Posted on 03/13/2019 8:06:09 PM PDT by dayglored
That is an interesting thread. It has been a few years so I do not remember where the discussions on my particular little 2 in 1 tablet / mini-laptop were at. There were some people who managed to get versions of Linux running on it, but no one that I am aware of ever got all the major features to work.
I have a whole stack of Android tablets that I have collected over the years and if you unlock them and pair them with a Bluetooth keyboard they same type of functionality that the little 2 in 1 Windows 10 does without a lot of messing around.
As far as I am concerned, one of the the best buys on that type of device for the last couple of years have been the Fire Tabs from Amazon. The eight and ten inch versions have pretty decent screens and have enough power to be useful. The eight inch versions have been going for $50 on sale for a couple years and the ten inch goes on sale for $100. They are even cheaper if you buy three packs. There is a large community of people who like to experiment with Fire Tabs. I have left the three we use the most plain Jane stock but have one just for fooling around with. The Fire Tab operating system is a sometimes kind of weird Android Hybrid.
There is some neat stuff that you can do with older Kindle eReaders as well. You can pick them up for super cheap on eBay and specific models have built in free cellular data that can be exploited for other purposes a little outside the original intent. And do not get me started on the Fire TV devices. We dumped cable TV several years ago and have not looked back. We also have an Apple TV device which cost a lot more but farted out on us just outside the warranty period.
It reminds me a little of the 3D Printer that I purchased a few years ago. One of its biggest advantages was the community of people who purchased the same model and are still continuously working on getting the most out of it. The printer is several years old but still going strong because of this community.
When the main board got hot and the thing stopped working, it took me 5 minutes to find an article about how to fix the problem spot and for $15 and make a major improvement. I found that I should have added this cheap $15 component to start with, and it would have prevented the damage to the connectors on my mainboard that caused the printer to stop working.
It was not the Chinese manufacturer that came up with these types of solutions it was the users. And that is why I do admire the can-do spirit of people like you who are Linux enthusiasts. Sorry to ramble on.
Allegedly yes. I don't have any experience with it personally, since I only run Win10 in a VM, and when it goes TITSUP (Total Inability To Support User Productivity) I just trash it and restore the VM in its entirety from backup.
You’re right about the ‘subscription’ service model.
When there are no more things you can really add to a word processing software (Like Microsoft Word) you cannot charge users for the next version.
So, they created Office365 which gives you much less features, runs like crap, but you get to pay for it every year!
If the original version of Word sucked as bad as the Office365 version, we’d all be using WordPerfect now.
I have still got original boxes with a couple different versions of Word Perfect installation disks. I have to admit I purchased a license for the full version of Office from eBay a couple of years ago and it still works and takes updates. I paid very little for it from a seller with lots of positive feedback. It still is a pleasant surprise every time it starts up without some type of warning nag. To me it does not feel like it has changed much since I purchased Office 97. They just change the look and the way that you access some features so that you feel like you have not paid more money for nothing.
Old copies of Office (pre Office365) are going to become very valuable.
Ad if microsoft discontinues support I hope there is a class action lawsuit
Maybe I should buy another license? The one that I purchased previously was for five computers for Office 2016 purchased in 2018. I forget the previous version that I was using, but it was a business edition that I purchased through my employer's account and it expired when I retired. It kept working but I could not get updates for it. I am a little surprised that it is still working every time that I start it up. I see that it now shows in the Account info tab as an Office 365 subscription, but there is no expiration date showing.
Sorry I should have proof read my response. I am a little surprised that my current Office license which is associated with my primary Microsoft outlook email account keeps working. I believe that the seller of the license was based in Germany... it acts like it is legitimate, although I knew that I was taking a risk when I purchased it.
Ramble on any time you like my friend, I enjoy the discussions. :)
I like that you didn’t give up on your stuff and kept making the effort to keep it going rather than just trash it.
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