Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Is The Writing On The Wall?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

My Lenovo computer, which runs Windows 8.1, boots up in about two seconds, even after two years of use. No that is not a typo. It's a convertible, which means it can function as a laptop and a tablet (and I've used it as both). The screen is touch-sensitive. But none of this is the reason why it boots so quickly. Part of it is Windows 8.1. But the main part of it is that it is a solid state hard drive which basically contains a flashed image of the start-up state. Load it into memory (2-seconds) and you're under way. Why is this important? Because this is the counter-example to Doug Peterson's argument here that "the writing may be on the wall" for windows computers in education. Windows 95 and Windows 7 running on traditional hard drives took forever to start up, and so are increasingly unfit for schools. True. But my computer takes two seconds. (Note: I have to keep Norton's up to date, and I avoid Internet Explorer. Also, Lenovo doesn't do driver updates, so I have to do that manually, to fix a wifi slow-down issue.)

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 24, 2024 3:00 p.m.

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