Business Casual

I've got an iMac that's almost four and a half years old. It's weathered being moved back and forth a dozen times between home and college, a factory-installed faulty power supply, and bouts of overheating, and it runs well. I've had issues with FireFox being slow, but that's probably because of all the windows and tabs I have open (it eats memory like Takeru Kobayashi eats hot dogs).

I've been keeping my eye on the newer computers. I like what they offer, but I haven't got a particular need to get one, not as long as my current one is being reliable enough.

My Atlhon 2500+ continues to work well after almost 7 years. Of course, I replaced the XP it had the first year with Kubuntu (a GNU/Linux Distro), and it works like a charm.

I have so many responses to this I have to make a list.

1) Slow is a relative term. Some people can't wait more than four seconds for their computer to do *anything*

2) Apps like Windows 2007 and Norton Antivirus can eat up a lot of system resources.

3) Some computer models are designed to be underpowered to allow for a smaller form factor or lower the price. If you spend less than $300 on a computer, you probably won't have it for five years.

4) Normal users often grow into heavy users. That's what happened to me. My computer was fine until I needed to edit files over 600dpi. At that point I needed a new computer.

5) Computers are becoming cheap enough that people would rather just replace them than deal with maintaining them. It's the Wal-Mart jeans approach to computers.

ryan-

if anything, i think comment #5 hits home more than anything. my mom was ready to purchase a new PC for herself because she didn't want the hassle of trying to fix it again. her argument to me was that dell was running a sale, and a new computer was only $399 right now. compared to 15 years ago, when i got my first pc (a sparkling, new packard bell), the thing cost over $1500.

and sometimes, getting a new pc actually costs less than fixing the old one. how much does best buy charge you to remove viruses these days? $100? $200? that's half the price of just getting a new one.

Ryan, I couldn't agree more with your number 3. At the moment, I typically either do a large upgrade to my computer every 5 years, or purchase a new system and find some other use for my old system. But when I buy (I always build my own), I get the best I can get. A lot of my friends get the cheapest they can get, and end up having to purchase new within 5 years. For example, my last system, I built for college. It's perfectly good, but is limited by the fact that it has an AGP motherboard, and I wanted to be able to power more than 2 screens as I started a career as a programmer. So, my "old" computer, which still has tons of life left in it, is now my database server, and my new system power 4 monitors quite beautifully. But it's really all about your investment up front - if you're willing to pay more up front, you'll pay less over time, because that top-of-the-line system is going to last a lot longer than the cheaper versions. (Also - I reformat every year, so maintenance keeps them running well, too.)

My Previous computer lasted me a good or 8 years or so before I bought a new one. I'm defining "new" here as something with a new motherboard, because many of the components in the older one changed through the years. It actually lasted a significant amount of that time sans antivirus and whatnot, and still didn't suffer terribly.

The main reason for the "new" computer was the comparative costs of upgrading. i wanted to add enough umph a couple of years ago that the cost of parts and the cost of something new would not have been that dissimilar. I expect this one to last well as well.

I think part of the issue is, I took preemptive action when things needed to be done / cleaned / upgraded, as opposed to waiting until the system was suffering badly and 'too unresponsive to use'

when i bought the computer that has lasted 8 years, i didn't buy "top-of-the-line" on everything, but i did splurge on a few components including RAM, the processor, and the graphics card.

I've... never bought a computer. My first one was a gift, and that feels like an eternity ago.

Later on I bought some parts and put together my own, and upgraded it as needed. Being a gamer, it is rather necessary to keep up. It's kind of funny. Only recently did I finally get rid of the last antique from my original setup - mouse. That's something I'd expect to wear sooner, but it was working find when I replaced it.

While it saves me money, building my own computer can be a lot of headache. But most of what is sold for a reasonable price (IE: walmart packages) are just terrible. Most of them are slow from the moment you first use them due to all the proprietary software that is crammed on their sucking up their already meager resources. Every time I have to use somebody else's computer that they bought as a package, it's almost painful how slow it is. Yes, as Ryan's #1 above, 4 seconds for every single thing you try to do IS a pain. It adds up and before you know it, you're spending three times as long doing what you could have on a computer with decent hardware and not bogged down with useless software crammed on there by the moneygrubbers.

Call me picky, but I like my tabs to open up nearly instantly, I like my games to run smooth, I don't like to wait 5 minutes to start my computer up, and I like it when programs respond to my actions in REAL time, not whenever my computer catches up with my input. And if I have to upgrade a little more often to do it, then I'll do it. And if I didn't know how, I guess I'd just learn.

I could go on a rant about how people really should take the time to learn how to properly manage their computer and that they just don't even TRY to learn when they can just have somebody else do it for them despite ones best efforts to explain it to them, but I'll refrain. Kind of.

"people really should take the time to learn how to properly manage their computer and that they just don't even TRY to learn when they can just have somebody else do it for them"

you could say the same thing for vehicles, and i'm not bothering learning more about them.

continuing the same analogy...many more people take their car to a shop to get the oil changed, the tires rotated, etc. than take their computer somewhere to get it cleaned and maintained. i wonder if this is because of the difference in the amount of the investment or if it's just a perception thing?

if someone started up a business where they just took a computer and did a couple of virus/malware/adware scans and a windows update for $20, would people use it?

Actually, I've considered such a business before. I just think getting the idea out there and getting a customer base would take too long.

You do make a good point about the car repairs, because I'm the same way, but there's a few factors to consider.

For one, for some work, you need expensive equipment to do properly. That's seldom the case with computers. Also, each car differs a lot more than each computer does. In fact, many parts only work with ONE specific model. And then we have to consider how explosive cars can be, and if you do something wrong, it's going to cost you a lot of money. Putting a part in improperly can cause the engine to explode, pretty much. And I'm not even expecting people to know how to build a computer, I'll admit that's advanced. But before I cleaned my grandma's computer, she had six, yes, six different toolbars (that she doesn't use) installed in her browsers simply because she didn't read and uncheck the installation of them when installing random junk. Now that's a resource hog and it wouldn't happen with proper maintenance. Even if I keep my oil clean, change my fluids and filters as necessary in my car, they still tend to go haywire despite the efforts. And when they do, it's a lot more expensive. So it's reasonable to want a true professional to work on them rather than risk a clumsy job.

So, basically, what I'm trying to say is I think it's a lot more reasonable to avoid learning about the maintenance of cars than it is to avoid learning about the maintenance of computers, which really involves little more than reading what you install, doing virus scans, disabling programs from booting up, and uninstalling useless software.

And if all that sounds confusing to someone, to reference an earlier comic, google is anyone's best friend! But even that is a daunting task to some. Google fixes 90% of my problems these days. I think xkcd made a flowchart one time on how to fix a computer. Funny, but true, I think you'd appreciate it. http://xkcd.com/627/

yeah, i know that the car/computer thing isn't a perfect analogy, but it's just one that i use a lot since my dad is a pseudo-mechanic. i also think that a computer tune-up place could work, but it's something that i should have tried 10 years ago instead of now when i and my family can't really afford a career switch.

and i always appreciate some xkcd.