I’ve dreaded the forced transition from my familiar Win10 and Microsoft2010 for a loooong time. I tried to ignore the increasingly insistent notices about the end-of-service date of mid-October 2025, but my trustworthy desktop Dell was struggling to deal with the continuous updates during the last few months.
I bought my skookum desktop computer 12 years ago, before I left the Whitehorse workplace that offered a good discount to employees to buy new technology. After all, that was a big part of my job, helping teachers teach with technology. The move to online teaching in Yukon happened ahead of most of the southern BC education system–mostly because it made so much sense given the big distances and often harsh winters in the North.
When I moved to Yukon in 1998, I moved to a small community a 3 hour drive from Whitehorse with only dial-up access. As a consultant, I struggled to find contracts that I could do without consistent Internet access. Luckily I met a federal government representative for a new initiative called Smart Communities and, with the help of the local community campus of Yukon College, I organized the first ever Internet Fair.
Eventually I moved to Whitehorse and got a contract with the edtech manager at Yukon College who was leading the project to install full-room videoconferencing to connect three community campuses so that people could access education without driving long distances in the winter. The following decade was an exciting one.
Back to my dread of losing my amazing machine. I didn’t want or need yet more changes to technology that removed many of the options I had had in the past. The Internet wasn’t the fun it had been in the early days and I retired a couple of years ago so I really didn’t need more bells-and-whistles to use my familar Word, PowerPoint and Excel (2010 if you can believe it!)
I read all the advice from Windows, I consulted my former boss who had already transitioned, and I started reviewing options and pricing to replace my computer as there was no way it could handle the move.
I was increasingly reluctant as I watched the sliding price scale of Dell equipment – all-in-one desktop models were my first choice but increasingly I scaled back my shopping to laptops. Despite my previous good experiences with Dell, I was horrified when I watched the games they played with pricing as we approached the start of the school year in Sept. I even consulted an online representative, explaining my budget and lower needs and asking for help in choosing an appropriately useful but modestly priced laptop. She sent me a quote for a computer that was more than $500 more than I had told her was my upper limit!
I spent a month of early mornings going through all my years of documents and software and images and offloaded them all to external hard drives. I finally felt that I could function with a basic laptop and keep my stored files within the free (and parsimonious) MS Onedrive free backup of 5Gb (I had had 8 Gb for free in the past!)
I chose a $700 Acer and bought Office 2024 desktop software for $160 and that took a lot of effort as MS is so determined to connect everyone to subscription-based services. I bought from Costco because of their easy return and additional tech support (plus my partner gets a bonus to his membership account). I decided to transition myself as I had no software that was recent enough to transition.
The move went quite well and I have to say that MS Windows support and explanations were clear. I’ve managed to re-use my wireless keyboard and I’m adapting to having only one screen. I do miss the features of some of my previous apps but not enough to pay for their new prices. Not because I’m too cheap but because I don’t need what they provide enough to cut into the limited means I now have.
And, despite my increasing concerns about the dumbing down and constant marketing I experience when browsing the Web or just opening my laptop, I’m happier than I was when I was dreading the change.
My old desktop choked and died and I couldn’t resurrect it despite all the things suggested by Dell and Windows. I think the final Win update killed it–not directly or intentionally but because it is so bloated and foreign. When I looked at all the additional files and the size of the crap that appeared in my system the months before, I suspected I wouldn’t be able to hang onto it.
So, sometime this month, I will make myself load up all my old technology and take it to the recycling centre. Maybe some of the metals can be re-used.