hatman | (no subject)

I was complaining to a friend that my laptop (Jimmy Olsen) has been feeling slow lately. It takes a while to boot up, new program windows take too long to load, etc. Even just a new chat window makes everything grind to a halt for a minute.

She asked how old it was. I wasn't sure. I thought about four, maybe five years. I went to check. The ship date was May '06. It's 7 years old.

Now, I like to invest in my computers. I don't get bleeding edge, top of the line... But I do go for about one step down from that. I figure the more I put into it at the start the longer it will last. Which does seem to be the case here.

I don't remember what I paid for Jimmy, but I'd guess around $4k. Divided over 7 years, that comes out to about $1.50 a day. Not bad, Jimmy. You have served me long and well.

But Jimmy was born in the days of Windows XP. I did upgrade to Pro, but that was it. Now I'm worried. Vista wasn't worth the bother. I heard mixed reviews of 7 (and never anything really good). And everyone seems to hate 8. Even with all that, it's still a (sort of) happy medium between the idiot friendly stay in your playpen Mac OS and the hardcore computer geek Linux. Also, all the software is made for Windows.

(Then again, I wrote all this on my phone...)

IDK. But thank you, Jimmy. I think you've earned your rest.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm not sure what reviews you heard about it, but my experience with Windows 7 was overwhelmingly positive. I did an upgrade using the same hardware that had been running XP, and found it to be faster, with a better security model, and was extremely compatible with my hardware and software. Compatibility is probably not a concern at this point in the Windows cycle, especially if you're buying a new laptop.

I have less experience with Windows 8. It's been running stable on my laptop and my parents' PC for a few months. I haven't really been pushing it very hard. The new interface works okay, but there are some odd choices that require you to adjust to them. There's also the political issue, where the only way for an app to fully integrate with the new Metro OS is to be sold through the Windows Store.

It's kind of an awkward time to buy Windows 8 hardware. The new OS spawned a lot of new ideas, and there's still a lot of sorting out to do. The Surface Pro is getting good press (i.e. from Penny Arcade's Gabe), but is expensive. There are also some extremely expensive "gaming convertibles" out there, if that's your thing. And then there's a plethora of folding/bending oddities that may or may not work out well.

It's not exactly perfect, and Mac is still a solid competitor in the laptop space. But at this point there isn't really any need to be actively worried about OS.

Hi. Not sure who this is, but thanks for the advice.

Friends elsewhere were unanimous: Windows 7 is okay, but 8 sucks. So I ordered 7.