Skip to main content

Hardware choices

I'm in a quandry (and not because I haven't posted in a while - I have a number of posts in draft form that need to come).

I'm looking at new machines but I'm unsure. Do I invest in a better server to handle better VMs and possibly Hyper-V and then simply RDP into it when needed or do I look at a laptop for more VPCs?

Ideally it would be both - but economics these days limit the potential. Server hasn't been upgraded for 4 years (Dell SC400) but neither really has the laptop (Dell5150)

Platform doesn't matter these days. Thoughts?
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
Laptops are more expensive and not upgradable. I'd buy a desktop unless you actually need a new laptop.

Regarding platform to choose, I'm assuming most of your clients run Windows.

If you do hardware support, and don't already have a mac, you might want to get one. They are getting more popular all the time. Where I used to live, you could find a windows "mechanic" under every shadetree. There was only one company offering mac support, and they didn't do it very well. So I bought an intel mac.

I recently had a friend who got tired of vista and replaced it with ubuntu. After he spent a day struggling to get VMWare to compile on it, he reinstalled vista. Linux is fine for servers, but still not a very good choice for a desktop system.
November 23, 2008 at 10:45 PM
Andrew MacNeill said…
Hey Brian - ended up with a new laptop after all...definitely necessary but I think I'll still be looking at a new server shortly primarily for VS 2008 Hyper-V.

The laptop is on Vista - interesting for sure. Not sure if I'll go back to XP or not. I have an older machine running Ubuntu right now and it's not bad for someone who knows what they're doing.
December 4, 2008 at 5:31 AM
Eric Selje said…
Have you considered any sort of hosted solution, or even Azure? I'd like to hear of real world experiences with these.
December 11, 2008 at 9:33 PM
Andrew MacNeill said…
Hi Eric- not really interested in a hosted solution - although a colleague did offer one up.

The problem with hosted is that I have to ensure internet connectivity at all time.
December 15, 2008 at 5:00 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Merry Christmas

Whether you celebrate now, have already celebrated your past holiday, are planning to, or not, I hope you find yourself surrounded by family and those you love during this holiday season and are able to remember fondly those who are not with you. We often find ourselves buried in work, or too distracted by other problems, to share and remember a few moments with those closest to us. So many of us are separated by huge distances, we often find it easier to focus on those who are out of arm's reach yet so easy to connect with online, instead of those who are right beside us. So do yourself a favour, put down the keyboard (stylus, mouse, etc) and spend that time. I know I will. Merry Christmas. Powered by ScribeFire .
4 comments
Read more

Programmers vs. Developers vs. Architects

I received an email this morning from Brandon Savage 's newsletter. Brandon's a PHP guru (works at Mozilla) but his newsletter and books have some great overall perspectives for developers of all languages. However, this last one (What's the difference between developers and architects?) kind of rubs me the wrong way. Either that, or I've just missed the natural inflation of job descriptions. (maybe, it's like the change in terminology between Garbage man and Waste Engineer or Secretary and Office Administrator) So maybe it's just me - but I think there's still a big difference between Programmer, Developer and then of course, architect. The key thing here is that every role has a different perspective and every one of those perspectives has value. The original MSF create roles like Product Manager, Program Manager, Developer, Tester, etc - so every concept may pigeon hole people into different roles. But the statements Brandon makes are often distinction...
11 comments
Read more

From Writing to AI: the pattern repeats itself

When I was ten years old, my dad bought a computer and, thanks to an advertising supplement in a Superman comic I read, it was a TRS-80. A month later, he dragged the entire family (my mom and brother were not the most enthusiastic) to a class at Radio Shack teaching how to use microcomputers. At the time, I understood why my mom wasn’t that excited: the computer was yet another gadget in the house. But today I find it fascinating. My mother went to Vassar in the 50s. She learned how to type — not a common skill at the time — but it opened doors. Her ability to communicate effectively led her to a career in adult education and later communications work with the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). This isn’t a nostalgia post. Today, the ability to use artificial intelligence, be it through Copilot or simply writing the right prompt, is becoming a critical skill. But is it really that novel? In the 1500s and 1600s, the printing press gradually made reading accessible beyond cler...
Post a Comment
Read more