Windows 8.1 laptop coming to an end Is Linux any good?

Spender£

One of my laptops still has windows 8.1 and i have tried many time unsuccessfully to upgrade it to 10 or 11.

I am wondering if to instead go for Linux or something like that instead,

I would love an easy solution any ideas?

MattMattMattUK

Spender£ said:

One of my laptops still has windows 8.1 and i have tried many time unsuccessfully to upgrade it to 10 or 11.

I am wondering if to instead go for Linux or something like that instead,

I would love an easy solution any ideas?

What do you intend to use it for and what software do you use on it?

Olinda99

Windows 8.1 is upgradable to Windows 10. Are you able to say why you can't do this?

Miser1964

TBH, I'd buy a reconditioned business laptop which has Windows 10 Pro like an HP Elitebook. Anything from Windows 8.1 era must be creaking.  

debitcardmayhem

Miser1964 said:

TBH, I'd buy a reconditioned business laptop which has Windows 10 Pro like an HP Elitebook. Anything from Windows 8.1 era must be creaking.  

Rubbish , I have a windows 7 era laptop with runs 10 fine with a SSD(oh and it also works fine on W11)

Olinda99

agreed - if it runs 8.1 acceptably it will run 10 equally acceptably.

What is stopping you from.upgrading ?

Norman_Castle

I use Linux on two laptops, they mostly work fine. I use it to avoid paying to upgrade to newer versions of windows not because I enjoy the technical side of software. I've found hardware manufacturers often don't provide software for it, Swann cctv and TomTom sat nav from memory, there will have been others. I also find Linux user forums difficult to use as the forum users insist on typing code into boxes to solve everything whereas windows users often provide a solution through the operating system. You can put Linux onto a flash drive and run a computer from that without installing it to see if you like it which isn't too difficult to do.

I find windows less troublesome which it should be as a paid for product.

Be interested to know about your failure to upgrade windows. I've got an 8.1 tablet which needs upgrading.

Grey_Critic

You can get W10 FREE from Microsoft here

www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

I upgraded a desk top 3 weeks ago no problems - once it start just leave it - took a couple of hours for me including all the updates.

outtatune

The OP has already said they've tried to upgrade to W10 without success, so simply telling them that they can easily upgrade to W10 is hardly helping.

OP, if you need the laptop for web based stuff, or for mainstream stuff where there's a Linux app, then any W8.1 laptop should run Linux just fine.

Linux Mint is a good option, very easy to install, lots of hardware support, friendly community.

https://linuxmint.com/

pinkladyvenus

I run Linux on two desktops that previously had Windows on them, I have been doing so for a number of years. I would not go back to Windows. I find Linux much more user-friendly and so much easier to upgrade when I need to at no cost. If I have a problem at any point with Linux I find it easy to locate a solution on one of the dedicated forums.

debitcardmayhem

outtatune said:

The OP has already said they've tried to upgrade to W10 without success, so simply telling them that they can easily upgrade to W10 is hardly helping.

OP, if you need the laptop for web based stuff, or for mainstream stuff where there's a Linux app, then any W8.1 laptop should run Linux just fine.

Linux Mint is a good option, very easy to install, lots of hardware support, friendly community.

https://linuxmint.com/

Yes they say that but don't expand on why they couldn't , there are plenty of people on here who would help.

As for Linux I would suggest that the OP tries a few "live" distros , a useful tool for that and for Windows ISO boots too is Ventoy https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html. A popular linux for Windows users is Zorin https://zorin.com/os/