"Refurbished" (?) Laptops
The price looks attractive. I can afford one... Walmart, Woot, whatever... Here is an online dictionary definition for "Refurbished" Refurbished In computer technology, refurbished refer...
Forum Discussion
As to the age of a refurb computer, whether this matters at all depends on what you are wanting it to do. If you want to run exotic new software that requires a lot of power, you may not be happy with a refurb. Most people, however, will never know the difference with the suite of software normally used in the home. I’m writing this on a 2008 computer running Windows XP. It still runs great, otherwise I might replace it.
Compare the system requirements for the software you want to run to the specs of the computer you are considering. I don’t like to cut the requirements too close, because I do a lot of multitasking, and I buy a little more computer than the minimum needed to run my software. Also, software gets bloated over time due to updates, which will slow the computer down eventually. Buying a little extra capacity is good insurance against having to replace the machine too soon due to software bloat.
Besides, when you buy a new computer, you will have to buy most of your software again. I am persuaded that Microsoft bloats its software over time so that we will need to buy a new computer or suffer intolerably slow processing. That lets them sell us a new copy of Windows, plus MS Office, etc. They have planned obsolescence down to a science.
As an aside, I will note that Microsoft is still updating Windows XP. I actually purchased a copy of Windows 7 shortly before support supposedly stopped for XP. I decided against installing it when I was putting together an upgrade plan and realized how much custom configuration I would have to do again on this machine if I installed a new OS. So far, no problems.
The home user is likely to first notice a problem with an outdated OS when he or she buys new peripheral hardware (printer, etc.), and is unable to find the driver software to work with the old OS. In my experience, that doesn’t happen too soon, as hardware manufacturers will provide drivers for unsupported OS in order not to lose a sale. Again, check the system requirements for new peripherals.
Wayne
Compare the system requirements for the software you want to run to the specs of the computer you are considering. I don’t like to cut the requirements too close, because I do a lot of multitasking, and I buy a little more computer than the minimum needed to run my software. Also, software gets bloated over time due to updates, which will slow the computer down eventually. Buying a little extra capacity is good insurance against having to replace the machine too soon due to software bloat.
Besides, when you buy a new computer, you will have to buy most of your software again. I am persuaded that Microsoft bloats its software over time so that we will need to buy a new computer or suffer intolerably slow processing. That lets them sell us a new copy of Windows, plus MS Office, etc. They have planned obsolescence down to a science.
As an aside, I will note that Microsoft is still updating Windows XP. I actually purchased a copy of Windows 7 shortly before support supposedly stopped for XP. I decided against installing it when I was putting together an upgrade plan and realized how much custom configuration I would have to do again on this machine if I installed a new OS. So far, no problems.
The home user is likely to first notice a problem with an outdated OS when he or she buys new peripheral hardware (printer, etc.), and is unable to find the driver software to work with the old OS. In my experience, that doesn’t happen too soon, as hardware manufacturers will provide drivers for unsupported OS in order not to lose a sale. Again, check the system requirements for new peripherals.
Wayne
