My wife’s 5 year-old laptop finally gave up the ghost and we are wanting to get something on the cheap so she can take on-line classes, write papers, etc.
We were hoping to find something around $500.
Ideally it would be the size of a MacBook Air except be a PC and run Windows 7.
It seems from looking that everything is either touchscreen with Win8.1 or Chrome based. Something like the Lenovo Yoga 2 looks decent but she has absolutely no use for a touchscreen and again it has Win8.1.
You can find a few Win7 machines around but suddenly the screens are 15" and the units are 1" thick.
So is the Win8.1 as bad as they say, or is it a non-issue if all she’s going to be doing is logging onto the university’s website, entering discussion rooms, and writing/submitting papers?
It’s not hierarchical in organization so you have to search for things that otherwise would be in All Programs but if all she really needs is a web browser and word or openoffice or whatever, those are easily pinned to the taskbar for immediate and easy access.
Literally, my biggest gripe with 8.1 is that I have to rightclick on the lower left corner to get to the control panel rather than leftclick. And I’m sure that behavior is mutable if I bothered to look it up. I have a win7 laptop and a win8.1 and I don’t notice one being more annoying than the other to use.
No, it’s not as bad as they say it is, and in many ways, it’s quite lovely.
If you don’t like Modern UI (formerly Metro) apps, you’re not obliged to use them.
If you want, you can get the look and feel of Win7 back with something like Classic shell (but you get to keep the improvements such as faster boot times, file history, a file copy dialog that handles collisions beautifully…
My wife just bought a PC with Windows 8.1 and a touchscreen when her Mac died and she loves it. A few things to get used to but overall she’s very favorably impressed.
I don’t care for the Modern UI - mostly because I don’t know where anything is and can’t be bothered to learn. I installed Classic Shell and it functions mostly like Windows 7 except better. Occasionally I accidentally open one of the slide in from the side control panels, but those are easily ignored.
8.1 takes a little getting used to, but otherwise is quite good. My only problems with it are due to using 7 at work, and 8.1 at home. There is always a bit of bobble when I first use the other system.
I’ve not really heard all that much bad about 8.1. It’s just mediocre. I wouldn’t go out and get it if you didn’t have to, but there’s no reason to downgrade a computer just because it has 8.1. There were such reasons for Windows 8–even if it wasn’t as bad as people would lead you to believe.
If you didn’t need a computer now, I’d say to wait for Windows 10 which is shaping up to be a lot better. But Windows 8.1 is fine.
Wait until you have a touchscreen, and then check back. I use a Surface Pro 3 as my mobile (tablet/laptop) device when I am at home or on the go. I get to the office, sit down in front of two 24" displays and try to swipe things on the screen. You get used to the advantage of touch VERY quickly.
There are no advantages to touch screens on a traditional display. On a small, portable one, sure, but any action will be quicker, more accurate, and simpler with a mouse + keyboard.
I don’t disagree with you and my 24" monitors are not touch-enabled, simply that once you have a touch-enabled device you adapt very quickly to using it and it becomes second-nature.
I went 2 years with Windows 8/8.1. I recently bought my first Macbook Pro, and a few of the programs I want to use do not have Mac versions, so I set it up as a dual boot. I got a copy of Windows 7 from a third-party seller.
I did not find Windows 8 to be completely awful, but I will say that being back to Windows 7 is a relief.
Windows 8 really needs a touchscreen monitor or the Metro UI is incredibly frustrating. It feels like they put a cell phone OS on a laptop.
Edit: At least to me, the UI would have been frustrating without the touchscreen because it didn’t all fit on one screen and thus you needed to swipe. I had a Sony Vaio ultrabook. I thought I had no use for such a feature either until I got that computer. My Macbook now doesn’t have it and it’s the only thing I miss.
Windows 8 works fine with a mouse & keyboard. You don’t have to swipe to scroll the start screen - just use the scroll wheel on the mouse, exactly as you would in the previous vertical oriented start menus, and the screen scrolls horizantally.
Now with windows 8.1, you can set it up so that it boots straight to desktop instead of the start screen and ignore the Modern apps all you like.
I’ve been a fan of windows 8 from the start. Now with 8.1, and peoples’ getting used to it, opinion is coming around.
So it’s not as awful as everyone says…it’s just awful enough that you can’t use it the way you want to. Oh, And you have to pay for privilege, and say thank you.
Sort of like pledging a fraternity, and saying “thank you sir” every time they beat your ass with the paddle.
Who is this ‘everyone’? Most people, both in this thread and elsewhere, say it’s not awful, and find that it is an improvement over Windows 8 at least.
Actually, it’s not like that. Not like that at all. In fact, what it’s more like is like every other fucking consumer product you buy. There’s no paddling.
People who can’t take five minutes to figure out that the guts of Windows 8 works exactly like windows 95-7 will just have to take their place on the iceflow along with the WordStar users.
It’s fine. There is a bit of re-orientation to be done but otherwise…fine.
and stable! that is a big plus, it seems to run and update in a consistent and stable manner.
Have you considered the new HP stream laptops? very cheap, very light, long battery life. It relies to some extent on the cloud but initial reports seem to be very encouraging. If you aren’t a power-user and just need browsing and writing then something of that type may fit the bill.