New laptop - Windows Free.

TheSkints

Eyeful said:

£10 against the cost of buying a new computer is I think well worth investigating. After all this is a Money Saving Expert forum. 

But my laptop is unfortunately shot. I've opened it up and cleaned it but the keyboard and touch pad are done for  My main point is that I need a new laptop and thought it's would be a good time to get a non Windows one.

Frozen_up_north

You can do a lot with a humble Raspberry Pi. I have several but you will need a screen and keyboard. They run Linux type programs pretty well despite their apparent low specification. They also consume very little power.

Many of us use them for dedicated applications, one of mine creates a network subnet, so my home network appears as 192.168.xx.xxx when accessing it remotely with a VPN.

See https://thepihut.com/

Even a 3B+ is very capable when it comes to basic web and office uses.

Undervalued

TheSkints said:

prowla said:

sheenas said:

You could away buy an apple or chrome based system as being the only really viable alternatives IMHO. The issue is your are simply changing from Microsoft to another company i.e. Apple or Google. I have used Linux for over 30 years for various projects and wasted much of my time installing alternative to windows products. If its simply email and browsing then maybe a chrome book, but if that was the case why have a laptop in the first place? 

My main PC (which I am using now) is running Linux and it is no more intensive to configure and use that MacOS and Windows.

However, you do implicitly make a good point, ie. are there any specific applications you need to run?

• Most OS's have adequate email & web browsing apps.
• Most OS's have office tools (word processor, spreadsheet), but if you specifically need MS Word and Excel (and no others are 100% compatible, not even MS Office on a Mac), then you need Windows.
• Paint & drawing tools?
• etc.

If you do have oddments you need, then you can use "virtual machines" to run a self-contained computer in a dedicated window.

• I have one running Microsoft Office on Windows 7 and another on Windows 10.
• I even have one running Windows XP, for compatibility with a couple of old pieces of hardware

Of course, that could be meandering into techie-land, but the point is that running legacy applications need not be a ball and chain.

I don't want to go off point on my own thread but I have been using LibreOffice for years and it's always been cross compatible with MS Office things I've had to deal with in the past.

According to their website there is also a Linux version.

For editing (paint and drawing) I've been using GIMP (just checked their website and again there appears to be a Linux compatible download).

Not sure about Virtual Machines, but it's something for me to look into in case I run into any problems. But as I have moved away from MS products in recent years I might not have such an issue if I can find a laptop that doesn't have (m)any problems with Linux (Mint most probably).

Now Skype is dead. The only MS app I currently still use (occasionally) is Teamviewer - so if I can get that working (or find a Linux alternative that I can install on the only devices I need to connect to) then the job should be a good one.

Maybe so but obviously that is what everybody says until they run into a problem!

I have seen and done my best to help others with templates, which work perfectly in MS Office 365, being unusable in Libra and other open source Office programs.

It may be perfectly adequate if you are simply producing your own work but as soon as you want to collaborate with others using the real thing then there can be problems.

GIMP is (was) a powerful image manipulation program. Although it looks superficially like Adobe Photoshop some of its ways of working are very different. These days it perhaps compares to how Photoshop was five or more years ago. If that is adequate for your needs then great but it seems to me that it is not developing to keep up with all the AI based features in the "real thing".

Yes, I know this is a money saving site but there are also such things a false economies! If you are happy to live with the limitations then fine. Otherwise however, how much hassle does one want to save the price of a cup of coffee out each week?

jshm2

Buying new non-Windows you're looking at a Chromebook or Mac, Though the new Chinese HarmonyOS isn't on the market yet .

You can by Linux preinstalled machines from some manufacturers. But they tend to be mainly for business users. 

debitcardmayhem

TheSkints said:

Eyeful said:

£10 against the cost of buying a new computer is I think well worth investigating. After all this is a Money Saving Expert forum. 

But my laptop is unfortunately shot. I've opened it up and cleaned it but the keyboard and touch pad are done for  My main point is that I need a new laptop and thought it's would be a good time to get a non Windows one.

Erm, there is are wonderful devices called wireless(or even wired) keyboard and mouse …. 
I have them for my old i5-24xx which has a knac*d kb/tp and it even runs W11

ididgetwhereiamtoday

My young son put Ubunto on a very old Del Latitude for me and it runs like a dream.

Best thing is I can use youtube without the Adds and other websites thanks to the add blocker.

DullGreyGuy

prowla said:

DullGreyGuy said:

prowla said:

• Most OS's have office tools (word processor, spreadsheet), but if you specifically need MS Word and Excel (and no others are 100% compatible, not even MS Office on a Mac), then you need Windows.

What parts of MS Office for Mac are not compatible when passing files back to Windows user @prowla

There are a few features missing from the Mac version, like stepping through formulas, and a few odd bits like not being able to create gradient fills (yet it displays them and you can copy paste them) but with many years of using a Mac with MS Office never had problems with sharing files with Windows users and that includes some very large complex spreadsheets created by actuaries. 

TheSkints said:

As an old schooler I do not do much streaming (apart from Youtube) - so need a laptop with some decent memory storage as I plan to transfer my library from my old HD.

I had to update my previous laptop a couple of times so I wouldn't want anything less than 16gb of RAM and then the memory to be at 1TB if possible (certainly 512 minimum) SSD or a combination of the two. I mainly just watch movies and listen to music . . . so decent graphics and sound card a must. 

Lastly, can anyone foresee any problems with trying a new OS? I will be a beginner at that.

I have read that certain makes of laptop can be a real PITA and not that compatible with Linux etc.

As an old schooler would have thought you knew the difference between memory and storage. 

Why do you need decent graphics card and sound card? Movies dont need a decent graphics card, and having one won't add anything to the movie. Music doesnt need a decent sound card unless you have a suroundsound setup but in most cases that would just be a passthrough to an external decoder anyway. 

"The problem" is if you dont like the OS what other options you may have with installing other OS on the machine. The other is you may have particular applications you want or need to use that may not be supported by your choice of new OS.

I've tried Linux a couple of times, originally RedHat then Ubuntu, but this was a long time ago and for me there was too much having to go back to the command prompt to do stuff. I strongly suspect they have come on a long way since but haven't left the need to go and try again. 

Mrs wanted a Mac many years ago so thats what we got, then getting other Apple devices I ultimately replaced my laptop with Apple. Personally, the hardware is great, most the integration between devices is outstanding but the OS is just different rather than markably better or worse. Having now gotten an Apple CPU there is no option, the laptop must run MacOS, though can run non-Mac virtual machines. 

I've seen colours not match and formulae anomalies like you say; I'm guessing if you use Mac proprietary fonts too.

Menu options may not tally (but then again they don't from one Windows version to the next!).

That said, it has been a while since I've been swapping files back and forth (in both directions).

it is in that last .05% of compatibility, which is why I specified the 100%.

If you're using the tool for collaborative work then you don't want to get sidetracked into faffing about with inconsistencies.

Ok, guess it depends on what you mean by "100% compatible", to me that was a file cannot be made in one and sent to the other and opened properly. Guess it could also mean all tools you can use on a file but then different versions of Excel all in windows environment equally wouldnt be fully compatible either. 

I do use XLS every day in a collaborative environment and as a non-employee have to supply my own kit which happens to be a Mac and inevitably my client's all use windows machines. 

Maybe colours could display differently, though that can be down to the monitor as much as anything, but given I'm colourblind it's not one I will pick up on. Certainly fonts could be an issue but they equally could be between two windows machines if a non-standard font has been selected. 

Was just curious as have never had issues but would be good to know if there are some. I am a fan of Apple products in general but not really of MacOS. 

Vitor

- there are also such things a false economies! -

True, some posters on MSE make me smile with their 'hair shirt' miserly and parsimonious ways. Most be a lot from Aberdeen on here

DullGreyGuy

Vitor said:

True, some posters on MSE make me smile with their 'hair shirt' miserly and parsimonious ways. Most be a lot from Aberdeen on here

Unfortunately this site encourages price over value; some learn the hard way that buying cheap can be very expensive in the long run.

Vitor

 - some learn the hard way that buying cheap can be very expensive in the long run.- 

And don't account for there own time in "tinkering" with 'apt', 'sudo' and the like to get a minimally working system.