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Comment by tvon | Hacker News Reader

> Yes, you can use it as your only computer. I would never have made that claim about an iPad or Android tablet. But if you only need to live in Microsoft Office and the web and e-mail, and use your computer for media consumption, you’ll do great with this.

So an "only computer" requires Microsoft Office, everything else is negotiable.

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For 90% of the working world, I'd say that is a true statement. I personally need compilers and geeky utilities, but my boss could probably get by with a browser and a copy of MS Office just fine. My bosses boss definitely could.

I work deep in IT (information security) and spend 90% of my working time in the browser looking at our security monitors. Another 5% in Word preparing memos or taking notes. The rest is split between the command prompt (nslookup, ping, basic stuff), Excel, OneNote (time/project tracking), SSH, and that's about it. Everything else I do at work is personal stuff done on personal time at the office.

I'm not a boss of anything or manager of anything. Programmers will always need computers targeted to whatever they are programming to, but I would guess that most other IT workers would be fine with a browser and Office (except stupid legacy apps that your office makes you use that were written in Java, talking to VB6 which really only interfaces with a database. You know what I'm talking about).

yes, "only computer" is incredibly dependent on what your needs are, and there's a very diverse range of those. My inlaws have been using an iPad as their only computer for about 4 months now and doing fabulously (they love it), but for myself I need a unix terminal and good text editor

It's why the old "which is best" argument is completely useles without a qualifier "for ..."

For our CEO and GM, that's true. Add a citrix client and it could be an only computer for the rest of our staff except for me.

I believe it has an RDP client. If it does I'm buying one, if it doesn't I probably won't.

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/ru-RU/app/remote-desktop/05...

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