Imagine getting a new job. You come into the office on the first day. Instead of handing you a laptop, they just give you a chair in the break room. You’ll be working off a linux distro that’s been installed into the door of a smart fridge.
But you’re not allowed to sit directly in front of it. Don’t block the fridge
Nah, you will be allowed to sit in front. Part of your job will be cleaning out the fridge, keeping track of how long items have been there, and storing and retrieving items for people. You’ll basically be a fridge librarian.
The frigidairian, even.
My company is using Lenovo, and a bunch of my colleagues were already working there 20+ years ago, now I’ve got a permanent contract too… I think it might check out.
My company is using Lenovo
Someone died in front of it!
And that’s how you got hired.Actually, my position was newly created in a company just now fostering overdue digitalisation. Some bloke came up with the idea of actually trying to figure out what they’re doing and justifying their effort at progress with figures because that’s what upper management likes to see, so they brought me on to do just that.
People definitely died for the company, but that’s not my fault.
Or so I tell myself to sleep at night.
I’m in a weird unicorn org where we were issued MacBooks, but some of the people on my team have been there >20 years. The broader org issues Thinkpads, my dept picked MacBooks because apparently that’s what developers use and we didn’t want to deal with corporate’s locked-down images.
I’ve been there about 4 years now, which is almost as long as my dept has existed (we started w/ a contractor group for 1-2 years before I got hired on).
I hate macOS, but I really like the dept. We’ll see what happens.
We get macbooks at my work because we develop for linux servers but IT don’t want to have to deal with linux clients on their network.
The corporate surveillance infrastructure is there for MacOS and it’s nix enough for the development we need to do.
We had them complaining a few years ago that all these macbooks were too expensive (which they are) and we said to them “We’re happy to take good quality Linux laptops…”
IT were like “Nah”
My first laptop with this company was a £3000+ MBP with an I9 which got too hot to touch. TBH since they replaced it with an M3 one i’ve actually enjoyed using it. i can spend all day in bed on a single charge
Are you British me? That’s pretty much exactly how things went down for us as well. As we’ve been upgrading from the crappy Intel Macs, the complaints have gone down as well.
Yeah i’m london based (although almost exclusively work from home). the company is a huge multinational though, offices all over the world
HP laptop: your company has no idea what it’s doing for it’s entire technology department
My last 3 jobs all used HP… No major issues.
Boot up from external device and watch it wipe non-windows boot entries (yes, even with secure boot off) and then not automatically find any other EFI files so you have to navigate to them manually. Oh, and the only way to add them back is efibootmgr tool, or if you want GUI, Bootice in Hiren’s boot (yes that’s still a thing).
At least that was experience with HP 255 G7.As for another one, a mini PC, the UEFI setup seems to have limited HID driver support. Basic cheap keyboard seems to be a must. DO NOT DISABLE SECURE BOOT IF JUST THE MOUSE WORKS!!! Upon reboot, it will ask you to confirm disabling secure boot by TYPING in something. Every time. Even if you reset UEFI with the motherboard pins.
At least that was experience with HP ProDesk 400 G3 mini.But hey, I also had issues with Dell, I think Optiplex 7020. It was unable to boot via internal DVD drive. I tried 2 of them, both fared the same, no problem reading and burning discs in OS. I tried a USB DVD drive, that magically worked. What?
Yeah but a random (non IT especially) probably wouldn’t need to boot from an external device, would they? As for the UEFI changes, a random employee shouldn’t be in the BIOS either I would think.
I’m really curious on those, I don’t do that sort of thing these days so sort of wondering how impactful it could be. Outside of the random person who thinks they should change them but that’s got to be pretty minimal and IT should lock it down anyways.
Worst thing that happened with my HP work laptop is somebody knocked my water over onto it and it died. That was 2 hours after I got it and spend 2 hours installing everything onto it.
I spilled coffee on my thinkpad once and it was fine … I honestly believe that it would take a tsunami of saltwater before it died
Accurate
HP laptop: please remember to log out of
yourthe laptop in case someone else needs to use it.Edit: Management took offence at the language of the previous memo.
Always “a” dildo, or “the” dildo, never “your” dildo…
Wait… but my manager has been at his job for 18 years and we use… oh god, Lenovos. 😱
My last tech job gave me a Microsoft Surface, which possibly explains why I was hired with the promise that things would be really busy, barely did anything for a year, and then got let go because there just wasn’t enough work to justify retaining my position.
Every month the CEO rolls a D100, if it’s a 100 you’re fired.
We need to expand the meme!
I can second this too, 8 months same exact thing
Siemens PG: forget about making a resume ever again.
Had to look it up, the version with a handle killed me
It’s actually pretty useful when you have to move around with it in your workplace. Tbh, I am so used to the handle that I’d miss it if my next computer didn’t have it.
Unironically love that. There’s a CD drive but what is that next to it? Is it a Zip drive?
The SSD slot. You can easily swap the ssd without having to open the computer. It takes a couple of minutes.
Oh, that’s actually kind of cool. Is that for the primary drive or for swapping additional ones in and out?
For the primary. It is really useful when your ssd dies (happens more often than you’d think) and you need to keep working because you are operating in a situation where you can’t afford to lose the time that would be required to swap disks opening the laptop. We have at least one spare ssd in my office always ready to be swapped in case of emergency.
There are also a lot of cool features on them:
They come with 4 usb ports, 2 ethernet ports + wifi, 1 dvi port, 1 dp, 1 serial port, 1 mpi/profibus port, pcie expansion, dvd unit and bluetooth (which is a given). They also, as per manufacturer warranty, can stand a fall from 1-1.5m without suffering damage.
If it’s the primary, do you keep those drives with OS pre-installed on them, or is there like… some sort of bios-like built in to hold the ummm… OS image…? And what about the programs and files and stuff? All vpn/network accessed?
Hopefully you can sort out what that is asking… I know just enough about computers to fix Linux problems… if other people have posted about them… usually… with significant effort.
In our case, we keep them with preinstalled OS (and all the apps we need running) so we can swap and go in a moment.
I had an old cf-27 toughbook with a handle. Handles on laptops are wicked handy!
It has an RS232 port, that’s hilarious.
I use that port more than my usb ports at work, no kidding. You don’t know how many things still use that port to communicate even today.
Oh, I’m aware, I work on fire alarm systems.
There was a point where I really wanted a decent laptop with one to run STAR C3. Never bought the laptop nor the kit but never knew if I’ll need it again. I don’t own a Benz anymore but it could literally change on a whim because I do still love them lol
You can get USB to RS232 cables for very little, so any laptop should work.
And how cool would you look carrying your laptop like an attache case, with dongles and wires hanging off it? No thank you. If I need to interface with cold war era serial hardware, this is the way I’m going to do it.
You do realise there is equipment being manufactured today that uses RS232?
Yes. Cold war era tech being manufactured today. You do realize there are plows being manufactured today that are intended to be drawn by oxen?
It was a tongue in cheek comment and you’ve already displayed elsewhere in the thread how much you know about RS232 but you couldn’t let it slide.
We have brand new machines that use RS232 and RS485. We just did some configurating on one of them last week.
People have reported those not working very well with STAR / DAS I believe. You can usually buy the kit with a laptop included, I just figured I’d wanna try if it runs on something made less than 23 years ago.
Now i wanna make this my daily driver
In case you need to play spider solitaire in the middle of a hurricane, or knock the head off a T-800.
Finally! Something I can relate to, I had one of these in my last workplace. Was older than my manager and it was only used to fix those 20 year old machines we had lying around.
To anyone wondering, this is a industrial PC which is meant to withstand the hardest of environments. The handle is a boon when you have to run around the factory and your hands are full.
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Panasonic Toughbook: You’re gone get wet and dirty.
Op got a porn studio job.
I’ve seen them using them at In n out for the drive thru.
Wet and dirty indeed
Promise?
Thoughtbook? is that like an offbrand ThinkPad?
Thoughts and prayers book is a whole other technology with paper and ink and shit.
Lenovo replaced with Dell when the startup I work at was purchased by a multinational a year and a half ago. They’re closing our office down and moving operations out of state in June.
You cash out?
I got a decent windfall when my stock vested instantly, but I don’t think I’m going to make it to the final payout of my retention bonus. As soon as annual bonus hits in March, I’m donion rings.
You guys are getting tech jobs?
Not all laptop users work in tech.
Do all tech workers work in tech?
Some of them are in theatre.
An acer: your boss is gonna try and f*ck you
Hmm, is the boss hot?
… and sweaty … and hairy … very, very hairy. :(
I was able to choose my own Lenovo. Twice. 14+ years at the same place.
Oh, hey, 15+ and on my second Lenovo here too 👋
Albeit I had a desktop at first. Don’t remember which brand.
Seems like you chose wisely! I kind of want you to choose a dell for science next time, but it would definitely be against your best interests according to the laws of physics that mysteriously underly this phenomenon.
The laws of thermal- and accoustic physics are surely warped within Dell hardware. Otherwise, I have no explanation why it acts so much worse than other laptops with similar specs.
So what if all the desks are set up with thin or zero clients.
Layoffs will be a regular occurrence. Think you’re safe because you have a lot of seniority? My wife was laid off by Chase just a couple weeks before her 20 year anniversary. Funnily enough, they had just switched everyone to thin clients a year or two before.
Lol I got a layoff notice last Thursday at another financial institute. Our whole environment is Lenovo. I noticed at the end of last year that 2025s upcoming EOL refresh was going to be all thin laptop conversions.
But don’t worry guys, I can apply for 10 dollars less an hour to the new contractor they are bring on to delay the inevitable.
It was a sign they were trying to cut long term costs over user convenience long term when they switched to thing clients. Budget cuts are never a good sign in business that are “supposed” to be growing
Your boss is constantly micromanaging you, but you can’t get anything done because thin clients suck.
Haha, I set up a few hundred for a transition happening at a college years ago. They also got a few laptops that were thin clients. For a full time machine id assume it would be problematic. But when it’s constantly rotating users like that, it makes management pretty simple / cheaper long term. I assume they took some of the market away from products like deepfreeze. (Not saying it’s a better solution than deepfreeze, just that they likely stole some of the users)
I’ve heard Wyse has gone downhill since Dell bought it though, not sure if true.
Chromebook?
Did they ask you to make a western union transfer in order to secure your application?
I’m not getting that money back, am I?
They will also need a $500 deposit to ship you the chromebook, refundable after three months.
Either skeezy AF scam, or Google.
Or, believe it or not, both.
Or teacher
You’re selling meth
The good ending.
This.
Please kill me, these things suck so fucking bad.
They crash regularly during regular office work operation.
I had a coworker try to help me with something but his chromebook crashed 5 times in the span of 3 minutes.
Why should I believe you when you’re a trash girlfriend?
I do not see how my trashness or girlfriendness relates to the quality of chromebooks.
Because who knows what other parts of life you’re not great with. /s
