writings on computer hardware & software

Computers

There are three main things to consider that might be affecting your computer’s performance:

  1. Age – an older computer worked fine on day one but now is slow. One reason is that over the years software gets updated and that program that ran fine in 2010, is now running slowly because the latest version is using up more of your horsepower. Add to that the fact that you probably have a bunch more programs and voila, your computer runs slow.
  2. Computer memory – if you open a lot of programs then your computer may run slow because your computer will start load program pieces into your paging file on disk and accessing disk is far slower than accessing your programs in RAM memory.
  3. Computer malfunction – Windows is continually updated. Not every update goes in properly (although they should). So a Windows operating system issue could be causing a slow-down. But a more common problem is a slowly failing hard drive. If your computer has to read and reread areas of the disk it will definitely slow your computer’s performance.

Little screens for doing major work… I don’t understand..

But there is a type of laptop I do understand and it doesn’t run Windows and its not from Apple. I understand Chromebooks.

Chromebook

An Asus Chromebook

Chromebooks rely on Google Chrome for virtually everything. For most operations you need a wifi connection but these days wifi is prevelant everywhere. Here we have a tablet with keyboard. The screen flips around to rest on the back of the keyboard for use as a tablet.  And at two pounds its just slightly heavier than an iPad. And the cost? Under $300.

Chromebooks to my mind are not a replacement for a desktop computer unless you can do all your work within Chrome. But with a bunch of apps including word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, and games it may do well for many users.