Is my work computer a piece of crap?

[Nehkara]

I'm trying to get my work computer replaced right now. It is 5 years old:

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

I'm trying to get my work computer replaced right now. It is 5 years old:

Window XP end of life is in like 2 weeks. When that happens, a bunch of zero day exploits that have been saved for that day will probably be unleashed shortly because the OS will no-longer be patched or maintained. Any workplace that doesn't deal with this has a huge security gap on their hands. Tell them that.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/lifecycle

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Hack&Lube, are you with someone like Dell who does Enterprise solutions or just IT somewhere? I'm sure they collaborate with these companies to generate the spec sheets us workers see and choose from. Most of the time the engineers don't know what they need so IT gives them what they feel is best. Usually it's the low-end stuff with i5's at best and a little RAM like was mentioned earlier.

I would love a 24" IPS panel but our standard is a 22" 1680x1050 that is probably TN or something. Again, I would need a great reason to ask for a better monitor, and I don't really have one.

In my experience, every workplace has different policies based on cost centre/budgetary freedom and actual competency of the desktop support side. I've found that the infrastructure guys know a lot more about hardware than the desktop side which results in unfortunate choices being made for most workers and a lot of waste. I'm not in the desktop side but see it a lot.

In one place, Dell had very little input, orders were simply submitted to them to fill. The people making the decisions made nonsensical ones because of lack of knowledge like 2GB of memory for Windows 7 machines. 4GB+ memory for 32-bit machines (can't even use that address space!). Fast machines with slow mechanical drives. Gaming videocards (seriously) ordered for Geosciences and CAD work. All the wrong decisions were constantly made regarding multi-monitor solutions. The techs had no knowledge of how to set up GPUs or what videocards or cables to use. The wrong SKUs were constantly being ordered (French keyboards, seriously?) which were not returned but just thrown out. Thousands of dollars were spent on Ergotron arms and then they were thrown out. Money was spent getting everybody wireless keyboards/mice and then a fortune was spent on batteries and then the decision was reversed and they were all thrown out. They ordered a few hundred Dell 19" 4:3 monitors and then lifecycled them out (sent to recycler) only a few months later when 1080p became a new standard. It was just a general level of incompetency.

[Komskies]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Window XP end of life is in like 2 weeks. When that happens, a bunch of zero day exploits that have been saved for that day will probably be unleashed shortly because the OS will no-longer be patched or maintained. Any workplace that doesn't deal with this has a huge security gap on their hands. Tell them that.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/lifecycle

I have no idea where I heard this but apparantly 90%+ of ATM bank machines around the world run on Windows XP.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Komskies

I have no idea where I heard this but apparantly 90%+ of ATM bank machines around the world run on Windows XP.

I was at an event with a bunch of Devon employees last year but I believe I saw that all their laptops were still in Windows XP. I don't know if that's changed.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Can your computer load CP? If so, then no need for an upgrade.

[BlackArcher101]

I have the Optiplex 780 as well. We took it upon ourselves to upgrade our own pc's and bought our own second monitors. (ssshhhhh, don't tell anyone)

[CaramonLS]

I think every work computer is a raging dumpster fire. Our IT has installed about 15 startup bloatware, so it takes nothing short of 10 minutes to actually start up.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by fotze

I certainly don't need the powerhouse computer but just felt it is lagging and was getting annoying. I pride myself on trying to be a next to zero maintenance employee to the IT folks. just knowing its coming up on being upgraded should be good enough for me.

That's normal and happens to even the more powerful machines. I would recommend having the machine re-imaged every 6 months due to Windows rot, fragmentation (although defrag should be running on a schedule), corruption of caches, etc.

I also put my own personal SSD in my work laptop because I just couldn't deal with it anymore.

[CubicleGeek]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

I have the Optiplex 780 as well. We took it upon ourselves to upgrade our own pc's and bought our own second monitors. (ssshhhhh, don't tell anyone)

There is something fundamentally wrong with that IMO - to have to upgrade your own hardware. I'm a firm believer the employer is accountable for ensuring that the employee has the right tools to do their job as effectively as possible.

[Hack&Lube]

I find a lot of corporate IT puts too much money, focus, and competency on keeping the lights on (back end infrastructure and operations) and not enough on the actual user-side of things which is unfortunate because its the employees who do all the work and require all the back-end stuff in the first place. The employees/users often get short changed with poor equipment, unbalanced policies, and really bad help desk advice.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by CubicleGeek

There is something fundamentally wrong with that IMO - to have to upgrade your own hardware. I'm a firm believer the employer is accountable for ensuring that the employee has the right tools to do their job as effectively as possible.

Preaching to the choir.

It's what happens when you have Edmonton Oilers style management.

[CubicleGeek]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Preaching to the choir.

It's what happens when you have Edmonton Oilers style management.

If you had Edmonton Oiler's style management, you'd have a quad-CPU Xeon set-up but only 128MB of RAM. Then they'd trade 64MB of it to acquire you another Xeon processor.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Komskies

I have no idea where I heard this but apparantly 90%+ of ATM bank machines around the world run on Windows XP.

That's the embedded version. There are probably still a ton of point of sale systems that run Windows NT embedded which is still supported.

[19Yzerman19]

Mine has a crappy procesor (Q6600 @ 2.4) but does have 8gb of ram. Of which I am consistently using 4+.

[Reaper]

I like my work PC.

[Rathji]

I know this is just repeating what has already been said, but get at least 4 GB of RAM in your current PC and you will be much happier, ideally 8.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

I'm trying to get my work computer replaced right now. It is 5 years old:

You can also trade in XP machines for $100 credit to a new desktop/laptop or a Surface Pro, etc. at the Microsoft store.

[Wormius]

Once you install AVG on your computer, it will become a piece of crap.

[para transit fellow]

latest trend is BYOD ( Bring Your Own Device)