New Laptop - which flavour of Windows? (and other issues)
in [Laptops]
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From: Barry Watzman on 12 Mar 2010 14:52 Some of your applications are REALLY old. Quicken 98? Really, you should make upgrading to later versions a bit of a priority. [In my case, I upgraded from Quicken 98 to 2000 to 2003 to 2006 to 2010]. One problem is that you have waited SO long that you may not be able to move from 98 to 2010; you might have to try to find someone who actually has installation CDs of at least one or a few intermediate versions. Similarly with the other products. I would recommend that you go with Windows 7 Professional, 32-bit. This will give you the most options and backwards compatibility. Most things will probably work, but it's absolutely the case that not everything will. The reason I suggested Professional instead of Home Premium is that with Professional, you have the option, at least, of using "XP Mode". I think that Win 7 is better than Vista in just about every way. Also, be certain that the CPU in whatever laptop you are going to get supports "Intel Virtualization Technology". This is required for running "XP Mode", and is only supported by about half of current CPUs. You can ALWAYS take a bootable floppy and make a bootable CD that will behave EXACTLY like the floppy (although, of course, you won't be able to write to it). Roger Mills wrote: > I'm in the market for a new laptop computer. I need to have access to the > same software and data files at two different locations, and have decided > that a single laptop is preferable to maintaining two lots of hardware and > trying to keep them in synch. > > Much as I would like to get away from the clutches of Microsoft, I *need* > Windows because I've got lots of software which won't run on anything else. > > My current - rather elderly - laptop is running Win XP Home Sp3 and lots of > essential applications - many of which came free with various PC magazines, > and would cost a fortune to replace or upgrade - so my 'new' laptop needs to > be able to run all of these. I've also got a number of USB devices - > printers, scanners, MIDI interfaces, etc. - which need to work with the new > laptop. > > Most new laptops seem to come with Windows 7 - and I'm hearing comments > suggesting that elderly software applications (e.g. Quicken 98, Design CAD > 3000, etc.) which work perfectly well under XP may refuse to work under 7. > Is this likely? Is there a solution? Would I also need new drivers for all > my USB-based devices? > > Would I be any better off with Vista (which I've so far managed to avoid!) > or would I face the same issues as with 7? [One or two > half-way-decent-looking 'refurb' laptops are seemingly still available with > Vista]. > > How easy is it to 'downgrade' a Vista or Win7 PC to XP - and would that > solve my problems? [I have a valid XP-Home licence from a PC which I > scrapped - and some original (may just be SP1) media - but not the latest > version.] > > Other Issues: > How the heck do you backup and restore systems which no longer have floppy > drives? In my current setup, I have Norton Ghost 2003 which needs to boot > into DOS from a floppy - and can then clone a drive or partition to another > internal or external (or network) drive. It doesn't provide the option of > creating a bootable CD. Come to think of it, I'm not at all sure that it > would recognise SATA disks! I get the impression that later versions of > Ghost can backup the system disk while Windows is actually running. Is this > correct? Also, they seem to come with a bootable 'recovery' CD from which to > boot in order to restore a backup. Does this work ok? Is so, it looks like > I'm going to have to invest in the latest version of Ghost! > > Your comments - particularly regarding the best choice of OS for my > particular circumstances - will be greatly appreciated.
From: Bill on 12 Mar 2010 15:27 In message <hne62q$96c$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM(a)neo.rr.com> writes >I would recommend that you go with Windows 7 Professional, 32-bit. This >will give you the most options and backwards compatibility. Most >things will probably work, but it's absolutely the case that not >everything will. The reason I suggested Professional instead of Home >Premium is that with Professional, you have the option, at least, of >using "XP Mode". I think that Win 7 is better than Vista in just about >every way. > >Also, be certain that the CPU in whatever laptop you are going to get >supports "Intel Virtualization Technology". This is required for >running "XP Mode", and is only supported by about half of current CPUs. I've just been through this choice process with a friend. Many business laptops come with Win7Pro with a separate XP Pro DVD to enable you to revert if necessary, and that's what I would definitely go for. Win7 Pro lets you make a Microsoft full backup, so it's easy to be sure you have a chance of reverting back to Win7 if you feel the need and you should have all the bits to do this with no hassle. We looked at machines between about 450 and 1200 uk pounds, and eventually she chose one at the low end because she didn't seem to see much difference, and liked that keyboard. I suggested Win7, 64 for future proofing, but there seemed few of these. I've run virtual machines, but I really think that on a laptop simplicity is all unless there is a real reason for multiple OS's. At the moment she is still on 32-bit Win 7, having got most of her old programs to run. This included an old version of Quickbooks. She found the Win7 "import all your old stuff" application a nightmare. It took all night to do it and put the old software all over the place in her new machine. She is still sorting through it. -- Bill
From: NT on 12 Mar 2010 16:15 On Mar 12, 2:52 pm, "Roger Mills" <watt.ty...(a)googlemail.com> wrote: > I'm in the market for a new laptop computer. I need to have access to the > same software and data files at two different locations, and have decided > that a single laptop is preferable to maintaining two lots of hardware and > trying to keep them in synch. > > Much as I would like to get away from the clutches of Microsoft, I *need* > Windows because I've got lots of software which won't run on anything else. Have you tried it in virtual windows on ubuntu? Apps run almost seamlesly like that - the almost comes from the fact that ubuntu doesnt seem to create file associations in the win registry, but I've probably just not yet looked to see how to set it to do so. > My current - rather elderly - laptop is running Win XP Home Sp3 and lots of > essential applications - many of which came free with various PC magazines, > and would cost a fortune to replace or upgrade - so my 'new' laptop needs to > be able to run all of these. most windows stuff runs on ubuntu now > I've also got a number of USB devices - > printers, scanners, MIDI interfaces, etc. - which need to work with the new > laptop. > > Most new laptops seem to come with Windows 7 - and I'm hearing comments > suggesting that elderly software applications (e.g. Quicken 98, Design CAD > 3000, etc.) which work perfectly well under XP may refuse to work under 7.. > Is this likely? Is there a solution? ubuntu? > Would I also need new drivers for all > my USB-based devices? all built in with ubuntu - even windows 98 doesnt need usb driver installs if you install the nusb3.1 driver. > Would I be any better off with Vista (which I've so far managed to avoid!) > or would I face the same issues as with 7? [One or two > half-way-decent-looking 'refurb' laptops are seemingly still available with > Vista]. > > How easy is it to 'downgrade' a Vista or Win7 PC to XP - and would that > solve my problems? [I have a valid XP-Home licence from a PC which I > scrapped - and some original (may just be SP1) media - but not the latest > version.] > > Other Issues: > How the heck do you backup and restore systems which no longer have floppy > drives? insert ubuntu cd, switch on, and just copy across whatever you want to. This will copy windows or your data to a thorough extent that windows itself won't. If win breaks, just copy the image back to the laptop. > In my current setup, I have Norton Ghost 2003 which needs to boot > into DOS from a floppy - and can then clone a drive or partition to another > internal or external (or network) drive. It doesn't provide the option of > creating a bootable CD. Come to think of it, I'm not at all sure that it > would recognise SATA disks! I get the impression that later versions of > Ghost can backup the system disk while Windows is actually running. Is this > correct? Also, they seem to come with a bootable 'recovery' CD from which to > boot in order to restore a backup. Does this work ok? Is so, it looks like > I'm going to have to invest in the latest version of Ghost! > > Your comments - particularly regarding the best choice of OS for my > particular circumstances - will be greatly appreciated. I know I sound like a broken record on this, but seriously all these concerns and many more are non-issues if you try Ubuntu. Linux has a poor usability reputation, but ubuntu is the distro that's really changed that. It costs nothing to try, and if for some reason you still want to get windows you can buy it if and when you find linux isnt what you want. The days of linux being only for geeks are history. NT
From: Roger Mills on 12 Mar 2010 17:29 In an earlier contribution to this discussion, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM(a)neo.rr.com> wrote: > Some of your applications are REALLY old. Quicken 98? Really, you > should make upgrading to later versions a bit of a priority. [In my > case, I upgraded from Quicken 98 to 2000 to 2003 to 2006 to 2010]. One > problem is that you have waited SO long that you may not be able > to move from 98 to 2010; you might have to try to find someone who > actually has installation CDs of at least one or a few intermediate > versions. Similarly with the other products. > But why? My attitude is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"! Quicken 98 does everything I want - so why upgrade? [I did get a free millennium-proof upgrade for it - but it probably wasn't necessary because my wife is still using an even earlier version quite successfully!] > I would recommend that you go with Windows 7 Professional, 32-bit. This > will give you the most options and backwards compatibility. Most things > will probably work, but it's absolutely the case that not > everything will. The reason I suggested Professional instead of Home > Premium is that with Professional, you have the option, at least, of > using "XP Mode". I think that Win 7 is better than Vista in just > about every way. > Also, be certain that the CPU in whatever laptop you are going to get > supports "Intel Virtualization Technology". This is required for > running "XP Mode", and is only supported by about half of current > CPUs. Useful advice - thanks! > You can ALWAYS take a bootable floppy and make a bootable CD that will > behave EXACTLY like the floppy (although, of course, you won't be able > to write to it). > Yes, I guessed that that must be possible. Would you care to elaborate as to how to go about it? -- Cheers, Roger _______ Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom checked.
From: Roger Mills on 12 Mar 2010 17:36
In an earlier contribution to this discussion, NT <meow2222(a)care2.com> wrote: > > > I know I sound like a broken record on this, but seriously all these > concerns and many more are non-issues if you try Ubuntu. Linux has a > poor usability reputation, but ubuntu is the distro that's really > changed that. It costs nothing to try, and if for some reason you > still want to get windows you can buy it if and when you find linux > isnt what you want. The days of linux being only for geeks are > history. > Sorry - I accept that it's probably a failing on my part, but I can't get on with Ubuntu. My current machine dual boots between Ubuntu and Win XP - and I spent quite a lot of time trying to get to grips with Ubuntu - and failed - so I never use it now. Even simple things like getting it to accept a fixed IP address seemed to need a script of some sort to be written, and I just couldn't be arsed! -- Cheers, Roger _______ Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom checked. |