Considering a new laptop.

[Cat Fuzz]

But I don't want Vista! Is it somewhat easy to buy one and upgrade to XP? Or will it be a total PITA? Or is there someone out there still laptops with XP installed? And what's with Ubuntu? Looks nice but will I be isolated from the rest of PC users? Will Windows programs work with it? Have I asked enough questions yet?

 

[DeathoX 8]

But I don't want Vista! Is it somewhat easy to buy one and upgrade to XP? Or will it be a total PITA? Or is there someone out there still laptops with XP installed? And what's with Ubuntu? Looks nice but will I be isolated from the rest of PC users? Will Windows programs work with it? Have I asked enough questions yet?

I don't know about Vista and XP selling, but if you want to try out Ubuntu you can do that also on your PC without messing with your hard disk. You can boot it directly from CD and try it out.
Like any other Linux it doesn't run a whole lot of Windows program, but there's a constantly improving Wine (Windows Emulation Layer) which allows to run some programs.

 

[QUALTHWAR]

I’ve worked for a couple of places where they will buy new PCs with Vista, because they must, and then wipe out Vista and install XP.

 

[Cat Fuzz]

I’ve worked for a couple of places where they will buy new PCs with Vista, because they must, and then wipe out Vista and install XP.

Yeah, but, is it difficult? Or simply a matter of formatting the HD and installing XP? Could it be that easy?

 

[Cat Fuzz]

I don't know about Vista and XP selling, but if you want to try out Ubuntu you can do that also on your PC without messing with your hard disk. You can boot it directly from CD and try it out.

How can I do this? I downloaded the image and burned it to CD already.

 

[Cat Fuzz]

Figured it out. Used VirtualBox. Hard to get a feel for it this way because it runs so slowly with XP also running.

 

[DeathoX 8]

You can just set up your BIOS to search for boot records on the CD before searching on Floppy and HD, then you can restart your system with the CD inside and Ubuntu will start automatically instead of Windows. If you want to install it you will have to do it that way, when you start up your Live CD you will see an "Install Ubuntu" icon on the desktop (and the good thing is that the Partition manager of Ubuntu is friggin awesome and while you're installing the OS you can still use it and do something else with the Live .

 

[QUALTHWAR]

you'll probably need to get xp drivers.

 

[Cat Fuzz]

Anyone else notice SP3 for Xp came out yesterday?

 

[Rukee]

I have a laptop with VISTA, no issues at all so far. Has been working flawlessly. How much are you willing to spend on the laptop?

 

[Cat Fuzz]

Well, probably not as much as you spent. Less than $1K. Preferably less than $700. I know, that's cheap but it should be better than my old lappy.

BTW SP3 seems to have fixed my choppy DVD playback. Must have been something with the transfer rate of the DVD/CD drive. I ripped a 8Gig DVD to my external HD in 30 minutes. Used to take a couple hours or more.

 

[Rukee]

Check these, they may do what you need. The one even has a 7900 go video card, should play most all of the new games, if you wanted.
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnline...line/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh
change the filter to ' XPS laptops' and 'XP Media' for the OS, then 'filter results'
I never liked DELL`s, but I picked up one about a year a go and it`s been performing flawlessly.

 

[digital-warrior]

Just bought 2 toshiba dual core laptops with 2 gig memory, and one toshiba dual core with 3 gig memory. the first two have 110 gig hd's, and the latest has 250 gig hd.
all 3 have vista, no problems yet, except for the fact none will run UnrealTournament III.
AAARRRGGGHHHH!!
They are Toshiba Satellites btw. Had two of them for 6 months now, the newest one for 1 month. No problems, and does not run slow on most games...

 

[QUALTHWAR]

Get the steam-powered model.

 

[Cat Fuzz]

I was thinking the same thing. Steam is so practical.

 

[digital-warrior]

The only thing that sux about vista is, I have only one aftermarket process running, and it tells me that 65 processes are running at any given time, and out of 2gigs of memory, I have 45% remaining. Services take up most of that. I have no firewall running, or any type of spy ware, spy ware removal, or antivirus app running. I normally check all of that stuff manually. I just wish I could get at least 65% of my memory.

 

[QUALTHWAR]

I heard something about something, and I’m trying to remember how it goes. I heard windows will use up or set aside about half your memory even if it’s not really using it at the moment. Something like that. Unless you don’t have much memory to begin with, then it will set aside more than half.

 

[Cat Fuzz]

I find that appalling.


Or I might be aroused.


Can't be sure.

 

[Rukee]

VISTA is a memory hog, but if you fire up an app that needs more memory (like a game or whatever) it will free up memory to run your apps. I've had vista on my laptop for over a year now with no issues(or crashes) at all. I do a fair amount of gaming.

 

[QUALTHWAR]

Find your arousal appalling.