curtisspendlove

So, reading Beneath a Surface has gotten me very nastalgic for Windows 8/8.1.

I’m still one of the few that thinks Microsoft were actually onto something. I’m still a bit irritated it was massacred in the tech press. I agree that there were some systemic problems. But man...it was really a pretty nice first attempt at a touch-first conversion.

So, I’m sure there are many here who have and love various Surface lines. But for the rest of us, what is your major “sticking point” preventing you from pulling the trigger?

Mine:

Surface Go - currently overpriced for my perceived value (may not be actually true)

Surface Pro - probably the most likely to be useful for me, concern about reliability

Surface Laptop - kinda going out of my “laptop phase”, also alcantara

Surface Book - see “laptop phase” above, but otherwise this would probably be the winner

Surface Studio - currently overpriced for my perceived value, but tempted to get for my wife

I consider myself a good “target” customer for Surface as a premium brand. I honestly don’t mind paying “overpriced” margins for a product I love (or am at least confident in). But I’m just not quite there yet with Surface.

Ok, so sorry for the somewhat cheeky title. But I didn’t want to call this a review.

About a third of the way in and pretty fascinating so far. I never realized there was this much turmoil. And the .org chart, heh.

Highly recommended. I’m primarily an “Apple guy”, but I still enjoy stuff about MS. And the Surface has always triggered in me this odd...fascination.

Anyway, thanks for the book, Brad. I know there isn’t a lot of money in books nowadays, but I’m glad these stories get documented.

So...ordered some parts for a Christmas desktop build.

It has been a while since I’ve built out a custom PC. Like over a decade.

I think i have most everything sorted except the modern age of installing operating systems. ;)

What is the best way to install Windows on a bare-bones system nowadays.

I had just planned on buying a Windows package from Newegg or whatever. But then I got thinking there is probably a much better way to do this.

So I had considered downloading an Insider Build ISO and dropping it on a USB key drive. I think most modern BIOS should have no issues booting a USB key.

And once it is up I should be able to log into my Windows Account and purchase the activation.

But I’m sure there are many people experienced with this here, so I’m open to better ideas.

Greetings,

I'm guessing there are about 83 of these threads, but I couldn't find a single one of them.

I've forever had my feet dipping in the Windows ecosystem for various reasons. But I've started a job doing Angular / Node development (primarily, there will be other languages as well). I've been given an HP laptop for work purposes (they are predominantly on the MS backend). However, I'm not enamored with its trackpad / buttons (I have to use a mouse to get any serious work done.)

I want to purchase a personal laptop to replace my aging MacBook Pro 13". I'm curious if there are any other web developers out there using a Surface Pro.

I've scoured the web (ok, at least a few searches) and have found a few things, but most of them are pretty old.

I'm curious if anyone is using a Surface Pro for development. I don't do a lot of IDE based stuff. My primary workflow involves:

• Docker (a small compose cluster of a few containers)
• terminal
• VS Code
• browser testing
• MS Office (for client docs)
• typical "internet-y" things like email, web, etc

I can't see any reasons that a decent Surface Pro wouldn't work, but the only thing I hear locally when I ask about the Surface line (from my peers) is that it's a flaminag dumpster fire. I have a feeling this is a bit of an exxageration.

I'm also considering the XPS 13 and a few of the other decent 2-in-1's, but I REALLY like the form factor of the Surface Pro.

Money isn't a *huge* factor, I could even go up to the i7 8GB RAM configuration if needed; but I'm kinda hoping someone has the i5/8GB and can tell me it's perfectly fine if you're not running too heavy (maybe a code editor and a small Docker cluster--app/db/cache).

:)

Thanks,

Curtis