I Hate Products, She Hates People – Windows Weekly 654

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• drewidian

  09 January, 2020 - 10:08 am

  <p>I have 3 screens connected to my desktop. Having multiple screens does add to productivity. I'll make my argument. Most applications and services are designed for a full screen experience. Having at least 2 screens allow you to have the same full screen experience. </p><p><br></p><p>Take for example a student doing research. Having two screens allows that student the ability on their desktop the ability to read a web page and work on a document that they will turn in. Often, documents and web pages when snapped force the user to scroll or switch tabs taking away the ability to quickly focus and work on documents and review information at the same time. Many lessons come in the form of a video. Having two screens allows that student to watch the video on one screen and work on the document in the other window.</p><p><br></p><p>I'm a sysadmin. I often have to work on services but also need to see the results of the changes at the same time. Often this requires monitoring logs, web pages, or the product application where the result can be viewed at the concurrently. </p><p><br></p><p>I've heard Paul comment many times in the past that the cell phone with a camera would eventually be the downfall of the pocket cameras primarily because it's the device you have with you that will be the most used device to take pictures especially when they became good enough that they could be used for personal and professional work. Dual screen devices allow users who need true multitasking with a dual screen device to have the ability to work in those scenarios where it enhances a user's ability to accomplish their tasks. I've recently started using the ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo and having the secondary screen allows me to have a task I'm working on in the primary screen, and still quickly glance at other windows in the secondary screen. I even use it for gaming and have Twitter, Sportify, Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, or some other app playing on the secondary screen. It's changed the way I work and play and when I have to switch back to my Surface Book, I find it unnecessarily cumbersome to constantly switch back and forth between windows or tabs. It may not be the best solution for writers or people who don't need to multitask, but for those that do, devices with dual screens will be the preferred device over single screen devices. </p><p><br></p><p>I often am pulled into impromptu meetings on the way to and from my desk. Having a dual screened device whether it is a phone like Surface Duo or a laptop like the Surface Neo, will allow me to open a web page and allow me to take notes or chat or work on a document on the go. I think many will find this capability a benefit to their work/personal life tasks.</p><p><br></p>

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• wright_is

  Premium Member

  09 January, 2020 - 10:38 am

  <blockquote><em><a href="#511237">In reply to drewidian:</a></em></blockquote><p>I totally agree. I have a similar usage scenario.</p><p>As to two screen, did you ever look at the Acer Iconia back in the day? It is basically a 15" Surface Neo.</p>

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• Paul Thurrott

  Premium Member

  09 January, 2020 - 11:16 am

  <blockquote><em><a href="#511240">In reply to wright_is:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yeah, they must have sold a lot of those. :)</p><p><br></p><p>Guys, I know some people like to use multiple screens on PCs. That doesn't change the facts. And on a device where the two displays are just one display split in half, one of those facts is that this won't enable better productivity. A single display of the same size would work the same way.</p>

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• drewidian

  10 January, 2020 - 4:50 pm

  <blockquote><em><a href="#511244">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Hi Paul, I've watched your career and have been an admirer of your insights and observations over the years. I agree that single screen devices that fold and split the screen to become a two display device are not the approach I would prefer. In that regard, I do like the Surface Neo and Duo approach to this issue. Two separate displays, but connected by a hinge. </p>

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• kevin_costa

  09 January, 2020 - 1:07 pm

  <p>Paul, sorry to say, but Mary Jo's computer is perfectly capable of running Windows 10, even in it's stock form. The Core i7 3770S is a 4C/8T chip, and being a 3rd generation one is no shame. 4GB of RAM is fine too, for basic daily tasks like hers. If she put a SSD in this PC, and up the memory to 8GB, it would be more than sufficient for years to come. I say that because I've installed W10 on older PCs, from Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Quad era, and it ran pretty well, within expectations. Computers don't become crap after 3-4 years of use, there are plenty of machines close to 10 years old and in great shape.</p>

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• wright_is

  Premium Member

  10 January, 2020 - 2:18 am

  <p>From my post on twit.community:</p><p>Paul was talking about a warning in Office 365 about the end of support for Windows 7 and wasn’t sure what that meant.</p><p>Microsoft announced that the current branch of Office 365 (and Office 2019) would only run on Windows 10 (and maybe 8.1?) and that only the 2016 / Office 365 LTSB branch of Office 365 would remain compatible with Windows 7.</p>

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• Paul Thurrott

  Premium Member

  10 January, 2020 - 8:40 am

  I posted a screenshot of this warning here: https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-7/227526/living-with-windows-7-party-like-its-2009

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• Jim Lewis

  13 January, 2020 - 3:14 pm

  <p>I'm running Windows 10 Pro on a 2009 Dell XPS-1340 and on a 2011 vintage Gateway NV59 laptop, both upgraded to 8 Gb RAM and 500 Gb SSD's. The 2009 Dell has a few modest hiccups here and there but otherwise both run fine as "normal" consumer grade computers. I maintain these machines because each at least a couple pieces of software on them from companies that have since gone extinct and it would be ~impossible to get around the activation and registration process to uninstall the software (recovering the registration code usage) and then actually register them and activate them on a new machine. Maybe that's an avenue for Thurrott.com to explore – how to at least (semi-?) legally run old software on a new machine? Probably says somewhere in my licensing for each software product "too bad for you if we go out of business…."</p><p><br></p><p>I also have the latest version of Windows 10 Home happily running on an Asus VivoTab Note 8. I really like the form factor and wish Microsoft or some other company would come out with a similar more modern device at a similar price point (I originally paid $250 for the 8-in. Asus tablet in 2015). It only has 2 Gb RAM, 56.7 Gb of EMC (about 26 Gb free). Although it's more than a little pokey, it works pretty well just as OneNote for Windows client to use as a digital ink scratchpad (my own personal "darkboard"-running in dark mode).</p><p><br></p><p>So if one wants, so far one can make a computer last a long, long time with WIndows 10. I've done most of Microsoft's fading MPP AI course track on the Gateway NV59 including running Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Community 2019, Anaconda Juyptyer notebooks with Python 3.7 and Oracle Virtual Box machines running Ubuntu LTS 18.04 and Anaconda software.</p><p><br></p><p>So I too am not sure what Paul's problem is with old computers and Windows 10. Approaching age 74, my brain is way slower than any computer these days so I don't even notice much the occasional wait for things to happen. And since a lot is going to happen in the next couple of years (BT 5.2, 5G), I'll wait to plunk down the big bucks for the latest and the greatest since now that I know the value of Nvidia CUDA cards for machine learning, I'll probably be plunking down thousands of bucks for a graphic powerhouse machine (my Gateway NV59 running only in CPU-mode for ML does machine learning problems faster than Microsoft's free notebooks.azure.com subscription!)</p>

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