[Ike Bana]

I bought this Acer Aspire Switch 10 "2-in-1" netbook/tablet a while back. Pre loaded with Windows 8.1, which sucks donkey. But it was sold as Windows 10 ready and free when rolled out down the road. So after months of waiting and fucking waiting for my name to come up as approved to get the Windows 10 image download, I called Microsoft and actually got a live human on the other end of the line. Nice woman, who said "OK how's about you give me access to your computer and I will load Windows 10 on your device and make sure it's running properly." OK says I. Took about an hour, but it was done. At first I liked Windows 10 much more than 8.1. I has a pretty nice desktop mode, close to XP, but of course no cigar. But again much better than 8.1. I had already given up on using the tablet function of the Acer 2 in 1, or the Microsoft app tiles. The selection of apps was, and IMHO remains pitiful compared with either Apple or Android, and the whole tiles system pretty much sucked anyway.

Pretty soon however...the Windows 10 system began running slower and slower. I had added maybe a half dozen software items Firefox, Chrome, some other basic stuff, that's it. Saved every file to an outboard hard drive, so the equipment is not overloaded. It got to the point of being so agonizingly slow as to be pretty much useless for even simple internet access to things like this forum, getting email, and going on other non-graphics demanding websites. YouTube was fucking impossible. Lots of time spent watching the spinning Microsoft arrow spinning and spinning. So I went out on to the Microsoft Community forums and asked "Why is Windows 10 so fucking slow?" I am apparently not the only one. Hundreds and hundreds of posts to dozens of forums looking for help. The typical help from Microsoft people inhabiting these Community forums is to tell you to make sure your HD isn't overloaded...and then to give you 75 steps to use to change 15 different Windows functions...none of which work for pretty much anybody posting on the forums who actually tried to get through one of these processes as I did. Pretty fuckin' frustrating. So I called Acer and Microsoft about it (the Microsoft agent who loaded the software gave me a direct phone number and said "call anytime if you need help" - pretty amazing, eh?). Guess what, after an hour or so with an agent from each company here's what I got. The Acer agent said, "It's a Windows problem." The Microsoft agent said, "It's an Acer problem.

So the other day I was at the goodwill and sitting there in the locked case was a brand new sealed box Verizon 8" Ellipsis Tablet for 25 bucks. So I said...what the hell...and I bought it. Charged it up...went through the "wi-fi only" set-up. It's fast as lightning. I even found a Logitech folio with bluetooth keyboard designed for use with the Ellipsis 8 so I don't have to fuck around with the annoying virtual on-screen keyboard bullshit.

Highly recommended.