Windows 8 - is it essential?

[minxthemanx]

Am about to buy a new laptop, and some of you have been v helpful with advice. However, the Toshiba c50 that I've more or less settled on has Windows 8, as do most new laptops from what I can see. I've yet to find anyone that likes Windows 8 - we have it at work, and I can't stand it! Forever trying to work out how to get back to home page etc.....most reviews I've read of latops say similar, that it's a pain. How necessary is it? There is the odd laptop around still with Windows 7, so am wondering whether i'd be very foolish to go for that?

I foolishly bought a machine with W8 pre-installed, couldn't stand it, and bought W7. It was quite tiresome removing 8 and putting on 7 as 8 hides itself irremovably in the BIOS. Also I ended up wasting about £80 and a segment of my life.

A sensible seller will let you buy whatever you want.

I usually get mine from Novatech, and buy them naked, plus buy Windows and install it myself (so I get the full installation disk and can reinstall or fit a new hard drive in case of crash).

Thanks for that. I think I'll talk to Toshiba and also John Lewis, tech support tomorrow, and ask them about, windows,7.

I have a feeling that Microsoft is strong-arming laptoy makers to get them to bundle the loathsome W8.

I would be totally unsurprised to find there is a pricing policy to punish non-W8 shipments.

If you are happy to buy online you can get laptops with W7 preinstalled and W8 disks. That's what I did just before Xmas.

You might find 8.1 is better.... haven't bothered to get it but they have apparently replaced the Start button which is a Start...

Windows 8 together with the program start menu 8 gives you everything you had in 7 (Access to program files and control panel etc) also I find windows 8 faster than windows 7.

The metro tiles are brilliant too...so perseverance is the key here.

My Dad, who teaches adults computer skills to adults (predominantly the elderly, of which, to be fair, is is one ), reckons W8 is the work of the devil. IT professional DH can often be heard muttering about it under his breath.

So I'm sticking with my W7 laptop, despite the fact that it randomly decides that it has no wireless ability, and did the scary blue screen stuff far too many times during my dissertation.

Windoze 7 is somewhat shite.

Windoze 8 is total and utter shite.

Ubuntu Linux is free and so is lots of Linux software.