When EC announced a complete overhaul of all of the college’s computers, there was absolutely a cause for celebration. But for those who have tried the new computers, they will discover that the transition is still a work in progress at best, and a complete dud at worst.

Upon inspection, the computers EC purchased are, on paper, high-end equipment. They all feature 4th Generation Intel i7 processors, currently the latest and highest end processors available. But once you sit down and attempt to boot up these computers, you will notice that they take almost twice as long to boot up than the 2008 iMacs that the journalism department uses. Regardless of which operating system is better, this makes no sense. But I have theories to why this is the case.

For one, all of the computers are running Windows 7 on all-in-one computers that were designed for Windows 8. Rumor was that the computers were originally going to run Windows 8, but due to the backlash and generally negative opinion of Windows 8, this was changed. This could have caused tampering to the computer’s drivers, which would explain why they boot up so slowly.

Performance is only the first issue with the new computers though. Important educational programs such as Google Earth were supposed be installed on these computers, and have been unavailable for teachers to use all this time. Finally they are being installed, slowly but surely.

Hopefully there is a simple solution to the performance issues on the computers, such as updates. Until then, these $1000 computers will continue to underperform.