davieG Posted 9 July 2014 Posted 9 July 2014 I need an operating system for an old lap top as I removed my Vista from it and installed the Windows 7 that came with a desk top but it's saying it's illegal and wont up date. Recommendations welcome they need to work with Google Chrome and Skype oh and to be simple to install and run.
Bryn Posted 9 July 2014 Posted 9 July 2014 Do you mean an alternative to Windows generally or just to 7? Cause Windows 8 is great or you could go old school and acquire the excellent XP.
davieG Posted 9 July 2014 Author Posted 9 July 2014 Do you mean an alternative to Windows generally or just to 7? Cause Windows 8 is great or you could go old school and acquire the excellent XP. Yes windows generally, i'm looking for something free as I don't want to spend anything on the laptop as it's only used for holidays.
Bryn Posted 9 July 2014 Posted 9 July 2014 Probs worth a look at Ubuntu then. Never used it myself but meant to be easy to use.
Biggus Posted 9 July 2014 Posted 9 July 2014 Ubuntu - definitely. It is free, runs on old PCs with not much memory. You can install Firefox and Chrome. Much less chance of a virus and infrequent product updates. I have it on our old home PC and working from home use it for radio/tv/iplayer etc. Usually on in the background as i work from home.
Fox92 Posted 9 July 2014 Posted 9 July 2014 I used to run Ubuntu, it's free and there's no license codes. You can use most of the same applications - Chrome, Steam etc - it just might take some time to get used to. As a massive Google fan, I'm planning on installing their OS.
me_plus_one Posted 9 July 2014 Posted 9 July 2014 Elementary OS is supposed to be good. Its based on Ubuntu and the interface looks simailar to a Mac.
Bryn Posted 9 July 2014 Posted 9 July 2014 How can anybody be a "massive Google fan"? Surely there's a general consensus that Google are a necessary evil, like radiation or greenhouse gases.
Fox92 Posted 9 July 2014 Posted 9 July 2014 How can anybody be a "massive Google fan"? Surely there's a general consensus that Google are a necessary evil, like radiation or greenhouse gases. Well, I use Google+, Mail, Drive, Docs, News, Chrome, Search, Maps, and YouTube. What's not to like about that? And they're supposed to be a great company to work for. Prefer them over Microsoft and even Apple.
ozleicester Posted 10 July 2014 Posted 10 July 2014 Ubuntu, used it a few years ago after getting so incredibly pi55ed off with Vista. Pretty smooth once your comfy with it. Win 7 was great... Win 8 is a fvcking shambles IMO, confused whether its a tablet or a desktop and clumsy and frustrating.
Fox92 Posted 10 July 2014 Posted 10 July 2014 You're a weird guy, You're telling me nothing new. I already know that, as does everybody I know.
Bryn Posted 10 July 2014 Posted 10 July 2014 Ubuntu, used it a few years ago after getting so incredibly pi55ed off with Vista. Pretty smooth once your comfy with it. Win 7 was great... Win 8 is a fvcking shambles IMO, confused whether its a tablet or a desktop and clumsy and frustrating. Windows 8 is fantastic, for two reasons. Firstly, it is significantly faster than any previous incarnation of Windows. And secondly, and what people don't seem to realise, is that it gives you an enormous amount of power to configure how you access your programs, you don't have to run Metro like it's a tablet. You can have a traditional desktop or you can do what I did. I don't have a single icon on my desktop, I love pressing the windows key and bringing up the new start menu with all my frequently used programs right there to click, or for anything else you just type in the program/file name and hit return. It functions brilliantly once you set it to how you want it.
davieG Posted 10 July 2014 Author Posted 10 July 2014 Seems my laptop is not on the supported/tested architecture list.
Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo Posted 10 July 2014 Posted 10 July 2014 Win 7 was great... Win 8 is a fvcking shambles IMO, confused whether its a tablet or a desktop and clumsy and frustrating. Correct, Windows 8 can suck a diçk. It was clearly never designed with laptops or desktops in mind. Having said that, I hated Vista and 7. XP was perfectly good, so they threw all manner of RAM-sapping bollocks at it to make Vista (and seemed to manage to make most hardware and software completely incompatible along the way), Windows 7 just felt like Vista but patched slightly.
potter3 Posted 10 July 2014 Posted 10 July 2014 It takes about 5 minutes to delete all that tile shit and get a traditional start menu on 8.
ozleicester Posted 11 July 2014 Posted 11 July 2014 It takes about 5 minutes to delete all that tile shit and get a traditional start menu on 8. If people are doing that..kinda suggests that the OS is shit doesnt it? And for me it goes deeper than just the tiles/metro crap, im no comp geek so fvcking around in the registry aint my cup of tea. to me... XP was smooth and logical, Vista fvcked it all up, 7 dragged it back to logic...8 fvcked it up again.... can only assume the next one will be more sensible.
Merging Cultures Posted 11 July 2014 Posted 11 July 2014 Well, I use Google+, Mail, Drive, Docs, News, Chrome, Search, Maps, and YouTube. What's not to like about that? And they're supposed to be a great company to work for. Prefer them over Microsoft and even Apple. I am with you on this. My wife and I have Nexus 5 phones and Nexus 7 tablets. I use all their services and much prefer them over apple.
Bryn Posted 11 July 2014 Posted 11 July 2014 If people are doing that..kinda suggests that the OS is shit doesnt it?No. It just means there's more than one way to use it.
potter3 Posted 12 July 2014 Posted 12 July 2014 If people are doing that..kinda suggests that the OS is shit doesnt it? And for me it goes deeper than just the tiles/metro crap, im no comp geek so fvcking around in the registry aint my cup of tea. to me... XP was smooth and logical, Vista fvcked it all up, 7 dragged it back to logic...8 fvcked it up again.... can only assume the next one will be more sensible. Er, not really. You don't need to be a 'geek' to download a program and click install. I've never owned a Windows computer before, and have never used Windows 7, but 8 doesn't seem all that different from XP machines I used at school/work, discounting the Metro interface which is easily disabled, as stated.
ozleicester Posted 12 July 2014 Posted 12 July 2014 Er, not really. You don't need to be a 'geek' to download a program and click install. I've never owned a Windows computer before, and have never used Windows 7, but 8 doesn't seem all that different from XP machines I used at school/work, discounting the Metro interface which is easily disabled, as stated. Its a new OS, i really shouldn't need to download a program to work around it. As i said, for me, its less user friendly, its not just the metro thing, there are more issues with folder usage, shortcut creation and general top level usage. I acknowledge it has some better things, the search on metro/tile page is excellent. However i believe its designed for tablets and doesn't work as well on desk/laptops
Fox92 Posted 12 July 2014 Posted 12 July 2014 I still don't get why they changed the interface. People all over the World have been using Microsoft operating systems for many years now, and the interface is a big part of their identity - the start button, the taskbar - so why change something completely when it's accepted/good? Change is ok, for instance when they got rid of the start button and just added the Windows button, but I don't understand why they completely changed it. I've only used Windows 8 a number of times, when I've used other peoples systems, and it was quite "challenging" at first but I got used to it. I'm not sure I'd like it as my OS though. It wasn't just the lack of taskbar and start button for me, I didn't like how I couldn't access aspects such as "run" at ease compared to their previous operating systems. It is less user friendly compared to 7 and XP, I agree. It probably would be suitable for a tablet.
Bryn Posted 12 July 2014 Posted 12 July 2014 The taskbar is still there. As is the start menu, in a more readily searchable format. Also, the "run" feature can now be used by hitting the Win key and typing away.
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