Microsoft is going to have enough trying to get the Windows userbase to use their next version of the Microsoft Store - the thing they can't quite figure out for their own platform. The barriers doing this on a 3rd party platform is almost zero. If Epic did an App Store for Google/Android I might believe you, as the possibility is there. But when Samsung & Amazon are the major 3rd party App Stores on the 'Droid side, it's because they sell the hardware as well. Offering up the store to everyone else is a best effort type thing.

Who do they think is going to setup & run an entire app store in 2021? Microsoft? Google? There is no sane person who thinks their app store business model will be able to go head to head with Apple in any way. 'It's competition' only goes so far - look at how fun the fragmentation of Android has been - imagine fragmented App Stores. Yes, there are lots of people who don't want to use the App Store to get their app onto iOS devices, but none of them can turn it into a self supporting business.

Thinking something NUC sized, has 2 display ports, usb-c for keyboard & mouse. Maybe a bit of local storage, but focus on iCloud Drive backed. Running iPadOS so it's highly configurable, but can be locked down. The push to cloud based services means so many 'standard computer users' need a fraction of what a Mac Mini can do.

If you want to drop support for WEP you need to have EVERY Meraki/Ubiquiti/Aruba/Rukus/Linksys/Dlink maker remove the option to create a WEP setup.

Then wait 2 years.

Hit this last week, screamed about it. Client has Office 365 for Office license & 2 email accounts, but can't use that login to login to the computer (New Surface 6 Pro & Win10 Home). Had to kill his wifi to set it up with a local account - once you configure for a SSID to get online, you can't undo it even with a reboot. I don't need a domain join, so why pay for Win10 Pro??

Ubiquiti Unifi Protect - https://unifi-protect.ui.com/ Love their setup, especially when the upload bandwidth doesn't allow for streaming & recording offsite. Scales well, solid software & support.

I'm an independent IT provider and I can't tell you how to find me. You have to know someone I currently work for, and be refereed over. The key is someone that fits personality wise with your company. Have you made you issues clear and with the right people? Have you made your frustrations known or is there just a lack of communication?

Let's flip this the other direction, and see it from the IT perspective? What's your monthly IT spend like? Are you paying for services or work and not receiving it? Is there a list of IT projects or tasks that are waiting on money? As an IT provider, my focus is on my customers, but the next thing on my mind is making sure my monthly bills are covered. Bill rates reflect a lot of things, everything from market size, and cost of living, down to if I have a day job and you're second fiddle for that 11am meltdown. Paying for a MSP styled package should give you a static costing for IT, which beats the snot out of an unexpected bill for a $1,000 because a system took a crap.

There are tools out there that an IT vendor or MSP can use to make life easier - things like a RMM package, but those come with a per-pc cost every month. RMM tools can make things like controling Windows 10 updates from happening, or at least not happening before you want. It also helps cut down on trip charges & response times if I can quickly see what you're dealing with and resolve it.

As to finding another IT vendor, chat with other business owners and see who they use. A referral generally is going be be better than opening the yellow pages or Google. Know that when you switch vendors there is going to be a large expense - you're paying the old firm to transition over knowledge and documentation to the new firm, plus the new firm will want to resolve any immediate issues in their eyes. There is many different ways to do the same thing in technology, and determining right and wrong is really a matter of opinion - which we all have.

Do not make business decisions based on a 3 year warranty - it generally only covers the hardware and returning the system back to square one. Make sure you have a solid backup plan, and remember that unless you're an emergency room, no one is going to die.

https://www.backblaze.com/b2/i... - Use an application that works, and you're set. If you want to be more cost aware, doing a local NAS and sync'ing what matters up to B2 centrally allows for more instant restores locally, but if the worst of events happens, you can pull the offsite data.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog... has more info

Seriously, this user has submitted many open ended, or inexperienced questions. Check out the users submission history: https://slashdot.org/~dryriver

No, all software anywhere will never happen. Period. You would have to force everyone to code in specific cross platform languages and frameworks, and force hardware vendors to only develop based around specific platforms and restrictions. It will never happen. Imagine not having Arduino as a platform, because it's limited power and function is great at embedded systems. Platforms are selected for specific software based on what the developer wants to create. Low power? Graphics power? CPU power? Different use cases need different platforms.

It comes down to who can interact with it how. Are you doing HD or 4K for the monitors? http://www.brightsign.biz/digi...

So having to deal with this with my GF - there is a legit need. For example, a dev will say 'do you want a responsive or non-responsive website'. Devs understand what responsive stands for - the accountant is looking for a 101 type answer. When you start talking about technologies, knowing what a wireframe is, and how it applies to a time line is critical. There is geek jargon for every discipline, and knowing a bit about what phrases mean to a non-tech is a legit concern. For example, if they're proposing a Flash based site, and the target mobile users, it's not a good fit. Unless the dev is of the right mindset and patient, the customer can become really frustrated, to the point they're blindly accepting the dev's recommendations, and then there are issues when the finished product doesn't work.

There is a huge difference. RTOs no longer allow for the time to restore from it, but long term archival to take is very viable. It's power is that the medium is separate from the mechanics of the heads and drive motors. You can replace a drive with a newer one and read a few generations older tape - but if a hard drive has an internal breakdown, you're sending it in to a data recovery company.

So wrong in so many ways. Any reason you wouldn't purchase a 100 year certificate and just roll with it? Too bad about 1/3 of all Azure disk space is used for endpoint backup. This reminds me of the leap-year calculating bug - Feb 29 2012, you couldn't generate a site because the default is to generate a certificate for 1 year, and well, Feb 29 2013 just doesn't exist. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2012/03/09/summary-of-windows-azure-service-disruption-on-feb-29th-2012.aspx

They would spin off the Entertainment Division into a separate company to existing shareholders, but the risk would be that the exodus of MSFT stockholders after that. XBox is a huge brand that has lots of value that is looking up, not down. It may be a job saving tactic for Ballmer, but I doubt it would work.

http://www.scarecrow.com/ - it's just a matter if your local market will support it..