Personally, I don't miss it, as I'm 100% laptop. If I was into PC gaming, I'd probably have a desktop, but I prefer the simplicity of consoles.

FWIW: Most people who buy laptops are buying at a price point where it's "not worth it" to repair.

Here is what Nokia N97 does when you "hold it wrong":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shR4jITiG48

Steve Jobs: "You're holding it wrong"

It’s no mechanical keyboard to the fingers, but it worked fine.

That was a huge boost for Dell in my mind.

I can think of a bad one where a significant number of laptops and 1st party docking stations were deployed. There was an issue where in certain scenarios plugging into the dock would brick the dock. It affected ~5% of the population in 90 days. Vendor response: fuck you.

One of the interns working on desktop support at the org figured out that certain laptop serial number ranges were affected. She then popped it open and found what turned out to be a counterfeit chip.

Flying monkeys were released and the CEO of the vendor got a call. End result: ~$40-50M redeployment of everything, eaten by the vendor. If they had been accountable from the beginning, they likely would have recalled $3-5M of devices and spent $300-500k on deployment.

On the flip, I remember one scenario where an off warranty device failed before its replacement was ready (and the replacement was another vendor). The part wasn’t available locally, and the account exec ditched a conference in Chicago, picked up the part from a depot in Indiana and drove it to Massachusetts overnight, with a CE waiting for it in the lot.

Funny how experiences with the same company can be so drastically different. You got white glove service. I got service so bad that I used my veto power to keep an employer from ever spending a single penny with them.

Without knowing that, we can't put your anecdote in context.

It was a low-end one (their now-dead 'Vostro' brand), which may explain the service difference, I suppose.

Last five pcs and laptops I bought personally were all Dell. Latest latitude I bought worked with OpenBSD with no issues.

Yes, a company like that and not learning lessons deserves to fail. The problem is that there are too many young uneducated graduates, that were never taught to distinguish the truth from myth. Garbage companies and their greed continue to take advantage of their naivety because they know the industry is f**ed and there is no real way to make a sustainable living. The economies are, have been, and will continue to be messed up. Just take a look around and see how jobs are nonexistent. Those jobs that do exists, are few and far between. People mostly get hired by knowing someone in a company, a friend, a family member that can recommend them. There will never be enough jobs for everyone.

Basically, the company is crap, a by-product of a long-declining, garbage-industry, based on political policies and lies from the past. It reminds me of the "Never-ending story,". Recycle, repeat! Recycle, repeat! Never Innovate :(

Sol Roth