Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8?

[sixdogs]

Sounds like you already ordered the new laptop,.

...

.

Nope--this is too good of an education with knowledgeable people so a few weeks won't hurt. . I have narrowed it down to either an 8.1 version installed or a Mac. We are used to a 17" screen so might have to accept less if it's a Mac. All we do is send email and surf the web. It would be nice if the Mac were less expensive.

 

[westcliffe01]

sixdogs: Depending on your location in OH, I would be happy to help with a Linux Mint install. It sounds like that with the use you have, you should be able to do everything with Linux. Mint 15 is so close in interface to XP that you should have no difficulty with it. Mozilla Firefox is the default browser and with adblock and Noscript installed your browsing experience will be pretty painless. I have skype on mine and it works perfect. Youtube and other videos run fine in the browser or media player. Open office will allow you to open office files and edit them.

Newegg has a Dell wih a 17" display for $480 but it is frequently worth while to try to set one up with the biggest battery you can get since they tend to be power hungry, particularly if playing DVD's etc. Newegg.com - DELL Inspiron i17RV-818BLK Intel Core i3 3227U(1.90GHz) 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 17.3" Notebook Windows 8

Linux Mint is free of course and it might take an hour to install it and download any missing drivers.

 

[pacerron]

Nope--this is too good of an education with knowledgeable people so a few weeks won't hurt. . I have narrowed it down to either an 8.1 version installed or a Mac. We are used to a 17" screen so might have to accept less if it's a Mac. All we do is send email and surf the web. It would be nice if the Mac were less expensive.

I have a Dell 17" Studio Laptop with w-7 that is 3 years old now and works great. I use it in the evenings while watching TV, like right now. I particularly like the lighted keyboard, which is a complete keyboard like a desktop. Some of the smaller screen laptops, in all brands, have a smaller keyboard with no numbers pad and require some weird key combinations to do things.

You can still order Dells with windows 7 according to a sales catalog I got this week in the mail.
I use the IE browser and Chrome browser both open at the same time. Firefox has fallen behind, IMO, but that might start another argument with some folks.
The IE 11 on the windows 8.1 is supposed to be faster than IE 10 and appears to be so, the little I have messed with it.
IE 11 will be available for W-7 and I will install it on this laptop and on my windows 7 desktop.

 

[westcliffe01]

100% killing all the java, banners and other scripts so that they don't even download has done more for my browsing experience than any fancy browser. I have not had to pay for or mess with any form of AV in the last 5 years and have had zero issues.

If I view yahoo mail with and without adblock and noscript, you would not even believe it is the same web page. With both enabled, it is a clean (almost) text only page like some of the old usenet sites and loads as fast as heck. Without, it is the kind of unsatisfactory mess that seems to be everything nowdays. Ads, banners, popups, more than half the screen just for advertising I have absolutely no interest in and don't want to waste bandwidth downloading. Many of the same comments apply equally to this forum and most others I frequent.

Since the administrators of these websites refuse to allow us to choose what content we want to and don't want to see through the control panel, we have to find other ways to "regulate" what we are willing to see and download and right now I have not found anything close to Firefox in that regard.

 

[madmax12]

Nope--this is too good of an education with knowledgeable people so a few weeks won't hurt. . I have narrowed it down to either an 8.1 version installed or a Mac. We are used to a 17" screen so might have to accept less if it's a Mac. All we do is send email and surf the web. It would be nice if the Mac were less expensive.

You do sound like a good candidate for the Chrome Google cloud notebooks. Another poster mentioned those. I've not used one, but for emailing and surfing only (your stated purpose), those may be worth a look.

 

[pacerron]

100% killing all the java, banners and other scripts so that they don't even download has done more for my browsing experience than any fancy browser. I have not had to pay for or mess with any form of AV in the last 5 years and have had zero issues.

Since the administrators of these websites refuse to allow us to choose what content we want to and don't want to see through the control panel, we have to find other ways to "regulate" what we are willing to see and download and right now I have not found anything close to Firefox in that regard.

If you right click on the big ever changing "Flash Banner" to the right of TBN at the top of every page or the one that is on the right edge, and then left click on "Global Settings" it will take you to the Adobe Flash Player -Help. hat explains how to control Flash easily on Windows and Mac computers.
Java went through a real mess last year. As soon as one hole was fixed another idiot would find another to mess it up.
Uninstalling all older versions of Java that are lurking on your hard drive, since they are not removed in the updates, is a good maintenance practice. There are some sites that just won't work without Java. If you come across one and need to use it to download a tax form or something else, you can have Java on your computer but just disable it in your browser Add-ons.
In IE, for example, you can just click on the gear in the upper right corner and then click on "Manage Add-ons"
You might be surprised at all the junk that has been added on to your browser, in the way of tool bars, that you have agreed to, but don't really need, that just take up valuable screen space, particularly on a small laptop screen.
One nice feature of the W 8.1 Metro is that it hides all the taskbars in that view automatically. You don't have to click F11 to get a full screen and you don't have to get out of the full screen to see other pages or tabs as pointing the mouse to the top left corner displays thumbviews of the other pages to click on.

 

[dmccarty]

...
Java went through a real mess last year. As soon as one hole was fixed another idiot would find another to mess it up.
Uninstalling all older versions of Java that are lurking on your hard drive, since they are not removed in the updates, is a good maintenance practice. There are some sites that just won't work without Java....

Java releases updated versions every 3-4 times year due to security issues. These are regularly scheduled though sometimes a Java update can be released between schedule code drops if enough severe problems have been found and fixed. Most of these vulnerabilities are browser and applet related. One should keep your Java version updated to the latest release to provide the most secure environment possible.

This does not mean you have to install Java 7 if you have Java 6. The Java vulnerabilities are fixed on all supported Java releases. You just need to get the latest version of the Java you have installed.

This link will tell you what Java version you have running, allow you to update to a later version, and give instruction on removing or disabling Java. Verify Java Version

Later,
Dan

 

[sixdogs]

Westcliffe--thanks for the offer.

pacerron--is this from the Dell catalog? EDIT--How long will they support W7?

The Google Chrome sounds good but I have read a lot of bad press about them.

 

[oosik]

I had PC's and Windows OS for years and all the required "anti-whatever" software programs that were required to keep it operating. I now have a MAC - ABSOLUTELY NO ANTI-WHATEVER SOFTWARE - have had this Mac system for six year - never had any virus's, or any other type of malware. If you want a computer that operates without all the added "anti-whatever" baggage get a Mac.

 

[330T]

as a director of Information Systems for a large school that runs several MAC computers, I'd suggest you get Norton AV for your Mac. There are plenty of nasty maleware programs that will attack Safari and your mac or iOS device.