Hi.

My friend has asked me to buy a notebook for him. That's no problem for me, but I am currently somewhat uncertain about the choice of an OS. Should I go for:

• a cheaper/faster/still popular/familiar Windows XP?
  
• Or should I go for the pretty/modern/bloated/slow Windows Vista?
  
• Should I wait for 7?
  

The notebook will be cheap, so I'm not sure about it's performance with Vista and the friend has never seen Vista (bummer).

Another thing: Should I buy a notebook without an OS and buy one separately or should I buy a notebook with a pre-installed OS (which is cheaper but probably won't be able to change later).

Last but not least - Linux is not an option, so please don't bother.

WAIT FOR WINDOWS 7...It is so good I am trying to get it to have my babiez!!
If you cant wait, grab one with no OS and install Win 7 beta yourself.

How cheap are we talking? From experience 7 runs much much better on 1GB of RAM than Vista (i.e. I would never recommend a PC with 1GB of RAM for Vista, but I might for 7).

Depends on memory < 2GB get XP, >= 2GB get Vista.

I'm not sure about the situation where you are - but here you can't really get PC's without Vista pre-installed, and laptops with no OS / XP are usually a fair amount more expensive than their Vista couterparts.

I'd wait for 7 either way tbh.

Quote from Jakg :

I'm not sure about the situation where you are - but here you can't really get PC's without Vista pre-installed

You can ask for a downgrade, I guess?

Where I'm buying, the XP notebooks are a bit cheaper then Vista notebooks...OR...at the same price, you get a better equipped notebook with XP than with Vista. So I'd go for the XP pre-installed one.

But will my friend be later able to buy 7 when it comes out and upgrade from XP without spending unnecessarily much money?

...and I still have to see which is cheaper: the no-OS notebooks with OS bought separately or the OS-equipped notebooks.

Yeah but it all costs more.

Vista's not that bad (as long as you have <2GB of RAM), but with 7 coming fairly soon and being such a good OS i'd wait for it (although if you can get an "No OS" laptop for £60-£70 less then you should put Win7 Beta on it and then pay for 7 when it comes out).

Quote from Jakg :

Yeah but it all costs more.

Vista's not that bad (as long as you have <2GB of RAM), but with 7 coming fairly soon and being such a good OS i'd wait for it (although if you can get an "No OS" laptop for £60-£70 less then you should put Win7 Beta on it and then pay for 7 when it comes out).

I really can't put 7-beta on it because only God (as in Bill Gates) knows how long it will work before the real 7 comes out. Another thing is that my friend doesn't speak English. XP and Vista are both available in Slovak, but 7-beta isn't. 7 will be available localized few weeks after the official release.

The only thing why I don't want to put Vista on it is that stupid UAC. My friend is a computer "analphabet" and I don't need phonecalls every 5 minutes about "a warning screen that has popped up". I know that it can be turned off, but in such a situation I find XP safer and without any nagging exclamation marks in your system tray.

Disable UAC, then stop Security Centre from notifying you, then stop the security centre service. Nice 'n simple.

Quote from breadfan :

I really can't put 7-beta on it because only God (as in Bill Gates) knows how long it will work before the real 7 comes out. Another thing is that my friend doesn't speak English. XP and Vista are both available in Slovak, but 7-beta isn't. 7 will be available localized few weeks after the official release.

The only thing why I don't want to put Vista on it is that stupid UAC. My friend is a computer "analphabet" and I don't need phonecalls every 5 minutes about "a warning screen that has popped up". I know that it can be turned off, but in such a situation I find XP safer and without any nagging exclamation marks in your system tray.

Get the slightly better equipped version with XP. You (he) can always upgrade to either Vista or 7 later if he chooses to.

I guess I'll go for the one with XP. I'll chose a configuration that would be "upgradeable" in some ways (free RAM slot for example).

I think XP is still good enough for todays standards and for my friend's needs (Office, movies, internet) and he is familiar with it already. Windows 7 will be here soon, but I guess it would be better to still wait a few moths to shake things down a bit. Then, I'd tell him to upgrade it from that XP to 7, skpping Vista all the way. That's what I would do with my purchase.

Thanks everybody for your advice and opinions, you have certainly helpled a lot

Apple Macbook?

Quote from breadfan :

Hi.

My friend has asked me to buy a notebook for him. That's no problem for me, but I am currently somewhat uncertain about the choice of an OS. Should I go for:

• a cheaper/faster/still popular/familiar Windows XP?
  
• Or should I go for the pretty/modern/bloated/slow Windows Vista?
  
• Should I wait for 7?
  

The notebook will be cheap, so I'm not sure about it's performance with Vista and the friend has never seen Vista (bummer).

Another thing: Should I buy a notebook without an OS and buy one separately or should I buy a notebook with a pre-installed OS (which is cheaper but probably won't be able to change later).

Last but not least - Linux is not an option, so please don't bother.

most shops will give you the windows downgrade...


no computer wizards i know will touch vista unless their un-installing it. Fact.

Quote from theirishnoob :

no computer wizards i know will touch vista unless their un-installing it. Fact.

Bullshit. Fact.

EDIT - I know lots of self confessed "it wizards" who hate Vista, but they tend to know nothing about computers...

Indeed, anyone who even cals themself an 'IT wizard' shouldn't be left unattended with anything more advanced than Word.

I love the way everyone still bashes Vista!

Vista X64 is the best OS out imho, if your having problems with it I would be 99% sure its probably a driver of some sort. Not exactly Microsofts fault some companies cba to make stable drivers for some older hardware.

Typing off my new G1 Phone