Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8?

   / Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8? #531  
Dont get me wrong. I loved Dell in the past and still have several, dating back to Feb 2004, still running strong and hope Micheal can bring it back to what it was. But, at this time, I would hold off. You do NOT wanna get stuck like some who can no longer get a warranty part..

I think you will love Dell in the future as well now that Michael has taken over the reins again and gone private.
Dell Officially Goes Private: Inside The Nastiest Tech Buyout Ever - Forbes
 
   / Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8? #532  
OK, I'm the OP and have read every one of these posts including a fair number I didn't understand. Now I need to do something soon since mine is winding down. I am going to buy either a Dell or HP with windows 8.1 or a Mac.

Remember, all I do is email, surf the Web and take pictures. That's it. Right now I have a 17" laptop HP and like the size of the screen but don't know any different. If I get another of these I'll likely get a 17" screen.
--------------<snip>----------

Thanks for all the brilliant advice so far.
You read this over a month ago, so I will repost it to refresh your memory. :D

I think a touch screen is the most important thing to have, to be able to adjust to Windows 8. Depending on how you use a laptop, the all-in-one may work for you.

My wife has a Sony Vaio Tap 20 al-in-one. It has a 20" touch screen and came with Windows 8. She uses it for email and internet. It was a big learning curve for us senior citizens, but she likes it.




I am still on XP and a Dell Vostro 1700 laptop, but looking at the Dell XPS18 all-in-one. It has a 18" touch screen.
XPS 18 Portable All-in-One Desktop | Dell

If you get a laptop, get one with a touch screen.

Here is another new all-in-one, the Lenovo Flex 20


Pictures from Google Image Search.
 
   / Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8? #533  
You realize that a 17" screen means diagonal measurement, not width.
Since you said you "take pictures" sooner or later you will want to learn to edit those pictures. .

look at the new sony's with the stylus if you are going to do pic editing.. lots of built in software too.
 
   / Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8? #534  
look at the new sony's with the stylus if you are going to do pic editing.. lots of built in software too.

Or add a WACOM tablet which is available in a number of sizes and already has drivers in the software programs for editing.
It may be fine, but I just don't see smearing fingers or a stylus on a computer screen.
 
   / Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8? #535  
Or add a WACOM tablet which is available in a number of sizes and already has drivers in the software programs for editing.
It may be fine, but I just don't see smearing fingers or a stylus on a computer screen.
A tablet is also more ergonomic to use (IMO) than a regular display. The touchscreen on my laptop is disabled because it was more of a annoyance than it was worth.

Aaron Z
 
   / Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8? #536  
I first used a touch screen in 1985, an HP with monochrome monitor with a vertical and horizontal pattern of IR LEDs and photo receptors to detect your finger just before it actually touched the screen. Editing Wordstar documents by pointing and dragging sections of text with your finger was a novel thing that got old fast and tired your arm quickly.

Now for putting up a matrix of selections for the user to point at the desired option was a terrific alternative to keyboard or mouse. For the most part I don't like touch interfaces, especially ones designed to fit the hands and fingers of Chinese toddlers. They have their place (touch interfaces and toddlers) but are not the universal solution.

As regards the old idiot's tale of every other MS OS being crap is itself crap (or maybe Crap!) Repeating it doesn't showcase your IQ. If you are going to put something down don't just nay say, give reasons. If you have experience with programming operating systems and have developed GUIs then give your bona fides and give reasons why such and such is crap. Unsubstantiated claims, for or against a product are useless. The first thing someone getting advice should do is quality the source of the advice.

In general, listen to everyone but weight their info based on your assessment of their qualifications in the area of interest. Unsubstantiated claims pro or con backed by nothing or someone's cousin's hairdresser's neighbor's friend used a Ouija board and found ... are worse than useless.

Win 8 is neither good or bad. It depends on your needs and abilities. If your needs are great and your abilities weak then W8 will be tough for you but then so would be W7 or XP. For better or worse W8 has happened. Debating it is like debating gravity, it will have no effect. MS has NEVER had a really great OS and they aren't likely to in the future for all the same reasons. So all you Beta testers (AKA customers) buy in, learn to use what you got and stop whining like spoiled girl child. Want a better OS? Go with an open source variant of Unix with a good GUI, like for example Linux (no, not Linus, Linux!)

Patrick
 
   / Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8? #537  
My goodness, Pat. Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?:laughing: You're sure coming across as hard on those of us with lesser education, at least in the computer field, than you.:laughing:

And wonder how many TBN members even heard of WordStar. When I went to the FBI National Academy in 1986, I took my own computer TRS 80 Model IV and my daisy wheel printer with me so I could do my lessons in my room. But they had a room set up for anyone to use 24/7 with 30 computers with WordStar, but only two of those had printers. So anyone could use any of the computers, save his/her work on a floppy disk, then go to one of the computers with a printer to print it.

Of course, in 1986, a lot of officers had never used a computer or word processor. And that computer room only had an instructor there 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, so I got designated as one of the people to call on if anyone had a question outside those hours. I was using a different word processor myself, but I got in there and learned WordStar pretty quickly.:laughing: Naturally, one of the guys spent several hours working on a report, finished it, and shut off the computer without saving his work to a floppy disk. I felt sorry for him, but couldn't help him. And one night during a thunderstorm we had a power outage. Those computers were not on backup power, and neither were the elevators.:laughing: So there were a few unhappy people that night.

As for Windows 8, I sent the following in an e-mail to a son-in-law this morning:

I think I’ve about got Windows 8.1 broke to lead and I got my financial stuff loaded onto the new laptop (and converted to the new version of Quicken), and I’ve gotten my Microsoft Works word processing and spreadsheet stuff onto the new laptop (and converted to the new version of Microsoft Office).

So far, it appears to me that ALL this new stuff, Windows 8.1 vs Windows 7, Quicken 2013 vs Quicken 2010, and Microsoft Office vs Microsoft Works, is much more complicated and has an unbelievable number of additional “features” and capabilities, 99 and 44/100% of which I have no use for.:laughing: In other words, I find it just about as good, but no better than the old stuff. However, I can see how the new stuff and new features might be useful for some people. I did find a feature of 8.1 that I liked when I put all my photos on it.
 
   / Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8? #538  
So is IE-11 installed and working on your W-7 desktop now?
I was wondering if you had to do the reduced security thing on it to get into your credit union account?

Ron, I've been waiting for Microsoft to update my computer to IE-11 "automatically" but my son-in-law told me today that only "critical" updates are done automatically; that if I want the "important" and "optional" ones, I have to do those manually. So . . . I just downloaded and installed IE-11. This cable Internet service sometimes runs as high was 30 Mbps, but a speed test showed only 7.48 Mbps this evening. I didn't try to "save" the installer (maybe I should have) but I just used the "run" option. The download took less than 4 minutes and the entire process; download, install, reboot, updates, etc. took a bit less than 9 minutes. So I'm now using IE-11 on both computers, and yes, IE-11 stopped my access to my credit union account until I added the credit union to the Compatibility View settings as you had me do to the new laptop, and of course that fixed it.
 
   / Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8? #539  
No, Bird, I did not get up on the wrong side of the bed. I am not angry with a soul, especially anyone on TBN and NEVER you sir!. I reacted to other posters who were putting their resume out to give credence to their opinions. I guess from your response my intent of "Trumping" that genre worked.

We both know the old saying about opinions. I get a bit frustrated with folks who have little or no substantiated critique to make but don't let that inhibit the certainty of their comments often just recitiong whatever they hear or read with no ability to perform analyises themselves.

I'm sure you see the same thing all the time with guns. People holding forth on all sorts of technical issues like twist for 1000M AR target shooting with xxx grain BTHP bullets with plastic tip inserts. I like to ask these ballistics experts questions and often find they don't have the weapon being discussed, have never fired one at 1000M and are just repeating something from some other know nothing's blog. One of my favorites is 5.56 vs .223 ammo and chambers, their differences and how to compare pressure measurements taken by different means in different places in the test barrels.

Wordstar: Yeah lots of wet behind the ears experts probably are blissfully (Ignorance is bliss) unaware of Wordstar or 300 baud telephone modems (Hayes standard) Many of today's programs use [Ctrl + c] as a copy command, [Ctrl + v] as a paste command, etc.. Lets see a show of hands of all the gurus who know where that standard originated! BUZZZZ, times up. NO! it was not the Woz or anyone else at Apple. No it was not Billy boy Gates or anyone else at Microsoft. The control + x, c, v (etc., yes there were other letters used) originated in a Word Processor software that led the hit parade for years. The name of that word Processor was Wordstar. It predated Windows and the Mac (which was supposed to be a cultivar of apple but got misspelled... Mcintosh vs Macintosh the Woz and his minions needed a good spell checker.

OK, Bird, hope your thermometer beats mine out as I only have 32F right now at nearly 1513, the "heat" of the day. (temp, not you)

Patrick
 
   / Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8? #540  
If replies to posts were opinion-free and made only by experienced experts, then this would be a very boring forum, now wouldn't it?

Personally, when I hear the word "expert", I think "idiot", either that or "weather forecaster".

The world is a gray place, anyone who claims to have exact answers for many questions posed here is usually by default, wrong.
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2010 Ford Edge SE SUV (A51694)
2010 Ford Edge SE...
Set of Ag R4 Wheels and Tires (A52748)
Set of Ag R4...
2000 Thomas Built Saf-T-Liner MVP-ER Transit Passenger Bus (A51692)
2000 Thomas Built...
2023 Globe Booster Flipaxle (A51572)
2023 Globe Booster...
2011 JACK  130BBL (A52472)
2011 JACK 130BBL...
2011 GMC Sierra 4x4 Pickup Truck, VIN # 3GTP2WE36BG213306 (A51572)
2011 GMC Sierra...
 
Top