Gardinho

@billybob, thank you for taking the time to post such a comprehensive and useful post. I think I'll give Android a go, as it will be good to experience something different. The iPhone does feel premium in the hand, you're definitely right about that. Android is obviously well established, and by the time I come to change my next phone then Windows/Ubuntu might have a bit more about them in a few years. I quite like the look for the HTC. Build quality looks similar to iPhones (*disclaimer, never actually had one in my hand!). - - - Updated - - - I'm exactly the same. Apps are definitely not a deal breaker for me either.

good advice @featured_spectre, thank you.

Thanks for all the input guys. Really interesting stuff. Can anyone give a balanced opinion of either going from iOS to Android or vise versa? What do you prefer about each?

I'm glad I've found someone like-minded! I thought I was going mad and was seriously setting myself up for ridicule!

I've read the reviews. This looks rather nice!

Thanks for commenting Roberto. I know people feel very strongly either for or against Apple. I'm not either. I recognise what they do very well. I love my Macbook Pro, and have thoroughly enjoyed using both my previous iPhones over the last 8 years. Why I'm becoming more frustrated with Apple: I'm leaving myself open to criticism here, so this is just my own humble opinion. I'm particularly fed up that the hardware spec of the iPhone that doesn't reflect the price. Don't get me wrong, I love the build quality, but at £620 for the 64GB model I expect more. It's not even worth considering the 16GB model. There is also an accumulation of little things that I find tedious. I'll admit that this is childish, but the branding/marketing and how they can justify prices just because they know that people will pay it. Look at the new watch for example. Now it's obviously a nice bit of kit, but it's going to be £300! The adverts are beginning to wind me up a little, and other little things like forcing that U2 album onto everyones device. I don't want to reignite the old Apple vs everyone else debate. I also realise that Apple are the market leaders so it's obviously hilarious that some IT nerd can criticise their business model, I'm really not. I guess I'm just becoming a little bigoted towards Apple for little/no good reason. I know it sounds ridiculous! The top and bottom of it is I'm just getting a little bored with it and I'm ready for something different. What I use my phone for, predominantly, is pretty standard stuff. Emails, web browsing, GPS Navigation, remote for my xbmc/amp/tv etc. Nothing major. I'm not particularly tied in with Apple apps. I'm also a tech nerd at heart. Much much more than a trend setter, that's for sure! I'm probably after something that gives a little more control to the user. Something that will inspire me to try more tech stuff myself (which is why I thought Linux/Ubuntu). I get my contract paid for, so it's a case of just buying the device myself.

Hi All I'm a long-time iPhone user becoming increasingly disillusioned with Apple. Now looking to try something new. What do fellow geeks use and how do you rate it? I'm tempted by the Ubuntu phone just to have a play and see what I can do to customise it. I have never used Android or Windows Phone either. I'm completely open to suggestions.

I'm hanging on. Seemingly another handset will be announced next week at MWC

We bought the migration service from RM but ended up getting a refund as the service was so bad! It's scary before you do it, but it's actually quite easy. Microsoft's support is free and outstanding, and that's all you will need.

HP 2910 AL 48G Layer 3 switch

Is there a decent guide to doing this?

Our Core Switch is a HP 2910 AL 48G.

Thanks for your advise. Some interesting opinions. Seems that there isn't one standard recommended good practise. I've had a quote back tonight for £900 for a replacement, so that seems like my favoured option at the moment. I'm also looking at the option for a maintenance contract on the current switch. Will post the numbers here when I get them.

That wouldn't do VLANs too though would it?

Gents, Thanks for taking the time to comment. The general consensus is to get a replacement it, which I will probably go for. So most people on here actually already have a spare switch sitting in stock? Or is that in an ideal scenario? It should really take priority over other purchases I guess. What would worry me would be to let it run to the point of the with being EOL, so even if we were to replace it importing the config file might not necessarily work.

Thanks @fairm010. That's what I'm leaning towards doing. The downtime while we waited would just not be tolerated here. Would be interested to hear what others do too.

Hi guys, Does anyone here keep a spare layer 3 switch just for emergency? I've been thinking about what would happen (God forbid!) if our core switch failed. It has quite a complex setup, which works perfectly for our network. A replacement, identical switch would cost about £1,300, so it's pretty big money to essentially just sit there in a box. Can't way up whether or not it would be worth it to get one and copy the config over so it would essentially mean just swapping the hardware rather than completely reconfiguring. Thoughts?

run 'sudo kodi' from the terminal command, it works properly. Run 'kodi' from the terminal command it opens without access to my data.

Hi chaps, Newbie to Linux here. I have got a mysql database for Kodi running on my Synology NAS drive, which also holds all of my movies/media. In my house I have got a Windows 8 Intel NUC in the lounge, & an Ubuntu (latest release) PC in the bedroom. I have got everything setup and working perfectly together. The problem I have is trying to launch Kodi on startup. I can get it to launch fine, but it can't access my Movies and TV shows & db. I have to launch Kodi from Terminal using Sudo command to get it to access all my media. Is there a way round this? Thanks in advance. Gardinho

Another flash sale announced for tomorrow. Anyone going to try and get one? I'm still hanging on for the Meizu.

I think this is probably sound advice, for now. I'm stuck on my iPhone 4, so I'll be changing it within the next few months. Definitely looking for an alternative to iOS & Android, so this will be the answer on better hardware.

The one thing I'm struggling to find out is the integration with calendars, contacts and emails for Exchange server. I can't find out how you'd do it. This is really important to me in how I use my phone.

I think I'll get one (if I can), even it's just in the interim until a better handset comes out. It's cheap as far new phones go.

I think this is looking promising. Finally a good alternative to iOS & Android. When they release a better handset I'll definitely be getting one and finally ditching the iPhone. I've been getting increasingly disillusioned with Apple this last 12 months. £600 for an iPhone 6 is just ridiculous. Plus they give you very little with it. The cost increase is not in conjunction with spec upgrade if you ask me. Plus it would be nice to have a phone which I can actually retain an element of control over!

If it was me doing this I'd just bring up a new clean DC3 with a new IP address, transfer the roles etc and demote/decommission DC1. I'd also forget about using the old IP. It would be a pain making sure the devices were binding to the new server but it would be short term pain for long term gain IMO. DCs can do funny things with replication/DNS etc so I just think it's not worth the risk.