Any battery brands better than the others?

Yep.had one fry on me,got a new power supply,wouldnt come back to life,trashed the computer and sold the new power supply to computer store for a fraction,but did teach me valuble lesson.to stop throwing good money after bad-Kevin

How recently have you used Linux?

Almost every day. Things in Windows is just more intuitive.

Since a web browser is supposed to conform to standards agreed upon by an international standards committee, I don't know what you mean by web development being harder.

I take it you donā€™t do software development? Visual Studio and C# is probably 5 years ahead of Java/J2SE in creating web applications. Iā€™m not talking about simple web sites like this one. Iā€™m talking about complicated web applications that require 20 or more engineers and a year of development to create. We use to do a lot of stuff in Javaā€¦but it took so long. Tools in VS like Linq, Entity Framework make programming a LOT easierā€¦Java/Oracle doesnā€™t have anything close to that. Although I did hear that Oracle will be putting more effort into Java.

And there are a LOT more web servers running Apache on the web than MS products

As of 2008 Apache and Microsoft IIS were neck and neck. Not anymore. And the main reason Apache did so well was because it didnā€™t have to run on a windows platform. Companies didnā€™t want to fund another server. With the cost of servers - that point is moot.

Since a web browser is supposed to conform to standards agreed upon by an international standards committee

The operative word there is SUPPOSE. Itā€™s not even close. One Web app we have - supports IE-8 (or later) and FireFox 20 (or greater). And even with that limited set of browsers we have HUNDREDS of lines of code on many different pages just so we can get the page to look the same in all the browsers. We gave up on Chromeā€¦And had to stop supporting Windows - 7 or anything lower then Firefox 20. If we did weā€™d have THOUSANDS of lines of extra code. As it isā€¦every time Firefox or Microsoft comes out with a new browser we have to thoroughly test the app (and usually make many changes). And by April weā€™re stopping support for IE-8.

That is the typical mode of failure for an eMachines. Their weak link is the power supply and it usually takes out the rest of the thing when it goes. They require like 150 watts to run but come with a 160 watt supply. So, a cheap barely adequate power supply is running near max all the time and eventually fries. Good supplies will sacrifice themselves to protect the rest of the computer or not take the rest of the computer out if they do fail. I have helped out a few people who bought these eMachines by replacing the power supply before the included one has a change to fry their computer. I know some that have gotten quite a few years out of them this way.

@cwatkins,so that would actually help an Emachine,I liked the one I had because it had all the periphal slot for various type of memory cards and what have you,thanks for good info,Iā€™ll try to pass it on,the one hiding in my Cdesk right now is so old,dont think Iā€™ll mess with it(Wife sure can jam it up on Facebook)-Kevin

Yeah, I have found that preemptively replacing the power supply in eMachine will help prolong its life a great deal. Some of the other parts in them are not that low of a quality. It is just that everything is pretty low performing and usually several years outdated from the current technology. I once looked up the prices of the individual parts of one and found that they were actually cheaper than the sum of all of them by quite a bit. They must base their models on buying up warehouses of outdated parts for giveaway prices. The weak link is definitely the power supply and I feel it is planned obsolescence so you have to buy a new one.

@barkydog - That chart is probably true. The web-apps we write are all INTERNAL. So we can really mitigate the time debugging the web part by stop supporting certain web browsers. A site like this one needs to work on a much wider variety browsers.

@MikeInNH: I personally find Linux to have a more intuitive interface. (and oh so much faster) But everyoneā€™s mind works differently. I use and support Windows at work and have used and supported MS and *NIX operating systems for over 15 years. Have you counted how many clicks you need to do a simple troubleshooting or maintenance procedure in Windows 7, such as look at the properties of your network connection? In Linux itā€™s 2. In XP it was about 4. In 7 you have to delve pretty deep. Agreed that grandmaā€™s not going to need to do this very much. Have you ever seen Windowsā€™ suggestions on how to fix a problem to be even remotely useful in all but the simplest of situations, such as leaving your network cable unplugged?

Some people swear by MACs as well, but Iā€™ve never much cared for any of Appleā€™s supposedly intuitive UIs, despite some similarity to Linux.

Have you experienced the horror that is the Windows 8 UI yet? Have you suffered through the continual pain that is Office 365? Not content to have you register Office once, recent versions constantly report back to the mothership to make sure youā€™re still entitled to use them.

I personally find Linux to have a more intuitive interface. (and oh so much faster) But everyone's mind works differently.

My daughter is a big Linux userā€¦and she loves it over Windowsā€¦So yea I agree with that.

Have you counted how many clicks you need to do a simple troubleshooting or maintenance procedure in Windows 7, such as look at the properties of your network connection?

Have counted how many clicks/key-strokes to create a user in Linux vs Windows?

Have you experienced the horror that is the Windows 8 UI yet? Have you suffered through the continual pain that is Office 365?

Companies like Oracleā€¦the developers do all their development in Linuxā€¦and all their office work (Web, Mail, Documents) with Microsoft products. Oracle knows Linux better then Red-Hat does. When Red-Hat has a problem they canā€™t fix - they call Oracle.

Have you ever created a Web app in Linux? Windows is so far ahead of Linux that they may never catch up. We still do some web stuff in Linuxā€¦and itā€™s amazing how far behind some of the Java tools are.

The Linux Windows debate will go on for yearsā€¦The one nice thing is that itā€™s good competition. Keeps both parties striving to make things better.

Oracle knows Linux better then Red-Hat does.
When Red-Hat has a problem they canā€™t fix - they call Oracle.

This is very far from the truth.

@MikeInNH: Not being a web developer, I canā€™t argue with you on the Java tools. But IMHO, Oracle is a lot of whatā€™s wrong with Java. BTW, to add a user in the current distro Iā€™m running is very simple: Launch ā€œUsersā€ from Administration in the ā€œStartā€ menu, click the ā€œ+ā€ sign, type a user name and select ā€œstandardā€ or ā€œAdministrativeā€ from the drop down list. Simple as that. Add group memberships, etc. if you wish. About the same as on Win7, maybe a little easier actually.

As a side note, I wish Larry Ellison was forced to install and configure Oracle client software on a PC. It might change his idea of what is user-friendly.

I agree that the Metro interface of Windows 8/8.1 is absolutely horrendous, at least for most desktop and even laptop users. I have taken to adding a shell replacement/extension called Classic Shell over the top of this to make it more like Windows 7. There are several others like this but this one is my favorite of the free ones.

As for the core kernel of the operating system, the Windows 8 platform is probably one of the best Windows ever made in terms of stability, speed, and efficiency. While XP was a great OS for its time, it is no longer able to fully take advantage of modern hardware including large amounts of memory (except the rare x64 version), multicore CPUs, solid state drives, and others. I have run the same application on a work computer with the Windows XP x64, 16GB RAM, and 8 CPU cores on a much lesser dual core laptop with Windows 8 and it ran much faster on the lesser laptop. Being SSD aware is also important for the life and health of the SSD as the OS plays a part in the wear leveling of the memory along with the SSD controller.

It is too bad that Windows 8 has been tainted by the nasty interface. I personally run it on several of my computers with a shell replacement and feel is it a very solid and reliable OS. I have fewer crashes and such than with any other Windows OS.

Oracle is a lot of what's wrong with Java.

Youā€™re right. Oracle has a huge software development campus here in NH. I know several people who work there. I worked with them at Digital. When Oracle bought Sun (company who invented Java)ā€¦it basically sat in limbo for a few years. It wasnā€™t until about a year ago that Oracle decided to actually put some money into it.

Launch "Users" from Administration in the "Start" menu, click the "+" sign, type a user name and select "standard" or "Administrative" from the drop down list. Simple as that.

Still have to use the Keypad before you can start typing the name. Easy now for someone who knows it. I NEVER had to teach someone in windows how to add a user. I just told them it was off the System menu. The rest was intuitive. Typing a + sign isnā€™t very intuitive if you ask me.

As for developmentā€¦I pay my senior engineers from about $95k to about $130k. We abandoned Java because it was taking so much longer for them to create web applications with Java then our Microsoft C# developers. And the code was easier to debugā€¦easier to modifyā€¦It was either higher 3-4 more engineersā€¦or switch to C# and just train everyone on the .Net platform. It was the best decision I made that year.

@mikeinNH we have not gotten on the c# bandwagon, doing a lot with python and json, and regrettably to my more knowledgeable underlings dreamweaver. Moved from oracle to sql server, stuck there at the moment basically cause I like pretty things and postgre ie postgis strokes arcs, ie an arc is not circular but a series of straight lines. That and text problems have kept me in the sql server world for geomedia. Glad for your success, maybe I shouold look at c# or c++ more, but I wear so many different hats, gotta go with what I know.

Is the .net platform going to be around forever? I have my doubts.

The nice thing about dreamweaver is you can update the template, ie all the boxes but page specific text, with one change to the template and apply!

@mikeinNH: You donā€™t type ā€œ+ā€, you click it when using the gui.

Is the .net platform going to be around forever? I have my doubts.

Forever? - No. Nothing lasts forever. But right now itā€™s the fastest growing.

Forget C++ unless youā€™re doing a lot a low level system stuff. C# is much better.

You don't type "+", you click it when using the gui.

Most Linux users I know - still use command line. They find it much easier. I find that interesting that Linux users find the GUI interface to be cumbersome.

@MikeInNH: I personally use both the gui and the command line, depending on the task at hand and the mood Iā€™m in. Debating operating systems, Android vs. Apple, Chevy vs. Ford, boxers or briefs, Coke vs. Pepsi, etc. just becomes a religious debate after a while. Not all people think, feel, perceive, or enjoy the same. I suppose itā€™s best to agree to disagree. Some people even like to drive Priuses Iā€™ve heardā€¦

@Oblivion - While Iā€™m not a big Linux personā€¦My daughter is. So talking with her yesterday. Linux DESKTOP has a nice GUI interfaceā€¦Linux SERVER does NOT. Where windows server has the same GUI interface as windows desktop. Almost everything on Linux SERVER is done in command line.

@MikeInNH: Linux server may not have the greatest GUI, but thatā€™s only because it isnā€™t preinstalled with the OS. A simple visit to the OSā€™s package manager and you could have any desktop manager you want. Most people donā€™t run a server OS on their desktop though, whether Windows or Linux, so not sure what the point isā€¦

Most people don't run a server OS on their desktop though

Most people donā€™t run Linux Desktop. A lot of companies use Windows as their desktop systemsā€¦and Linux as their servers.