[Tom S.]

I have an old Dell D430 Core 2 Duo 12" laptop with XP that I use for travel.

Wow, what do you do while waiting for it to boot up - go to a movie?

[ChrisPlatt]

It boots up and is ready in under 50 seconds, which is fast enough for me.
I'm sure it'll be faster using Linux.

I have worked on and with PCs for the last 25 years.
The latest and greatest hardware doesn't really impress me.
Further my personal computing needs are quite modest.
I use my "old" (2007) D430 primarily for Internet browsing.

Lotsa bargains out there if you can live with hardware that's a couple years old.
Kinda like DSLRs, don'tcha think?

Thanks bleeding edge people!

Chris

[tuco]

...
Apple has the edge over Windows simply because their OS works better.
..

I have Mac Pro because I have a mixed UNIX environment and it works well with them. However, Apple is behind in photo editing and seem to have abandoned high end video and photo work for their consumer i-stuff. They do not have a 10-bit path to wide gamut monitors. They seem to refuse to create the missing link, the video driver, for it. Windows has had that capability for several years now. Rather odd for a company that seems to promote their platform as the "creative" one.

[scratchpaddy]

I bought an 8GB Sandisk thumb drive with a bootable copy of Linux Mint 13.

You might want to try Lubuntu instead. It's based on Ubuntu just like Linux Mint, but it's optimized to be as lightweight as possible to run on older hardware. There are even lighter ones out there, like Puppy Linux, but they don't enjoy the same level of support as the many Ubuntu derivatives.

You know, Ubuntu switched to a touch-friendly, small-screen interface called Unity three years ago. It was called "unity" because it was designed for both netbook (mobile) and desktop computers. Sound familiar? There was a huge negative backlash, and it was a big reason why Mint became so popular, since it continued to use an offshoot of the old desktop-friendly Gnome 2 interface. Perhaps Microsoft should have learned from someone else's mistakes.

[reeftool]

You might want to try Lubuntu instead. It's based on Ubuntu just like Linux Mint, but it's optimized to be as lightweight as possible to run on older hardware. There are even lighter ones out there, like Puppy Linux, but they don't enjoy the same level of support as the many Ubuntu derivatives.

You know, Ubuntu switched to a touch-friendly, small-screen interface called Unity three years ago. It was called "unity" because it was designed for both netbook (mobile) and desktop computers. Sound familiar? There was a huge negative backlash, and it was a big reason why Mint became so popular, since it continued to use an offshoot of the old desktop-friendly Gnome 2 interface. Perhaps Microsoft should have learned from someone else's mistakes.

Ubuntu is still traveling that road. They recently announced a new version that will work on everything from phones,tablets to desktops. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I wonder if it will work any better than Windows 8.

[guinnessman]

A couple weeks ago, I bought a new laptop (a Dell of all things and from Best Buy of all places), but between Amazon having to collect sales tax in CA and BB's more aggressive pricing, I can't legitimately complain. This Dell has a 13.3" screen, a decent Core i3, and is about twice as fast as the 6 year old Toshiba it replaced, weighs less than 4 pounds, and cost about $300 less.

I'm probably one of the few users here that has been using 8 since launch, and and have no major issues with it, although now that I've gotten a laptop with 8 pre-loaded, I like it better with something that supports gestures. While at times, I find the schizophrenic personality jarring, I've gotten accustomed to the live tiles, I like having continually updating info feeds...bigger problem, is that outside of MS' metro UI apps, I've found most metro apps to be lame. They look and feel like giant phone apps.

Outside of that (for the most part), it's just a tweaked Windows 7, boots quicker, sleeps/wakes quicker, just as stable. Other things I like, is the integration of my Live account, so that my info is synced between my desktop and laptop. What doesn't fall under "for the most part", are certain things that MS buried under metro, like accessing PC settings, or putting my PC to sleep (in 7, I could hit the Win key, then arrow over a couple times to the sleep dialog, now it's Win+I, then arrow down about 3-4 times).

But MS has been making little changes like that since XP, some of the changes made sense (global search starting in Vista), others (changes to networking), just add overhead.

[Tom S.]

I see where MS is releasing an update for 8 this summer. That's got to be a record!

[Docrwm]

I see where MS is releasing an update for 8 this summer. That's got to be a record!

The rumors are that it will remove the Metro interface with the "Apps" and allow the user to elect to return to a real Windows interface with an actual on-off button and other features that are slightly necessary. They were told in no uncertain terms by a large number of their Fortune 500 companies that Win8 as it exists will never be adopted. Problem is that they were told that during early beta testing and ignored them and in their arrogance said that they'll learn to love it. Nope.

[ChrisPlatt]

You might want to try Lubuntu instead. It's based on Ubuntu just like Linux Mint, but it's optimized to be as lightweight as possible to run on older hardware. There are even lighter ones out there, like Puppy Linux, but they don't enjoy the same level of support as the many Ubuntu derivatives.

Running it should be no problem for anything made this century.

Linux Mint 13 system requirements:

x86 processor (Linux Mint 64-bit requires a 64-bit processor. Linux Mint 32-bit works on both 32-bit and 64-bit processors).
512 MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
5 GB of disk space
Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution
CD/DVD drive or USB port

I chose it because it is the most recent version with long term support (through 2017).

Chris

[Nitrogliserin]

W8 works faster than W7 but it's not full of new ideas.

[Docrwm]

You may all now call me a Visionary!

5 software upgrades that flopped - Slide Show - MarketWatch
Computer users want software to get better, faster, and more full-featured. At the same time, those who use the same programs every day tend to recoil at the slightest changes. Microsoft MSFT -0.96% was the latest company to draw ire from loyal users over an “upgrade.”

The company admitted this week that the its new operating system, Windows 8, needs some work. Users will be given a choice between the new panel-style screen and the old Windows desktop. With Windows 8, Microsoft ditched the old Start button, which confused many customers. Critics said users weren’t adequately prepared for the change. “This is a case where the frog jumped out of the pot of boiling water before it was cooked,” says tech analyst Jeff Kagan. The company is working on an update that will be available later this year, dubbed Windows Blue, which will provide more options for consumers and business users, Tami Reller, Microsoft’s head of marketing and finance for Windows, said in a recent interview. “I think about it as Windows 8+,” she said.

Remember, MS never, NEVER admits they were wrong. Just look to their official position on their pop-up paperclip "assistant" called "Clippy" officially (released in 1997) and less polite things commonly:

Microsoft retired Clippy in 2001; a company spokeswoman says he was neither unpopular nor short-lived. That said, some people still love to hate him. The character lives on in YouTube parody videos with titles like “Clippy Must Die” and “Clippy Gets Clipped” and even appeared in one episode of “The Simpsons.”

[mattb123]

That will be a nice addition and what they should have done from the start. The tablet interface is good to have but a choice between that and the desktop interface really makes the most sense.

Another bad thing is that some of its features are so advanced that the old systems does not support these and not even the new one. Simply it takes me two hour to install Skype into my i7 laptop. Also the themes are just look like an mobile phone application.

[Docrwm]

It's so bad that I have gotten several emails, including one today from Dell, saying something like "Staying with Windows 7? Check out our full range of Win7 options!" Two months ago finding a BNIB Win7 unit was very hard, its MUCH easier today and places like Dell are putting money into advertising that they offer their computers with 7 instead of 8. That's how bad Win8 is for the mainstream end user.

[scratchpaddy]

places like Dell are putting money into advertising that they offer their computers with 7 instead of 8.

That's a smart move by them. I only bought 8 because it was $40. I figured they'd fix most of the things that make it so inconvenient for desktops, and they are. They're just really dragging their feet on it.

Still, judging by the number of people still using XP , you should be safe with 7 until at least 2020.

...Actually, I'm not sure that's a joke.