Don’t know if it’s a good deal.
As others here I will recommend also looking at other brands. I think that you get the best deal by buying used business laptops. They are cheap, good quality, built to last and often repairable.
Brand-wise I think Dell is OK, while Lenovo Thinkpads series T, X, W and carbon are even better choices, IMO.
EDIT: Spelling.
Someone mentioned that M365 is properly not legal. Guess what, it isn’t.
The EDPS (European Data Protection Supervisor) investgated the EU-Commissions’ use of M365 and found it to be illegal in march 2024. EPDS gave the Commission until December 2024 to, among other things, stop transfers of Personal Information to third countries in M365 outside the EU. Which of course made the Commission sue the EDPS. And MS to do the same…
So M365 is NOT legal to use for any Public Institution in the EU. Unless the Controller make Microsoft change their DPA, contract etc. Kinda like MS did for the Dutch government after the dutch firm Privacy Company made an in depth analysis of M365 and found numerous illegal processing etc.
Fun how Microsoft was made aware of how they acted illegal, and changed it - only for the Dutch Government…!! The rest of their Customers still have the illegal DPA, terms etc… Also fun how it is Common knowledge and IT-departments still choose to use M365, and move as much as possible there from more privacy and security oriented services.
EDPS investigation into the Commissions use of M365: https://www.edps.europa.eu/press-publications/press-news/press-releases/2024/european-commissions-use-microsoft-365-infringes-data-protection-law-eu-institutions-and-bodies_en
My point? EU-Linux is a fantastic idea! 🙂
I think bluetooth or 2.4 mhz is better than IR. Coming to think of it mine is a china something with keyboard on the side and remote on the other using 2.4 mhz. So point of line is not needed which is nice.
+1 Kodi. Been running it for ages on an old laptop with a infared remote with USB dongle. Kodi is set to autostart. Pretty hands off and can stream to it from local sources using Kore for android.
EDIT: Can stream from local AND online sources using Kore ex Newpipe (Youtube).
+1 Bron/Broen. I am a big fan of Scandinavian series, and can also recommend:
Nice. Upgraded a Thinkpad, installed Linux Mint and gave it to my dad. I have not heard anything from him about it for a couple of months. Was reminded of it with your post.
So wrote him right now and asked how it was going, and he replied that he loved it and uses it every day.
And that he had not had any problems he could not solve on his own. He’s 70 and a windows only heavy user - until now 🙂
As you said. Compelety painless.
I don’t where you live. But almost all of bigtech US cloud is problematic (Read: Illegal to use) for storing or processing of Personal information according to the GDPR if you’re based in the EU. Don’t know about HIPPA and other non-EU legislation. But almost all cloudservices use US bigtech as a subprocessor under the hood. Which means that the use of AI and cloud is most likely not GDPR-complaint. Which you could mention to the right people and hope they listen.
Edit: It’s illegal to use for the processing of the patients PII, because of transfer to insecure third countries and because bigtech uses the data for their own purposes without any legal basis.
Edit 2: The same is the case with your, and your colleagues PII.
In my opinion privacy and GDPR is the same in this case. I think most public authorities is required to have a DPO, fx hospitals or the relevant health authority. The DPO can help answer your and your bosses questions on the mentioned questions.
Hope you figure it out.
Duplicati runs om Windows AFAIK.
Hetzner storage box
Often thought of the same thing. So leaving this comment here in case someone got a good solution that don’t involve big tech.
When I get the time my plan is to read up on big techs solutions, fx Google and Apple, who as I understand can give your family access under certain conditions if your’ve passed.
EDIT: And replicate their solution using FOSS / self hosting.
Work with informationsecurity and GDPR. And know as a fact that many danish municipalities which administrate the libraries are using, and are happy with, Linux as public facing citizen PC’s in libraries.
They use OS2borgerPC, which translates to OS2citizenPC which is maintained and supported by the danish company Magenta. But it’s open source, so if you are in another country you could just use it - or better, give Magenta a call. They’re great and very reseaonable.
Magenta: https://www.magenta.dk/en/ OS2borgerPC on github: https://github.com/OS2borgerPC
Agree on privacy. And why bother when Intel/AMD have their Management Engine (ME) and AMD their equivalent.
But why support a company like Microsoft when they have a long history of prioritizing profit over user freedom (FOSS/EEE), security and privacy?
I applaud Linux on as many laptops as possible. But given Microsoft’s history of EEE, bad security practices and multiple and on going privacy violations I would really not recommend using anything Microsoft. If you must use fx Surface I would recommend buying a used one. Or better yet a used Thinkpad or similar enterprise laptop used.
Have checked PineTime, and seriously considered it. But as you said, and I remember, it fell short on features. Will check Bangle.js!
Found the Thinkpad collector who is afraid of competition. Just kidding… 🙂
I haven’t had much experience with the newer models, so what you say may be true.