Here is what I learned Friday night when I stopped at Best Buy looking for a replacement laptop for LaPriel. We already have several Macs at home so we just need something basic that can run a few specialized PC only programs LaPriel uses.
1. Best Buy suggests you spend an additional $129 after you purchase a computer so they can slave away for 3 hours removing all the trial software such as AOL. Apparently the offending programs are now so entrenched in Windows Vista operating system it requires professional assistance to remove them.
2. Even though Best Buy sells $500 to $700 laptops, they highly recommend you don’t buy one because it takes 20 minutes for the thing to boot up with Windows Vista and even after the laptop boots up, it doesn’t work very well.
Is it any wonder why people are switching to Apple in droves. Buying a Windows laptop from a retail store is a worse experience than buying a used car.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh, that’s no good at all, really.
Yeah, I here you, as in our family I’m the guy who gets to remove all that annoying junk. But we just got my wife a new HP desktop from Costco (which if you’re a member is definitely worth shopping, though online the computers aren’t such a deal; only in-store) with the Vista platform, and it’s a beautiful operating system. Much more like a Mac! It’s much more intuitive, as well. I hear that Vista does require more RAM, though. But every new version of software does, I guess.
I agree Popeye. It is not a good retail strategy. I can’t imagine it is very effective, either.
Thanks Simmons. I’ll check out Costco.
PCs do suck. But the range of softwares available is better. As for Vista, don’t think I’ll be upgrading for another year at least, until they iron out the bugs!! What really annoys me is the collaboration between the hardware/software makers. :-/ All it spells is a blatant waste of resources at the expense of the environment.
DC, I agree with you. All though at my work, I find I can do 95% of what I need to on the Mac. In fact, the only thing I am forced to do on a PC is use our CRM and some of the investment analytics software we employ, both which could easily be run on a Mac if the vendors had chosen to write versions that work on Firefox instead of tying it to Windows Explorer. Neither program resides on my PC.
Oh? That’s great news actually! One of these days I’ll want to throw my Toshiba laptop out of the window and get me an Apple like a civilised person.
PS: I loath to say that a lot of hardwares are made in Taiwan. Anyway. My cousin is an electrical engineer and works at Taiwan’s main science park. He says that people living in the area get sick from the chemical exposure.
Moreover, there aren’t enough recycling facilities for IT components… probably not economically viable.
Humans are way too myopic.
There’s no way that any of this is sustainable.
I agree with your myopia and sustainability comments, DC. I find it disturbing sometimes that the whole house of cards is dependent on growth, buying more stuff and wringing out more inefficiencies.