Some of you know that I have no hesitation to re-format my system and install whatever version of OS that I influenced by at the time. Well, this time I really took the opportunity to re-build my laptop from the ground up.
The opportunity was created by some hardware purchases, a RAM upgrade to 4GB and a 250GB USB HDD. I was running out of space and wanted to get rid of the original dual partitions that were configured at the factory. The laptop (Acer Aspire 5610) came with two 70GB partitions on it’s 160GB HDD – and I hate having to split things up.
So with the new external, I backed it all up, wiped the disk, created the new partition and installed Vista Ultimate back on the clean machine. No Acer software, no other "value adds" that end up causing problems. And finally got a change to take a snapshot of the cleanest Vista install I’ve done to date.
So, I’ve now spent the last 30+ hours rebuilding all the additional software and tools that make up my "kit" for what I do, and there is still probably 10 hours of configuration work left. Yes, I have a lot of software, tools, utilities, tools, VMs, tunes, scripts, and such that takes a lot of time to configure.
The best part, for what I do, is that I have over 120GB free just for Virtual Machines which I use for a substantial amount of testing and proof-of-concept. Along with the extra memory, I just became much more productive in this area.
Anyway, this is the kind of IT geeky stuff I find interesting. Later!
This is *very* true in corporate environments – where it’s just too easy to test something or put something in “pilot” without the usual funding & approval processes.
While this comes as a surprise to nobody, I just want to challenge Microsoft to build a browser that I want to switch *back* to. IE7 was not it, and I know they can do it.
While some will look at the numbers and say “failure”. The reality is that the numbers indicate that online apps have an astounding opportunity for growth. With Google, Zoho, THinkfree and others racing to provide quality products.
Hey there, ho there – with the current mini-meme of online office app’s getting a bit more attention, I thought I’d give ’em another go. That is, I have used all the major ones in the past year and a half, but have mostly come back to Microsoft Office.
Of course, I truly need MS Office Pro – my clients need documents in Word, drawings in Visio, sheets in Excel, projects in Project, you get the point. So I can’t get rid of Office anytime soon.
However, I can move my needs to the web. This is nothing new as I’ve done thisbefore, and will continue to look at both online & offline solutions for the tasks at hand. What’s interesting is that, most of my existing data is already online. Either in Zoho or Google Docs, I’ve already migrated my “old” data to either one of these services.
Now, some of these posts today talk about the numbers of users, and how these must be an example of the lack of interest by the user community. While it may be true in many instances, my belief is that the applications are just now becoming really comparable to desktop-based solutions. I do think that there is a big future for online app’s, and as more tools like Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight are incorporated, there is very little limit to the things that can be done as a service.
The pieces are already in place, I’m switching back to online app’s instead of Office for my personal use. With the advent of things like Zoho Notebook – even my need of Microsoft OneNote can be addressed.
How about you? Do you use online app’s on a regular basis, just dabble, or avoid these like the plague?
Other people talking about online office app’s & suites today:
As governor, the State Capitol will stand for unity and common sense.
In addition to the POW/MIA flag that has long flown over the State Capitol, we will fly two flags when I am governor: the Wisconsin state flag and the American flag.
