3 ms·

I've been at same company for 13 years. I'm only on my 2nd computer, both ThinkPad. (the expensive model that you can pick up by edge of its display and swing

by pcurve 9y ago

I've been at same company for 13 years. I'm only on my 2nd computer, both ThinkPad. (the expensive model that you can pick up by edge of its display and swing it around even though it weighs 6 pounds) Usually, our company forces us to upgrade laptop after 3 years, but when I heard they were changing supplier to HP, I told them, over my dead body. Eventually they stop harassing. 3 years go by, I get the same notice. This time, instead of HP, they had moved onto Dell. Horrified, I told them to go pound sand, and they eventually went away. Another 2 years go by, and I must've ended up on our IT's most wanted list or something. I relent, and turn my 8 year old machine in. Mind you, this laptop went through daily grind, tens of thousands of docking and undocking, enterprise software updates. (you know how brutal those are) When IT guy saw my machine, he said, "Wow, I haven't seen this in years! Hey guys, check this out!" Luckily, by then, my company had switched back to Thinkpad. That was almost 6 years ago, and I'm still rocking my W520.

jamesmishra 9y ago
Why does the company force hardware upgrades? Software upgrades are necessary for security, but it sounds like you saved the company about $1000 - $2000 without incurring any negative effects.
- pcurve 9y ago
  really beats me... i thought the whole point of paying premium for Thinkpad was for lower support cost and longevity. I think they finally got the hint when they switched over to Thinkpad, because I haven't received any notice about machine upgrade in 6 years. Unfortunately should my current machine craps out, they'll issue newer model with that horrible keyboard.
  - apk-d 9y ago
    How do current Thinkpad machines compare to the classic "indestructible" models from a decade ago? Pretty satisfied with my x230 but going to have to start looking for an upgrade soon.
- mdaniel 9y ago
  The "cost" in big orgs is deviation. Look at Apple: they have a finite number of hardware configurations, and thus the testing burden is much, much lower - for internal and likely external software deliveries. Contrast it with the horrific number of driver vendors it takes to work in harmony for any random Windows install. To say nothing of Linux distros if the org is progressive enough to permit their use on the LAN
- jlgaddis 9y ago
  When you're managing "images", it's much easier when you have a limited amount of hardware to deal with -- especially if/when you have to roll drivers up in your images. This has gotten much better in the last 10 years or so, thanks mostly to Microsoft's improved tooling, but standardizing on specific hardware often saves time more than anything else. I can remember the days when we had to use (for example) "image A" for this model of desktop PC, "image B" for a different model of desktop PC, and even "image C" for a slightly newer hardware revision of the same desktop PC. Fortunately, I didn't have to create or maintain those images. At a .edu I worked at, preparing and deploying new images was often the biggest project of our summers.
- sjellis 9y ago
  "Why does the company force hardware upgrades?" Partly to pre-empt hardware issues. Vendors will only offer warrenties for so many years, because they can only maintain stocks of replacement parts for any given model for so long. Once you have enough machines, a certain percentage of them will fail each year, and it becomes a game of numbers. A well-organized IT department will swap out your computer before it gets so old that there is a risk that it will suddenly fail in an unrepairable way.

by pcurve 9y ago

jamesmishra 9y ago

Why does the company force hardware upgrades? Software upgrades are necessary for security, but it sounds like you saved the company about $1000 - $2000 without incurring any negative effects.

pcurve 9y ago
really beats me... i thought the whole point of paying premium for Thinkpad was for lower support cost and longevity. I think they finally got the hint when they switched over to Thinkpad, because I haven't received any notice about machine upgrade in 6 years. Unfortunately should my current machine craps out, they'll issue newer model with that horrible keyboard.
- apk-d 9y ago
  How do current Thinkpad machines compare to the classic "indestructible" models from a decade ago? Pretty satisfied with my x230 but going to have to start looking for an upgrade soon.
mdaniel 9y ago
The "cost" in big orgs is deviation. Look at Apple: they have a finite number of hardware configurations, and thus the testing burden is much, much lower - for internal and likely external software deliveries. Contrast it with the horrific number of driver vendors it takes to work in harmony for any random Windows install. To say nothing of Linux distros if the org is progressive enough to permit their use on the LAN
jlgaddis 9y ago
When you're managing "images", it's much easier when you have a limited amount of hardware to deal with -- especially if/when you have to roll drivers up in your images. This has gotten much better in the last 10 years or so, thanks mostly to Microsoft's improved tooling, but standardizing on specific hardware often saves time more than anything else. I can remember the days when we had to use (for example) "image A" for this model of desktop PC, "image B" for a different model of desktop PC, and even "image C" for a slightly newer hardware revision of the same desktop PC. Fortunately, I didn't have to create or maintain those images. At a .edu I worked at, preparing and deploying new images was often the biggest project of our summers.
sjellis 9y ago
"Why does the company force hardware upgrades?" Partly to pre-empt hardware issues. Vendors will only offer warrenties for so many years, because they can only maintain stocks of replacement parts for any given model for so long. Once you have enough machines, a certain percentage of them will fail each year, and it becomes a game of numbers. A well-organized IT department will swap out your computer before it gets so old that there is a risk that it will suddenly fail in an unrepairable way.