Back in the 1990s I became concerned that it took way too long for someone to provision a new laptop.

What brought this to my attention was when Intel was recommending users get laptops every two years, arguing that the impact on productivity easily justified the cost.

I observed that the people doing the briefing had products that were 3-5 years old and asked, &if replacing a laptop every two years could be justified based on productivity gains, why don&t you do it&Delving deeper into this question, I found that a lot of Intel employees refused new laptops because it could take several days & sometimes up to a week! & to get a new laptop provisioned and working correctly again.

Apple was kind of the gold standard, because migrations were far quicker and less annoying.