On a recent trip to Microsoft, I found myself getting heckled for my trusty notebooks "Vista Basic" sticker. A Toshiba Protege M700 which has served me well, has been upgraded to 4gb ram and an SSD, but shows its age because it has video driver issues with Windows 2008r2 HyperV and doesn't support the hardware virtualization required by the new Windows 8 HyperV. The biggest thing I didn't like about the laptop was the screen resolution, it had a paultry 12.1" screen with a max resolution of 1280x800. I couldn't even run a standard 1024x768 remote desktop window without hiding the task bar.
So while the M700 was still cool for its touch screen, led backlight, and I could get a respectable 4 - 6 hours of battery (with the extra slice) it was time for a change.
Enter the Overkill.
A decade or so ago, mac's started to use Intel processors, and ever since, they have been assembling the "best" of everything. The Macbooks are just that, all the best options available at the time in one package... with quite a price penalty for all the goodies but...
So I picked up a new 15" Mac Book Pro with Retina display... Installed Windows 8 via the Bootcamp Utility that comes pre-installed on the mac side, and now I have a Windows 8 desktop with a 7.2 Experience Index (7.2 comes from the nvidia graphics drivers otherwise it would be a 7.9 from the cpu). That is running at 2880x1800 resolution. Its nearly twice the physical size of the Toshiba, I need to run the Windows fonts around 125 - 150% to be able to read it at arms length, but as my piers and colleagues see this notebook, I am sure to sell a few Macbooks along the way.