windows 8.1 or windows 7

[bgant4]

Getting a new computer. Which operating SYSTEM SHOULD I get? Windows 8.1 or windows 7.

[Pirate1]

SkiMore wrote:
I prefer win 7 to win8 or win8.1.

Can you still get a new PC with win 7?

Yes. Ordered one from HP today.

[SkiMore]

I prefer win 7 to win8 or win8.1.

Can you still get a new PC with win 7?

[AllegroD]

strollin wrote:
The announcement was made 1/21/2015.

MS Windows 10 page

Microsoft announces free Windows 10 upgrade for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 users

Excellent. I had not seen those. Thanks.

Interesting verbiage:

continue to keep it up to date for the supported lifetime of the device

[strollin]

The announcement was made 1/21/2015.

MS Windows 10 page

Microsoft announces free Windows 10 upgrade for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 users

[AllegroD]

strollin wrote:

AllegroD wrote:

Forbes
Tech Republic

Both of those articles pre-date the MS announcement of Win 10 being a free upgrade and only guess at a Win 10 subscription model.

Have you a link to the MS announcement? Haven't seen it.

[strollin]

AllegroD wrote:

Forbes
Tech Republic

Both of those articles pre-date the MS announcement of Win 10 being a free upgrade and only guess at a Win 10 subscription model.

[mileshuff]

Go with both. Buy a laptop with 8.1 pro. That allows a free downgrade to Windows 7 thru a quick phone call to obtain a license key. You'll need to borrow a Win 7 install disk. I bought a replacement hard drive cheap. I removed the laptops Win 8 hard drive, installed new one and loaded Windows 7. Now I can change back to Windows 8 if for some reason I need to.

[mlts22]

There is also the security aspect. This is a moving target, so Windows 8.1 and machines certified for it are incrementally more secure than Windows 7. One item is the TPM chip and trusted UEFI... technical mumbo-jumbo... but it ensures that someone can't modify the hard disk to hack Windows without the user knowing.

[AllegroD]

strollin wrote:

AllegroD wrote:
FWIW ...

2. Please do not base a decision on the forth coming Win 10. It might be a free upgrade but that is looking like for the first year only. After that you will be likely be paying anual dues to continue with Win 10/11/12/13 etc. Have not seen the pricinig yet but appears that you will just be renting.

Win 10 upgrade will be free forever if you upgrade within the first year. If you wait to upgrade after the first year then you will have to buy the OS. No annual fees for Win 10.

Future versions might follow a subscription model but that remains to be seen.

Forbes
Tech Republic

[pnichols]

I have a high-end-at-the-time (around $1.9K) HP widesreen laptop with Vista on it ... and after 8 years I have finally got Vista to act and feel just the way I want it to ... emulating the speed, classic screens, and look-and-feel ease of use of good old XP. In fact I have an XP desktop and the user interfaces for both computers act and look alike for a zero learning curve when sitting down at one or the other.

Recently, some websites are coming up with a "suggestion" that my OS needs updating and some of their videos don't play at all or only with some messing around ... and I don't buy the argument that constant new operating system upgrades are "necessary for reliability and security reasons" ... they're primarily necessary to keep up with the cutesy stuff so forms of the various new operating systems can also be fitted on, and used on, devices for the "mobile" crowd.

But it should not have taken me years to achieve this with Vista or any other OS (and yes, I started with DOS on a PC Jr way back when, so taking this length of time wasn't just "all me"). For my toughest Vista problems I have to consult the Internet. What I find out when I do this is that surprise, surprise ... the Windoes OS 7, OS 8, and OS 8.1 PC users have problems just as mysterious and infuriating as mine have been with Vista.

When is this OS madness going to stop? Probably never ... considering the $$$$$ at stake. (By the way, my DW's 2014 model iPad with 32 GB of memory is way more infuriating to use than my tweaked-Vista laptop.)

Our laptop and desktop PC computers both have fast-at-the-time processors which are still fast relative to the processor speeds in the latest mobile devices everybody is raving about ... and are still fast enough for my gold standard test - large pixel-count digital photo processing with Photoshop. The laptop has plenty of memory but the desktop needs some more added, which is cheap and easy to do (unlike Apple products).

I'm probably going to upgrade both, soon as available, to OS 10 and I'm hoping beyond hope that it doesn't take me years to again get the two computers to look and feel like good old XP ... except being supported again by Microsoft and being able to, hopefully, now play all of the bloated, speed hogging, memory hogging code buried in today's websites.

[SCVJeff]

hbillsmith wrote:
I've been running Windows 10 tech review for 3 months and it has all the improvements that win7 users wanted in win8. It is easy to use and as others said will be a free upgrade from both win7 and win8.1

I've had Macs and Apple ipads also. I still dont get why anyone would be loyal to Apple. The reason they have free support stores is because their products are so restrictive and massively unintuitive. The reason they cost so much more is because they have to recover for free support stores.

Windows all the way. Whatever rev you choose, you will be fine.

This is turning into a bashing thread again and will likely get shut down thanks to these types of comments. If you are a windows lover, fine, but we dont need snipes about what you do and don't get about why people choose Mac over PC or visa versa. Thats frankly not your business.

As far as your comment snipe the Apple Store, once again incorrect. The Apple Store is a relatively new idea compared to how long the company has been around. And I'll bet you also had no idea that Microsoft has copied that idea to a T. And they're not even a hardware company.

[Bobbo]

When DW and I needed new laptops to replace our Windows 7 machines, we searched around till we found Windows 7 machines. We didn't want the learning curve.

[hbillsmith]

I've been running Windows 10 tech review for 3 months and it has all the improvements that win7 users wanted in win8. It is easy to use and as others said will be a free upgrade from both win7 and win8.1

I've had Macs and Apple ipads also. I still dont get why anyone would be loyal to Apple. The reason they have free support stores is because their products are so restrictive and massively unintuitive. The reason they cost so much more is because they have to recover for free support stores.

Windows all the way. Whatever rev you choose, you will be fine.

[LarryJM]

I went from XP straight to Win 7 Professional and just ordered my third laptop with that OS. I have no regrets and originally went the Pro route so I could have the Virtual XP mode if needed, but that has not been an issue. I have no experience with the various flavors of Win 8, but just based on the initial reviews when it first came out I just didn't want to mess with it and would have been happy to stay with XP if that had been an option. I've been working with every flavor of OS from DOS in 1984 to present except for Win 95, Millenium, and Vista and of course Win 8/8.1. Heck my favorite was Windows Workgroup 3.1 with XP a close second 😛

I don't think I would ever consider going to the dark side since IMO that means loosing all control and having what you can and can't do dictated to you so it's basically Apples way or no way.

Larry