Wanting a new computer... What OP system?

[Tilar]

Looking at either Windows 7 or 8. I've played with 7 before and it's ok. I've never messed with Windows 8. Which is the better of the two?

I hate to leave XP but may put it on another drive in a dual boot just because it's so damn indestructible. 

[A383Wing]

I have heard 7 is better than 8 user-wise....I really liked XP as well.....I'm still running Vista...

Bryan

[JB400]

Windows 8 is better if you have a tablet or a smart phone.  It's a pain if you have to use it on a regular computer.  I have it and would instantly go back to 7 if I could.  Having to drag a program to close it is a pain, especially if you have a laptop and primarily use the built in mouse touchpad.

[b5blue]

7 here runs fine. 

[4cruzin]

I have a lot of PCs still running XP but at this point, I am slowing moving towards windows 7 . . . Not many good comments about 8.

[b5blue]

My buddy is a bit of a comp. geek and has stuck 8 on several computers with no issues. 8 is great for touch screen with the scrolling tiles thing but he's put it on no computers with that feature, they are older units. Still works just different navigation method to get used to. 

[Fred]

XP was great but I'm also happy 7.

[polywideblock]

last one was vista now  7 no problems so far

[68X426]

XP effectively goes away in April with no support or security updates from Microsoft.

In our business we use 7, having retired all the XPs. I think XP was better for general office and computing, but 7 is just as stable and dependable.

From the folks I've met who have gone with 8, it is a disaster. Very unhappy, several have "downgraded" to 7. The tech people we rely upon have told everyone flat out to buy 7 for business use, office suites, data crunching, etc.

These geeks think that 7 is slightly better than 8 in their tests. http://usabilitygeek.com/windows-8-vs-windows-7-speed-and-performance-testing/

[twodko]

I was always a diehard PC user until my last one croaked. I bought a shiny new Toshiba laptop with 8 as it's OS. to say I was disappointed even angry at all the personal information it demand during the setup process would be an understatement. 

I brought it back the very next day, started looking closely at an Apple Mac Book Pro and that was all she wrote.

My Mac Book Pro is awesome.

[71_Charger_R/T]

I was always a diehard PC user until my last one croaked. I bought a shiny new Toshiba laptop with 8 as it's OS. to say I was disappointed even angry at all the personal information it demand during the setup process would be an understatement. 

I brought it back the very next day, started looking closely at an Apple Mac Book Pro and that was all she wrote.

My Mac Book Pro is awesome.

I agree! I was a diehard PC guy too! I had all the arguments against Apple, But now that I've gone Mac, I'll never go back!

[Tilar]

Wow, lots of good responses. Always in the past I have built my own systems, but I haven't done any in probably 7 or 8 years and things change a lot in that time frame and what I do see, I can buy just about as good as I can build with a lot less money than I can build.

Best buy has some decent deals but everything they have is windows 8,  Newegg has quite a few with 7 on them. 

[Troy]

Windows 7. Leave 8 for the tablets and touch screens. It's nearly as big of a flop as Millennium and Vista. Microsoft is redesigning it already (putting the START button back in). I stayed on XP forever but I like 7.

My boss has a Mac Air with Windows 7 installed. It's pretty awesome! We run too much Windows only software to actually use the Apple OS but some of the hardware is really cool.

I ran one of my home computers off a flash drive using a Ubuntu (Linux) for about a month. Nearly all my Windows programs would run using Wine. Speed was good and it recognized all my hardware.

Troy

[68X426]

Best buy has some decent deals but everything they have is windows 8,  Newegg has quite a few with 7 on them. 

Dell's online ordering system works very well. You can order any configuration you heart desires, and they have every possible version of 7 available.

[68X426]

what he said

[BrianShaughnessy]

If you can get  a touchscreen get the 8.    8.1 is a little better than the 8 but you still end up looking for a way to go back to the classic screen setup like 7 has. 

XP is dead.  Vista was DOA.  7 works well enough.

[ODZKing]

XP and Vista at home with no problems although I prefer XP.
We have 7 at work here and again, no issues. 
I have 8 on my windows phone, works well there but I have heard bad things about it on a computer.

[Dans 68]

IF you can go with a mac.    Sounds like Windows 7 is what you want to use if you stay with the pc. Better yet, put Windows 7 on the mac!   

Dan

[Ghoste]

So if you put Windows on a Mac doesn't that defeat the purpose of getting the Mac, or does it still run Apple stuff as well?

[Ram07]

I'd go Mac... little more costly, but...


Can you even put windows on Mac?

[Dans 68]

Yes.

Dan

[Troy]

Computer history (about 10-15 years worth) according to Troy...

Up until a few years ago Apple had proprietary hardware (processors, motherboards, etc.). One big problem was software vendors having to write code specific to this configuration. With Windows having such a huge market share the vendors thought it was a pain to write Apple specific code. They just weren't making any money for all the effort they were putting into it. Apple was known as the "go to" system for graphic artists and video editing - but the newest software (Photoshop is a prime example) actually ran faster/better on Linux and Windows (the Evil Empire). Naturally, this made users (Mac Zealots) have a hissy fit! With the X86 performance race between AMD and Intel heating up, Motorola (Apple's processor supplier) was having great difficulty coming up with an answer. Apple saw the opportunity to do away with the proprietary hardware (they weren't hardware manufacturers after all) and get better performance by converting their operating system to be Unix/Linux based - which was already written to take advantage of standard PC hardware architecture. Plus, it was continuously being updated! By someone else! They switched this around version 10. You still got the "Apple experience" with a pretty user interface and cleaner organization but the internal hardware was all essentially the same as everything else. That allowed Apple to focus on usability, compatibility, and cool accessories without being bogged down by something outside their expertise. The average Apple disciple was happy once again, Apple discarded the biggest impediment to their performance problems, and software vendors didn't need to keep large teams of programmers on hand to support a small segment of end users. Sales (and profit) went up, user adoption took off, and there was money laying around to expand the business (iPhones for example).

A side effect is that this also opened the door for users to run any OS they wanted. Apple has some really awesome packaging (especially MacBook Air and cinema displays) but not everyone is enamored with the OS. Now you can buy the nifty doodads and still run whatever operating system you're most familiar with. Heck, you can run all of them on the same machine if you want! It's relatively easy to run Windows "virtually" within the Mac OS and you can open a "shell" and drop into the Linux underpinnings. For a "power user" this makes the machine incredibly versatile. If, however, you buy an Apple product and change the OS out completely then, yes, you'll lose the Apple specific (user interface) features.

Troy

[Tilar]

Well, I ended up going with 68X426's suggestion and went to Dell.  One system I have now is a Dell that I bought as surplus from the City of Grove City, Ohio and it has been pretty bullet proof.

In the past I have always built my own but I haven't done any in 7 or 8 years. I ended up buying two. Mom's system died the other day so she's getting an Intel I3 with 8 gigs ram, a 1T hard drive and a 21" monitor. I'm buying a 4th gen I5 with 8 gigs ram and a 1T hard drive, both running Windows 7.  They should both be here within a week.