Benchmarks are hard for comparing computing systems already. Design trade-offs are made all the time. As the nature of the software these systems run change over the time, so does the processor design changes to meet these changes. With more software taking advantage of the GPU there may be less effort in making your CPU handle floating points faster, so you can focus more on making integer math faster, or better threading...
2005 compared to 2015...
2005 - Desktop computing was King! Every user needed a Desktop/Laptop computer for basic computing needs.
2015 - Desktop is for business. Mobile system Smart Phones/Tablets are used for basic computing needs, the Desktop is reserved for more serious work.

2005 - Beginning of buzzword "Web 2.0" or the acceptance of JavaScript in browsers. Shortly before that most pages had nearly no JavaScript in they pages, if they were it was more for being a toy, at best data validation in a form. CSS features were also used in a very basic form. Browsers were still having problems with following the standards.
2015 - "Web 2.0" is so ingrained that we don't call it that anymore. Browsers have more or less settled down and started following the open standards, And JavaScript powers a good portion of the pages Display. the the N Tier type of environment it has became a top level User Interface Tier. Even with all the Slashdot upgrade hate. Most of us barely remember. clicking the Reply link, having to load a new page to enter in your text. And then the page would reload when you are done.

2005 - 32 bit was still the norm. Most software was in 32 bit, and you still needed compatibility for 16 bit apps.
2015 - 64 bit is finally here. There is legacy support for 32 bit, but finally 16bit is out.

These changes in how computing is used over the time, means processor design has to reweigh its tradeoffs it choose in previous systems, and move things around. Overall things are getting faster, but any one feature may not see an improvement or it may even regress.

There are other issues that you are insured for as well. Such as Window damage, chances are they can cover flat tires, and issues that may occur due to less then stellar maintenance. As less people will be directly driving the cars, they may not notice issues in performance as well.

Probably if it keeps up for more than a second. At least it will burn a small hole in it.

Still if it lasted for 420 Picoseconds (still less than a blink of an eye) it would bring a liter of ice to boiling. Most likely to vapor in under a second.
 

Perhaps there will be some report on Linux with a positive spin on it.

If programmers are left to their own devices, no code will ever get released, because complex systems have too many variables to test, take a long time to code, by the time you get to the end you realized you could have done the beginning better.
There are so many times I go back to my old code and say to myself what was I thinking? There is a much easier way to do this.

Sometimes it is cheaper to leave the bloat and use more hardware to compensate.

I have a lot of half done apps in production. There are thing I want to do to make them better, however I probably won't get to them by EOL because the customer is generally happy with it, and I have other higher priority projects in my queue.

There is a risk to profit sharing as well. As your paycheck is linked to the quality of the others. Bad sales or marketing dept can fail to sell the best of ideas, and hard work.

In the mean time you are working with below average salary.

So his mistake is he didn't arm himself with a pressure washer.

Of course that would be more of an interesting story, if he shot it with a pressure washer and took it out.

It is installed by default in VS

Funny. On server 2012 R2 I can reverse AD schema deletions, go powershell only and or turn GUI on or off, use desired state configuration powershell templates, use DCs as VMs, and many many almost countless things I can't do on server 2k3.

Is it really true you need a 1990s modem plugged into a 2k3 server just to turn VPN on and then unplug the modem before it is ready??

Speak for yourself! I can't consider learning HTML 5 until 2020 when 7 goes EOL as too many of the users have standardized on IE 8 HTML throughout the whole decade. I have 2 apps we support which are IE 6 only and can't be upgraded and not our call to upgrade it( client owned)

I just installed 8.1 with VS 2015 this weekend.

Is this serious enough where I need to re-image as things like my Intel RST raid driver all depend on 4.5 runtimes or does this only hit code being compiled?

I did look in the mirror after my exwife asked me why I kept using this linux system that kept beingh broke by updates. She ran Vista and didn't have these problems? I switched to Windows 7 in 2011 and never looked back.

For those in the IT field we are used to leaving our systemd vulnerable due to a patch breaking production many many times as sad as that sentence is.

My coworker refuses to run update at all saying HP knows their shit more than MS so do not trust them etc. He had a virus of course and I laughed. But it makes us resistant to change.

Why should someone pay uo to $160 to make their computer run as advertised? A system today is only worth $450 new and $160 premium for a non AD joined computer is STUPID.

We use phones and they do not have these problems. No wonder people are switching to tablets. They just work. Sorry MS needs to rehire their QA they laid off (that is right no QA team just usage scenarios from the agile developers with stories)and need to make their product work as advertised. I thought a WHQL certified driver needed testing?

THe drivers need more testing before being put out on the open.