. And when using windows on a mac some of the keys no longer do what the key symbol says. And the touch pad and pointer/cursor don't interact well, it's has phantom movement and doesn't always let go of the item you're dragging and dropping.

I used to have a 15" dell xps, it was a nice laptop with windows 7. And it had a really good warranty with it, in the that the guy would come round your house and fix it for free under the warranty. Back in them days I was a bit slap dash and split several drinks on the keyboard/touchpad. But nowadays I'm more careful and use an insulated travel mug with a drinking cut-out in the lid.

But I thought DELL went bust? They obviously haven't, but I thought their gold-plated warranty was the reason they went bust?

[Burgerman]

I dont normally do ANY extended waranties. But I always do a 5 year one on dells laptops. Because all laptops screw up if you use the as heavily as I do... And dell fix it, next day, at your house. Its invaluable.

No dell didnt go bust?

[Irving]

Theres hundreds. Look at the dell 13 inch with infinity edge, so a 11 inch laptop with a 13 inch screen...
Its also the thinest lightest and most capable laptop there is. Makes the apple offering look crap.


Just looked. https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops ... 370-laptop
discontinued... So you will need to look a little further and see what replaced it.

I just did. https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops ... 390-laptop

The best most powerful, slimest, fastest and best featured laptop on the market. Not cheap. https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops ... 390-laptop I have the all cabon fibre chassis, business lattitude version. Its 4k screen, and uses gorilla glass etc too. Tiny, but big screen. And so light it blows away.

I'll second that. I have the earlier 'discontinued' XPS13, bought 2y ago, and it's probably the best laptop I've ever owned. Light enough to pick up one handed even with my crap hands (it's in a purpose designed case) and the 4k screen is just stunning. And, as BM says, it's small for the screen size, a good inch smaller than my wife's 13" Lenovo.

[LROBBINS]

My wife has a consumer-level 15" Dell, her choice, and it's a decent machine except for the hybrid HDD - a little memory and a lot of disc and slow as molasses compared to an SSD. It also has only 1 USB port - ugh. She does neither backups nor images so, when the Windows 1903 "feature update" (which hasn't gotten to her Italian PC yet) caused serious problems on my machine and on a professional programmer friend's machine, I did make an image of her HDD just in case. Took about 8 times (between her HDD and a USB-connected external HDD for backup) as long as on my Fujitsu T902 with a 500G SSD for normal use and an internal 500G HDD for backups. If you can find a laptop that will let you have two drives (especially two SSD) in the machine, it makes doing routine and complete backups a simple task.

[Burgerman]

My laptop has a 512GB super fast PCIe M.2 NVMe primary disk. I have a tiny 256GB sandisk USB drive plugged in permanantly with the sergei strelec boot options and repair utilities, and a C drive backup in compressed form. And it has a micro SD slot. So thats got a 512GB fast SD card in it permanantly. So effectively my single disk laptop has 3 hard drives. 2 are bootable. And I have;

512GB C super fast in any direction.
256GB bootable USB D which is 130MB read but slow write, it starts at 120MB per sec but then slows to around 16MB so backups take ages. As I sleep.
512GB storage as E which is 75MB per second write speed. And 135 read.

So theres other ways to have many drives on your missus laptop. Provided its got a SD or Micro SD slot. Or you use a USB stick that is tiny. Instand extra drive space. bootable. https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ultra- ... ers&sr=1-6

Another 512 micro SD, can function as a great storage disk. And faster than your typical hard disk. https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Extrem ... OLE&sr=1-4

[Burgerman]

She does neither backups nor images so, when the Windows 1903 "feature update" (which hasn't gotten to her Italian PC yet) caused serious problems on my machine

InstalL LTSC version... It doesent ever get those!!! Only mission critical updates, and then deferred until tested out in the consumer world of noddy bedroom computers first for a few months.

[LROBBINS]

I'd be glad to have LTSC, but Ellen would absolutely not. I do not let MS auto-install anything, but installed 1903 myself - it was a mistake as it breaks a key sub-part of Rachi's voice output/computer control program. I test these first on my machine & then only install on Rachi's if it proves problem free - 1903 wasn't problem free and its new "features" are just a way to waste my time learning to do easy-to-do things in a new, but different, and none-better way. Of course, even after testing on my PC, I always image Rachi's (it's nearly identical to mine with 500GB SSD and 500GB backup HDD) beforehand so it takes less than 1/2 hour to go back.

[Burgerman]

Are you sure? I put it on my ex laptop and she never noticed the difference. I configured it properly, actually cloned my laptop to hers, deleted all my stuff, and changed the password and user account name.

She noticed it was 'cleaner' and that was about it. I doubt it still is, that was in march.

[steves1977uk]

But I thought DELL went bust? They obviously haven't, but I thought their gold-plated warranty was the reason they went bust?

Where did you hear this SM? Dell has never gone bust AFAIK.

Steve

[Scooterman]

Hi steve, obviously I’m wrong!

A few years back I think I probably heard their business model was out of date and they were struggling? I just assumed they went bath but obviously not.

I did some googling and found this https://www.businessinsider.com/dell-vi ... ist-2013-2

But maybe I’ve got the wrong end of the stick, it won’t be the first time, or the last

I Thought the warranties were costing them a lot of money? When I bought my XPS laptop I think the three year warranty was included in the price. It wasn’t something I had to pay extra for. But I’m not totally sure on that?

[Burgerman]

Theres many different types of dell warranty. I opted for a business account, and a 7370 lattitude. Thats just the business version of the XPS 13 that you had, with proper mouse buttons, mobile internet (lte modem built in) and a fanless mobile processor, and so on. In a carbon fibre chassis, with rubberised soft feel. Its also got a few bios based disk and other business security features. At around a 50% higher cost. Its even lighter, smaller and a bit fancier than the dell xps 13 is with the same 4k display. And a bigger battery capacity.

I opted to pay a little extra for a next day fix or replace on site warranty for 5 years. They are about to turn up to replace the keyboard (and motheboard as a precaution) 4 years on... The 3rd repair in that time. I am hard on laptops. I wear out keyboards, drives, mousepads etc. So their warranty gets used!

[Scooterman]

Theres many different types of dell warranty. I opted for a business account, and a 7370 lattitude. Thats just the business version of the XPS 13 that you had, with proper mouse buttons, mobile internet (lte modem built in) and a fanless mobile processor, and so on. In a carbon fibre chassis, with rubberised soft feel. Its also got a few bios based disk and other business security features. At around a 50% higher cost. Its even lighter, smaller and a bit fancier than the dell xps 13 is with the same 4k display. And a bigger battery capacity.

I opted to pay a little extra for a next day fix or replace on site warranty for 5 years. They are about to turn up to replace the keyboard (and motheboard as a precaution) 4 years on... The 3rd repair in that time. I am hard on laptops. I wear out keyboards, drives, mousepads etc. So their warranty gets used!

Good thinking, I'll do that too.

My poor mac I've emailed the service agent I use (Stormfront)


youtu.be/qIyfdIjGISQ

[steves1977uk]

How old is your Mac SM? I have a few Dell 1545's from 2009/10 bought for about £500 back then and still work to this day. Trouble with Apple laptops is they try to make them light as possible which in turn affects the components lifespan by overheating.

Steve

[Burgerman]

Thats a screen or graphics card fault. I suspect screen. If its a dell, easy to fix. Ebay has pattern, dell, and used parts for almost every laptop they ever made. So its a simple matter to do it yourself. They are built to rebuild and repair. Not all soldered and glued together like apple stuff.

[Burgerman]

Thats a screen or graphics card fault. I suspect screen. If its a dell, easy to fix. Ebay has pattern, dell, and used parts for almost every laptop they ever made. So its a simple matter to do it yourself. They are built to rebuild and repair. Not all soldered and glued together like apple stuff. Being apple you need a repair centre... They will tell you its beyond economic repair.

[wheelie junkie]

Support workers cracked my Macbook pro screen yesterday trying to put it into my ram mount laptop holder that I use on bed rest It'll be repaired locally on Monday which ain't too bad other than the bill.

Dug out my mid 2009 Macbook pro, plugged charger in and up and running again with just a couple of app software updates to do.

It is the first time in 25 years of mac use I've had to get one repaired, Apple store is too far away and would take longer and charge more so I opted for a local screen replacement place.

Earlier OS and I miss the accessibility options but other than slightly slower which you would except with less RAM and no SSD it is still useable for what I need it for. Trying to work out why I bought a new one and it did come down to marketing, thinking that I needed more of everything including a space grey case

Difficult situation with support workers, one from my team, one from a dom care agency that comes in to help reposition me when I have a pressure sore. Don't know what the position is about responsibility and whether there is insurance to cover it.

[Burgerman]

I thought they were gorilla glass like my super slim dell infinity edge 4k one? All but impossible to scratch or break unless you are actually trying ver hard to do so. This has been twisted, pressed, bounced and trodden on a dozen times. So far its been impossible.

[wheelie junkie]

I don't think that the retina display is gorilla glass. Problem was a sharp corner on the laptop holder, laptop screen was slid onto it quite hard https://www.ram-mount.co.uk/tough-tray- ... 1_615.html need to change to the version without clamp going over laptop.

[Burgerman]

Way over complex any crappy design. All you need is a light plastic flat plate smaller than laptop. And a 10 inch x 8 velcro pad. Stick one half on laptop, other to plastic plate. Secure, light, easy to remove by lifting one edge.

[wheelie junkie]

Also needs to be able to bolt a ram ball to the base to fit onto the extension arm hat comes off my computer table. Need the ram mount to adjust tilt of laptop whilst in bed. The holder has worked well given that laptop is put in and out every day but wasn't designed for clumsy carers.

Will have to wait and see how good the screen replacement is, starting to think that I should of taken it to Apple and done without it for a week.

[Burgerman]

Get a small light win PC, and a spare screen off ebay... Probably cost about the same as an apple repair.

[wheelie junkie]

I'd considered a cheap PC laptop, already got a monitor but missus can't find power supply, but monitor is not much use when in bed and almost flat. Old Macbook pro is working ok, slower but I had forgotten how bloated the OS was getting going back 3 versions some of my accessibility software works a lot better. One of the problems of a newish mac you can't go back prior to the version of OS it was installed with.

[Burgerman]

Why?

I can install any version or release of windows, even WIN95 OSR2 with a few workarounds during install, or linux, etc, inc 32 or 64 bit, going back decades on any of mine.

[steves1977uk]

Think Apple locks what you're allowed to install through their UEFI firmware, which is daft! Any late Pentium 4 onwards PC can run the latest Win 10 but slowly, with Mac you're limited to so many OSX releases before they force you to buy a new Mac!

Steve

[wheelie junkie]

Apple say that it is to ensure that they can make the latest OS as efficient as possible, latest 0S 10.15 is 64 bit apps only so older software won't run either. Good and bad it pushes software developers to update apps but some just stop development. At least it'll soon be possible to run ios developed apps on osx which will be very useful.

[wheelie junkie]

Oh, you can crack it using patches http://dosdude1.com/sierrapatch.html

[Burgerman]

latest 0S 10.15 is 64 bit apps only so older software won't run either

There are versions of every windows going right back to XP that are 32 and 64 bit. Inc server version from even earlier. All can boot using older no uefi and legacy boot as well, on many different partition types and on many dfferent disk formats from fat 16 up to NTFS and beyond. All the 64 bit versions can run 32 or 64 bit software. And you can install 32 bit versions of windows on any PC too but 32 bit wont adress all your memory. Thats the only difference. So its all backwards compatible with old versions of software 32 or 64 bit.

So the only reason to compile apple operating systems for a particular machine, or software type, or as a 32 or 64 bit only, and offer no support for older hardware or software is because they like to shove that massive apple stick up your backside and wiggle it till you pay up. Only a fool could buy into that.

[Scooterman]

I've with a new ISP and router (shell energy).

But for some reasons windows won't connect to internet. It connects to my router okay and says the connection is good but won't connect to internet?

My mac and other devices are fine. It's just the windows 10 OS on the bootcamp partition that won't connect?

I've disabled Nord and Windows Defender but it still won't connect?

[Burgerman]

It certainly would if you actually ran WINDOWS.

Bootcamp

Thats NOT windows. Thats windows, attempting to run on top or inside of, of an apple software in an imaginary digital windows computer. It will never work properly or reliably.