Perturbation

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Looking thru Windows

Posted: 19 Mar 2016 12:50 PM PDT
http://ke9v.net/2016/03/19/looking-thru-windows/


I ordered a Dell XPS 13 laptop last week and it arrived a few days ago. I
had selected a configuration with an i5 processor, 8Gb of memory, and 256Gb
of solid state storage.

Physically, it’s about the size of an 11-inch MacBook Air but sports a
larger 13-inch screen with the thinnest bezel I’ve seen. It gives the
appearance that the screen is continuous to the outer edges. The keyboard
is full-enough sized to be comfortable and the touch-pad is responsive.
Battery life has been spectacular – ten hours on a charge.



Windows 10 (Home) was pre-loaded and I find it to be perfectly usable
despite my fondness for Linux and OS X. That fondness had painted me into a
corner where I didn’t own anything else and have simply foregone the many
benefits of living in the mainstream of amateur radio hardware and software.

I purchased this machine specifically because of the difficulty in being an
active radio amateur in a world without Windows. It’s a necessity for most
transceiver firmware updates and extremely nice to have given that almost
all the best ham radio software is crafted for MS-Windows.

Whenever I mention this, someone always points out that there are ways to
run Windows applications on the Mac or on Linux, and they’re not wrong.
I’ve tried them all, including running Windows in a VM on another machine.
But there are always drawbacks, deficiencies, and problems. Especially with
hardware. It’s one thing to run an Office app on another platform, it’s
another thing to to connect a rotor controller via a USB port on a Mac
running Windows in some oddball configuration.

Capitulation was my solution I don’t mind having another operating system
to manage, in fact, there seems a lot to like about Windows 10.

After unpacking the new laptop and getting acquainted, the first thing I
did was update the firmware on my TenTec Eagle. After that, I filtered my
general station data to dredge up SKCC contacts that I hadn’t submitted for
credit. Then I installed SKCCLogger, a nifty application that takes the
work out of generating properly formatted entries for SKCC awards.

While it’s only been a few days, my experience with the Dell XPS 13 has
been nothing but positive and I’d encourage you to give it a look when
shopping for a new laptop.