Shoutbox

Government computers (and computers from basically any other organisation that leases them) are used in controlled environments, the computer is in virtually the same configuration as it was in when new. With private computers, people have changed things, so there may be broken/low-quality/strange components that will give you trouble later. Given this, and that they are configured to begin with to have the same type of computer used by tens of people to thousands of people, you can expect a standard of quality from the computer. However, since the users don't own the stuff, they treat it more harshly than otherwise (eg rather than find the problem and fix it properly, kickthe machine and hope it starts working otherwise just take it to helpdesk). Also, even though there will be a standard fo quality you can expect, this standard isn't necessarily high. For example, NSW schools use IBM/Lenovo computers, with nicely overpowered processors, but with extraodinarily low quality ram meaning that they can be unreliable.