Bonum Certa Men Certa

HP Stream Laptops at Walmart and Reality of Microsoft Windows Bloat



Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer.

HP Stream Laptops at Walmart. How Much Computer Do You Need in 2023?



I saw some $179 HP Stream Windows 11 craptops at Sprawl Mart yesterday.



And I was like, “Really? HP is still letting Microsoft command them to sell computers that barely work? How big is the market of people who haven’t already fallen for these?”.



16 GB of RAM is “barely enough” these days, due to software bloat, if you’re using more than several programs at once.



They sell Windows 11 systems with 4 GB!



You can barely use Linux productively with 4 these days. Much less Windows.



With Windows 11 and 4 GB, you can barely even boot the computer and load one program. These things don’t age well because they can barely handle a single use case that people are going to take them home for.



They are not comparable to Chromebooks, where Google has at least made a Linux-based OS centered around the device, planning out that it MUST work well with 4 GB RAM.



Windows always needs a new PC, and a good one, because it’s designed to force people to keep upgrading hardware when Windows “slows down”. It’s deliberate. They make Windows slower and more obese over time to “feed the pigs” over at Intel and AMD, who could otherwise not sell very much hardware.



The reason why moving over to Linux feels like you’ve turned back the clock and bought a new PC again is because there’s nobody trying to sell you a new one.



By far, the worst and most bloated thing I do on Linux, is not even the fault of Linux, it’s this trend to bigger, fatter, Web browsers for a more obnoxious Web experience. Not the fault of the base OS, which has barely increased in system requirements in more than a decade.



This HP Stream funny business cannot possibly be as successful as it was to start with.



Thanks to the “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” concept, people who bought a previous model with Windows 10, and then didn’t even have enough storage space to upgrade to a newer version of Windows 10, probably don’t fall for this trap, again.



So the business model of fooling people who have never seen an HP Stream into buying another really bad computer is almost certainly self-limiting.



Windows screenshot



Computer review



Other customers who bought the Stream complained of:



Poor battery life.



HP putting the keyboard buttons on in the wrong places.



Broken screens, from the factory.



Computers that suddenly booted up to a black screen, seemingly for no reason, one day, with no obvious repair. (Common problem with Windows.)



“45 minutes to load one [Web browser] tab.”



One reviewer, on Amazon, claimed that there was static buildup and every time he went to type something, the keyboard shocked him.



One more note: Have used this on a treadmill and there is massive static electricity on every key. On other laptops there’s some static on the machine at first so you can ground yourself and then type just fine. But this one delivers a shock for every. single. key. stroke. Ouch.

-“S Larson”


Multiple complaints that even if you don’t use the C: for any user files at all, you eventually can’t install a Windows update, even if all of your files are on an SD card.



For $80 less, you can get a Raspberry Pi 4 Personal Computer.



It’s contained in a keyboard with lots of ports. You get 4 GB of RAM and an ARM CPU, you load the OS and store your user files on an SD card of your choice in size.



It runs Linux OS images that are actually made planning on the fact that the thing has 4 GB of RAM instead of being an OS that was meant for 16 GB systems that was put on the HP Stream after-the-fact.



Hell, for $50 less you could buy a Chromebook. (With support for Linux and Android applications.)



I don’t know why, exactly, Microsoft continues to get away with convincing OEMs to cheapen and denigrate their brands to pretend it has something in the same league with small computers that were made to at least work properly.



HP Stream is a clear example of Microsoft convincing other companies to fall on their sword to serve Microsoft.



If you handed me one of these HP Streams for free I might take it and see if I could shoehorn Linux on it somehow, but I would certainly not risk $179 of my own money on one given the things I have heard from people who did.



From what I’ve read on Reddit, at least some people using the HP Stream have installed Arch Linux, but they couldn’t install Grub (the bootloader), and for some reason systemd-boot (LOL) worked. Maybe HP and Microsoft can “fix that” so that word won’t get around that you can at least use a real operating system if you have one of these things.



The HP Stream is a Microsoft panic response “but they still don’t GET IT” to the Chromebook. Which is $50 cheaper, runs faster, and is Linux.



Many people who get a Stream use it… to go back to whatever Web site they bought it from and talk about all the problems they have with it that make it impossible to use.



Which is exactly what you would expect from a <$200 thing that came with Windows.



The market for new devices is limited. Largely by Linux. It’s feasted off of the legacy UNIX systems and now it kills Windows too.



Recent Techrights' Posts

'Tech' Gimmicks Are for Advertising, Not for Usability
In the case of Microsoft, they latched onto slop
BetaNews Sacked Brian Fagioli and Deleted His Comments, But He Still Tries to Use the "BetaNews" Brand for Self-Affirmation
Fagioli takes the work of other people
[Meme] Hard to Be a Better Person?
Sooner or later they'll realise that for each pound I spend they need to spend about 1,000 times more
New US Editor for The Register is a Microsoft Booster
"Avram Piltch has served as US editor for The Register since July 2025."
Reda Demanded That FSF Removes Its Founder, Now Reda Works Directly for Microsoft
A sellout and a traitor, first working for GAFAM, now Microsoft
PCLinuxOS is Raising Money to Support Development After Fire Incident at the Host
PCLinuxOS has not had announcements lately
Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?
"Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled
Microsoft is Trying to "Pull a Nokia" on GNU/Linux as Desktop/Laptop Platform
We all remember that rather well, don't we?
 
Gemini Links 24/07/2025: Forgejo Woes and Smolnet Directory Week
Links for the day
Misinformation is Not Intelligence
It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
Links 24/07/2025: Storage Tapes Still Kicking, Windows TCO 'on Steroids' (Microsoft-Induced Catastrophes)
Links for the day
Bobby Borisov (LinuxIac) Has Apparently Begun Experimenting With LLM Slop, So We Cannot Trust LinuxIac Anymore
So did LinuxIac become a slopfarm? Maybe not yet, but it's getting there
Informa TechTarget's ITProToday is Becoming a Slopfarm Generated by Microsoft Chatbots
Busted.
The LLM Con Artists Are Highly Destructive
Who will ever be held accountable for this scam?
Too Bribed by Microsoft to Move to Free Software?
Microsoft lies and Microsoft bribery (in politics)
Microsoft Hiring European Politicians is Another Form of Bribery; There Should be a European Investigation
When Microsoft bribed people in Europe for OOXML (there's no denying this!) a European government delegate said that Microsoft operated like a cult
Speed of the Site Should be Better Now
The "bot attacks" impact the speed of the sister site too
Getting More From AnalogNowhere
Recently we used many images from AnalogNowhere
Microsoft, Microsofters and 'Secure' Boot Shills Already Storming the LWN Report About Expiring Certificate, Shooting the Messenger
LWN has clearly stuck a nerve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Disable "Secure" Boot Today (the Only Better Time to Do So Was Yesterday)
Don't trust anything Red Hat tells you about security
Links 23/07/2025: Windows Killed Company After 150+ Years, US Government Mimics Russia's Attacks on the Media
Links for the day
Freedom Generally Wins at the End, History Shows (But It's Constantly Attacked, Too)
At the moment people realise "Linux" (e.g. Android) isn't enough to guarantee any freedoms
“Inhumane” and “Disgusting” Mass Layoff Execution, According to Microsoft Staff
The workers are looking for other places to work
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Slogan for Its 40th Anniversary
The freedoms are what's most important
LLM Slopfarms gbhackers.com, "Cyber Press" and CyberSecurityNews Are Drowning Google News (and Shame on Google for Feeding and Facilitating Them)
All are run by the same people
Links 23/07/2025: Droplets GUI Patent Monopoly Challenge, Nokia Leverages Illegal Patent Court Against Rivals
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Community in Geminispace and Challenges With Old Computers
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day