Originally Posted by
3dcandy
And there in a nutshell is my point - you don't have "normal" useage, and you accuse me of looking at it through a prism?
I'll just add a little to my point, I recently had 2 machines, both of similiar specs, both fairly underpowered. They were Sempron 1.8 ghz machines with 1 gig of ram. Rest is not really of interest, or doesn't make an issue. One had a problem with a motherboard, I replaced with an equivalent, but I also got a Windows 7 licence. Boot time was reduced and so was general efficiency. The biggest thing however was the actual general performance, the Windows 7 machine was smoother, less prone to disk thrashing, faster (yes just faster all around) and throughout the day got faster in comparison to the XP machine. By the end of an 8 hour working day the notice was considerable, so much so that the worker with the XP machine was complaining that he was held back by his machine whilst the female user of the 7 machine proclaimed she was saving 15 mins at least due to how her machine was faster.
I'm not saying it a scientific thing at all, but I'd say that 15 mins a day, equalling 105 mins on an average working week is substantial. If you pay that person minimum wage or a bit more, say £7 an hour it's a matter of weeks before the licence has paid for itself.
Yes you have low spec hardware, and let's not get into how I imagine that it runs like a dog already - but I did make that point in my post. There is no way that it would cost you as much as you're saying to upgrade machines, plenty of reputable dealers out there doing much higher spec refurbs with warranties from about £50. It appears that you are not very forward thinking at all, perhaps even miserly. A newer machine would save you money with reduced energy consumption as well, something that I've not even touched on. You appear to be just focussed on "adequate" as a justification for your needs, rather than perhaps thinking of the positives if you spent some money wisely, in your example. Oh, and yes, I can think of as many examples to beat your examples if you wish to use that too. You've argued your point well, and yes, you may in your example have justification, but as I said, I can justify the decisions to upgrade for many others too. And finally, that brings me onto my final point. I have software that requires the use of Vista or later. I really have no option but to have upgraded in that case, and perhaps it was forced on me. I don't regret going Win 7 at all, believe it's advantages far outweigh the disadvantages and I'm happy with my choice. The software means I get my work done quicker, better (results wise) and wouldn't go back to XP willingly. Sire, we shall beg to differ on this, but I believe that we both can justify our decisions...