Buying a new laptop PC

[chp5]

I work for myself and my computer is my life - at least my business life.

I always buy IBM [Lenovo] ThinkPads. I've had really good luck with them and that's what I'll buy again.

I have questions on the OS and memory. They all come with Vista Business. My questions are:

* I've heard that some people have a lot of problems with Vista and "downgrade" to XP. Do I need to do this? Is the whole thing overblown?

* Both OS's come with a free upgrade to Windows 7. That's set to ship in late Oct. I can't wait that long because my hard drive is full.

[Heckler]

You could buy an USB external hard drive to get you by until Windows 7 is out.

Vista does have some things that take getting used to. If you are the kind of person who embraces "new" technology you wont have an issue with it.

If you are currently using XP then you may wish to just stay with XP until 7 is officially released.

I have been using Windows 7 Release Candidate since it came out and really like it. It is definitely a step above Vista.

[-JQ-]

XP all the way...especially if you have software & accessories that are working with XP now.

Windows 7 - I'll pass. I read yesterday that 7 has a FATAL memory leak in chkdsk. It was reported that instead of stopping the release they are going to issue a pre-release patch...brilliant. It is this type of work-product that has me converting to Mac...

I'll buy a new Win OS when they re-write one from the ground up. Also the person in charge of the Office 2007 product is the same for Win7...don't get me started on Office 2007...I'll have to use the R word.

XP.

[gamingoddess]

I've gotten used to my Vista (and I use my computers A LOT). I have ultimate on my desktop and home version on my laptop. Have never had any problems with the OS or any compatibility issues (well...maybe trying to get Adobe PDF to function from Adobe Professional). Just like any other program, I have fun trying to figure out all the new stuff that's included...but that's just me though.

I say no need to downgrade, whole thing is overblown. Just my opinion. By the way, if you are getting IBM thinkpad, then how much RAM is included? I had only 1 GB and had to put in an extra gig to get the computer runnin' in the speed I wanted. It takes just a minute to upgrade it yourself though. 2GBs is good, 3-4 would be even better for a laptop.

[chp5]

Here are the specs:

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo processor T9900 (3.06GHz 1066MHz 6MBL2) 1

Operating system: Windows XP Professional (preinstalled via downgrade rights in Genuine Windows Vista Business) 1

1

Display type: 15.4" WSXGA+ TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight 1

System graphics: ATI Mobility FireGL V5700 (512MB VRAM) with Intel AMT 1

Total memory: 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM) 1 1

Camera: Integrated Camera 1

Hard drive: 320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm 1

Optical device: DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA) 1

Card Reader: 7 in 1 Media Card Reader 1

System expansion slots: Express Card Slot & Smart Card Reader 1

Wireless Card: Intel WiFi Link 5300 (AGN) with My WiFi Technology 1

Mobile Broadband: Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradable 1

Battery: 9 cell Li-Ion Battery 1

Power cord: Country Pack North America with Line cord & 90W AC adapter 1

Language pack: Language Pack US English 1

Microsoft productivity application preload: Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 - English 1

Additional software application preload : Norton Internet Security 2009 - 15 months 1

Accessories and options:

3 year onsite 9x5 Next Business Day

[lmccrock]

I stuck with XP and even paid extra to find a laptop with XP Pro, because some big CAD programs I used would not run in Vista, so no, it was not overblown for us. Otherwise, Vista works a little different but is close enough that I had no problems using it when I got my mom a laptop and it had Vista. It is possible a new laptop might have devices not supported in XP, but if the downgrade is built-in, then no worries.

I read yesterday that 7 has a FATAL memory leak in chkdsk

Yes, if you use the /r option which reads and verifies ALL data on the disk one cluster at a time. And, it is not a "leak". It uses as much memory as it can, then releases it when done, which can take a long, long time, verifying 1 cluster at a time on a multi-hundred GB disk. So, if you wait long enough, it works.

Lee

[eric nielsen]

You really [bADLY] need to have 2GB of RAM to run much of anything with Vista. In the last 12-18 months, that OS has gotten much more bloated than the original release, due to the 400,000-odd security patches Microsoft has put on it.

My wife bought a nice cheap store-sale Gateway laptop 2 years ago. Cheap in part because of 1GB ram. It has run but slowly. She & her brother don't bother with doing Vista updates. I did several months worth to it the other day and also loaded/updated my free [thank you UF] McAfee suite and the thing slowed to a crawl - maybe 2% of ram was responding to my commands.

Uninstalled McAfee and simplified some running preferences & it runs pretty smooth while I wait for 2GB upgrade boards to arrive in the mail. But that's without and virus/malware protection at all. Guessing 2009-version 500-lb full-on diabetic Vista is using at least 0.75GB just to tell me what time it is. The Gateway only has 2 slots/2GB capacity - you should really look at what your computer's max'd-out capacity is for RAM.

PS - microsoft will COMPLETELY stop supporting XP as soon as "Se7en" is released.

[outerlimits]

Two words... Snow leopard!

[gamingoddess]

Here are the specs:

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo processor T9900 (3.06GHz 1066MHz 6MBL2) 1

Operating system: Windows XP Professional (preinstalled via downgrade rights in Genuine Windows Vista Business) 1

1

Display type: 15.4" WSXGA+ TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight 1

System graphics: ATI Mobility FireGL V5700 (512MB VRAM) with Intel AMT 1

Total memory: 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM) 1 1

Camera: Integrated Camera 1

Hard drive: 320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm 1

Optical device: DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA) 1

Card Reader: 7 in 1 Media Card Reader 1

System expansion slots: Express Card Slot & Smart Card Reader 1

Wireless Card: Intel WiFi Link 5300 (AGN) with My WiFi Technology 1

Mobile Broadband: Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradable 1

Battery: 9 cell Li-Ion Battery 1

Power cord: Country Pack North America with Line cord & 90W AC adapter 1

Language pack: Language Pack US English 1

Microsoft productivity application preload: Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 - English 1

Additional software application preload : Norton Internet Security 2009 - 15 months 1

Accessories and options:

3 year onsite 9x5 Next Business Day

The hardware that you have is more than enough to support Vista. Just make sure to get rid of the crappy programs that are pre-installed and you should be good to go.

[ChrisMcCracken]

Two words... Snow leopard!

Here here! I'm waiting a month and then jumping all over it. How often do you see OS footprints drop in size with upgrades? There is definitely something to be said for cleaning up the quality of coding that goes into these OSs. There's no contest between Snow Leopard and any of the Windows options.

[davidwiz]

Two words... Snow leopard!

Here here! I'm waiting a month and then jumping all over it. How often do you see OS footprints drop in size with upgrades? There is definitely something to be said for cleaning up the quality of coding that goes into these OSs. There's no contest between Snow Leopard and any of the Windows options.

Has anyone upgraded to Snow Leopard? I'm running Leopard on two 4-month old iMacs, a 3 year-old Mac Book Pro, and a 6 month-old Mac Book.

[BritinUSA]

Here's an existing thread on the joys of Snow Leopard