New Laptop

[Allen In Texas Hill Country]

My elcheapo Compaq has started acting up. The screen goes blank/blur sometimes when I move it up or down for viewing. Had it 3 or 4 years and don't mind spending another 3 hunert for a new one,,,,,,,,,,, except........

This, since retired computer geek/jerk just doesn't see the need to relearn where everything is in W7 and/or W8. And don't anybody say its all the same. This computer I'm typing on is Vista and I would never try to do any work on it. Only use it for Mozilla. Of the 6 computers I have its the only Vista. Four are XP Pro and one is W7 Home which I haven't turned on in a year or more. I'll put XP on it when the need arises.

So I started looking at new laptops and hhhmmmmmmmm, XP drivers for new chipsets seem nonexistent :<(((((.

Anybody know of a new XP compatible laptop????

Hey, I just went to XP Pro from Win 98 3 years ago.

[Cyber Liberty]

I had that situation when Vista first came out and I needed a new laptop that ran XP for my work software (I’d been told Vista would *never* be supported). Could not buy a Windows XP machine anywhere. I bought a MacBook Pro and installed Parallels, which allowed mt create a virtual computer running XP.

The rig worked fine. The guy upthread wasn’t joking you about “Buy a Mac.”

[steve86]

And Linux will run on practically anything. My 1999 Compaq 400 Mhz Celeron laptop which I keep just for kicks boots contemporary kernels just fine, and I can browse OK as long as limited to one or two Firefox tabs (forget most video).

There are plenty of left-wing kooks in Linux land, though, don’t kid yourself. The author of one distro I formerly used on the Compaq calls himself “Anticapitalista” (and hails from Greece!).

[entropy12]

Make a backup copy of all your data files. Then re-install Windows XP from scratch. It will then run as good as new, unless you have hardware problems such as corrupted files on hard drive. Run CHKDSK program to cleanup bad sectors on hard disk if any.

[svcw]

Yea, I got that.
He appears to want something that doesn’t require learn’n, apple products are user friendly and last years.

[FredZarguna]

As a professional software developer, I don't have any choice about that. However, notice I recommended he buy a Windows7 laptop. In general, I don't recommend anyone buy the dot-zero release of anybody's OS. And before the usual OS bigots from Linux and MacOS jump me, I have real hardware and VM's with both of those OS's, too, and the dot-zero release of those products are not any different from Microsoft's. I have to support them because clients insist on doing stupid things, like buying the newest "improvements," or hanging onto OS's that are many years past their useability, like Windows XP.

Pioneers take arrows. Always been that way, always will be.

[Jyotishi]

A Raspberry Pi:

What’s a Raspberry Pi?

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video....

Read more here:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

[FredZarguna]

[FredZarguna]

Their tech is not superior. I don’t care about their sex lives.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Well that would certainly come in under his $300 price target. I don’t know about the learning curve though.

[nascarnation]

I forgot to add the /sarc

Obviously Limbaugh is a huge Apple proponent

[TomGuy]

I finally went from XP to Win7 late last year.

The problem you will find with XP is that websites keep adding more and more of the lastest coding. My XP’s struggled with some web pages and wouldn’t even load others.

Go with a Win7. Top of the line processors are 3rd generation Intel I7 is the fastest, I5 next, I3 next. Also, Win7 handles more memory beyond what XP was limited to.

[svcw]

;-)

[svcw]

How sad.....

[Allen In Texas Hill Country]

Got me looking, thank you. No, W7 tries to twist my arm way up my back. The security on this Vista box is so useless in a home I have to use other computers to move files to and from it. As referenced I can only imagine W7 being more inhospitable to the home as far as total flexibility is concerend.

[Allen In Texas Hill Country]

And with Limbaugh’s putdown of Samsung is EXACTLY why I will buy a Samsung TV as soon as possible. And this is from a fan of his.

[FredZarguna]

What's really sad is that Intel makes the processor, Nvidia makes the video drive train, TI, Motorola, and other suppliers make the memory, Western Digital, Seagate, and Toshiba have all at various times made the hard drives, and BSD wrote the OS for Mac, but you continue to pay double the premium mark-up for exactly the same hardware that's used in Wintel and Linux boxes, and for an OS that Apple did not even write.

Ah well, a fool and his money, Eh?

As I said, I have to support Macs in my business. If I didn't, I certainly wouldn't waste my money on 'em. Luckily, those few I MUST buy are 100% expensed and written off.

[FredZarguna]

You can set the User Access Control to the same level as XP on Windows7. Nothing to it, and you’re done once and for all.

[JohnG45]

...has numerous problems such as audio stuttering.

I had the same problem and solved it by downloading an earlier version of Adobe Flash Player.

If you have auto-update for the Adobe Flash player, you update when reminded by Adobe that there is a new version. This problem may be inherent in the newer version. At least it was in my case.

Uninstall the Adobe Flash player on your system and install a previous version and your problem may be solved.

[Salamander]

Why I bought my Samsung HD/LED SmartTv:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV-k-4GpYLM

Seriously.

I’ll do anything he tells me to.

;D

[FredZarguna]

I love Rush, but when it comes to technology he hasn’t a clue. As soon as the Mac crap comes on, the 24/7 web page goes off for a mandatory 10 minutes, and for 10 additional minutes if I tune back in and he’s still yakking about it.