ian Al
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Authored by ian Al on Sept 29, 2014 16:27:39 GMT
I had finished up a repair job in my Electronics and Woodworking Laboratory (the spare bedroom) and I thought I would upgrade the software in the 'Electronics' PC. It's quite old (AMD Athlon II x4 640 3.00GHz with 4GB of RAM). The last upgrade was in April this year. Windows 7 Pro took 5½ hours. I had almost lost the will to live, but upgraded Kubuntu, anyway. It needed a distribution upgrade from 13.10 to 14.04 over the Internet. It took 1 hour and five minutes.
I am a gentleman of leisure (i.e. retired) and can afford this wasted time, but how to business users of Windows deal with the lost output caused by the upgrade process?
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Authored by wol on Sept 29, 2014 18:25:34 GMT
How do businesses cope? They don't. That's why so many of them are still running XP.
When it gets too much, they buy a load of new PCs, get the IT staff to build and test them with the corporate software bundle, and just go round the desks replacing the CPU unit (or the entire thing). Even (or especially) when the IT staff is a staff of one (my last employer) that's the typical way, which is a horrendous load on the poor IT staff. Bigger companies pay to outsource the problem. Then they throw away the old PC.
And actually, it works reasonably well, because you work out how to upgrade one PC, then you bulk-upgrade a whole bunch of them.
Cheers, Wol
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Ian Al
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Authored by Ian Al on Sept 30, 2014 15:39:38 GMT
I see that Windows Update has ruined my short term accuracy of expression.
The Windows 7 Pro was 'merely' the application of all the updates to Windows 7 since April. Only the Kubuntu installation was a complete OS upgrade from 13.10 to 14.04. I suppose I am unusual (lucky) in only turning Windows on every six months. The 5½ hour Windows update probably represents 7 hours lost over six months with updates, restarts, delays to closing ('Do not turn your computer off'), delays to opening ('Do not turn your computer off' followed by a restart), and the general sluggishness of starting Windows to a working desktop and closing it down. Oh, and the regular updates to the virus protection, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Oracle Java...
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Authored by wayneborean on Oct 1, 2014 14:48:32 GMT
I see that Windows Update has ruined my short term accuracy of expression. The Windows 7 Pro was 'merely' the application of all the updates to Windows 7 since April. Only the Kubuntu installation was a complete OS upgrade from 13.10 to 14.04. I suppose I am unusual (lucky) in only turning Windows on every six months. The 5½ hour Windows update probably represents 7 hours lost over six months with updates, restarts, delays to closing ('Do not turn your computer off'), delays to opening ('Do not turn your computer off' followed by a restart), and the general sluggishness of starting Windows to a working desktop and closing it down. Oh, and the regular updates to the virus protection, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Oracle Java... Have to admit it has been a long time since I had to put up with that. I don't miss it. Wayne madhatter.ca
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Authored by wol on Oct 1, 2014 15:18:54 GMT
I've got my windows configured to "download but not update". Which is fine, except part of the shutdown procedure, by default, is to apply updates anyway. So if you want to review them it's too easy to apply them by mistake.
If your PC is actually running Windows, at work, you probably say "shut down" and walk away and leave it, but for me at home Windows runs in a virtual box, which prevents linux shutting down, so I sit and curse as it invariably does it at completely the wrong moment ...
Cheers, Wol
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celtichackr
Veteran Member
Hacker, geek, all around technoaddict. Amateur Scientist (well except for those pesky degrees).
Posts: 51
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Authored by celtichackr on Oct 3, 2014 13:52:42 GMT
Many businesses that do upgrade, build one machine and then ghost it to all the others. Then install/reinstall special applications for certain classes. Alternatively, the may build several machines (multiple ways of doing this), and then ghosting each of those. It depends on the size and budget of the company. There isn't one standard way for all. Some, as has been said, just get new machines and sell/toss the old ones.
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celtichackr
Veteran Member
Hacker, geek, all around technoaddict. Amateur Scientist (well except for those pesky degrees).
Posts: 51
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Authored by celtichackr on Oct 3, 2014 14:01:38 GMT
PS. Linux upgrading is not without it's problems. Had a very frustrating time with an upgrade I just did. But it was specific to Firefox. Importing the bookmarks into the new Firefox didn't work using the recommended way, it couldn't read the file, but the file opens fine on older FF versions. I got it in, but it still has some very bizarre behaviour.
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Authored by wayneborean on Oct 3, 2014 15:23:18 GMT
If your PC is actually running Windows, at work, you probably say "shut down" and walk away and leave it, but for me at home Windows runs in a virtual box, which prevents linux shutting down, so I sit and curse as it invariably does it at completely the wrong moment ... Cheers, Wol Ah, it I don't work. Too crippled up to be able to work. Wayne madhatter.ca
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