Today, one of my students who really needed his laptop for studying, told me that without any apparent reason, his Toshiba computer refused to start. All he got was a black screen. Thus, I lent him my tiny Toshiba netbook NB-100, powered by SimplyMepis Linux 8.0 and he worked without any problems on it.
At the end of the class, he showed me the problem of his netbook. True, only a black screen showed after loading the OS (Windows Seven Starter, by the way).
I asked my student about the computer state. He said "It is practically new! I bought it last May!"
The problem was knowing if it was a software problem or a hardware problem. I asked him for permission to run Mepis 8.5 from my USB key on his computer. If Mepis booted fine, that would mean the computer screen was fine...
Mepis ran beautifully. No problem whatsoever. That meant hardware was not the culprit...I even enabled the Windows recovery screen from Mepis and realized the problem was "Windows didn't shut down correctly last time"
Right...my student probably did something wrong while shutting down his netbook. However, I thought Win7 was more toughly built than XP. For XP, failing to shut down the computer "correctly" could mean headaches. Is Seven the same?? Where's the upgrade then???
How come Seven Starter started giving him problems so soon? How come it didn't wait a bit more? Not even 3 months?? I can't believe it! That's a new record!
Incredible! That's by far the fastest crash of a Win7 netbook I have heard of.
ResponderEliminarThe upgrade is in the color! Now you get a black screen of death!
What's puzzling is the ethics and common way of doing business today. If I was building computers, like Asus, Acer, Dell, etc. are, I would hide from the public and hang my head in shame for contaminating my product with a defective addition known as windows 7 starter. OEMs today have no pride in their products and expect people, in this trying economy, to waste money purchasing their merchandise.
ResponderEliminarWindows 7, according to our students, is the real windows CE (crippled edition). Defective by design forcing you to upgrade to a more feature laden edition.
The Real Windows CE! That's beyond clever!!
ResponderEliminarAnd my student said that it'll take a week to fix it!! It sounds somebody is going to be ripped off! He watched GNU/Linux working perfectly on his broken netbook...Well, it's his choice...
ResponderEliminarWell, at least he now knows there are options.
ResponderEliminarNot only does the student lose a week of usability there may be another cost; data and/or money. It's one experience worth a closer detailed examination.
ResponderEliminarRight, pjcolon. Unfortunately, I doubt he may be willing to share that information. He is so immerse in the M$ paradigm that was even considering to "downgrade" to XP. I had to explain to him all the issues of the licenses and the money he would lose if he did. At least now he knows Windows is not the only option if he eventually decides to get rid of his crippled Seven edition.
ResponderEliminar