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View Full Version : going to buy a new laptop soon & have a question


fada
12-05-2007, 06:24 PM
i'm wanting to buy a laptop for my personal use at home-- (things like watching videos of my favorite show which i've purchased through amazon's unboxed videos... there are 13 episodes so i'll need at least enough memory/space for these, keeping up w/ budget stuff so spreadsheet stuff for that, word processing software, resume stuff, check email, download music, burn cds, watch dvds, this sort of thing). i really didn't think buying a computer was going to be as complicated as it has become. i asked the IT guy we have used at our office what type laptop he recommended since i've never had my own laptop before. he suggested a toshiba satellite-- he sd any of the models ought to work fine for what i want to use it for. two or three other people have also suggested toshiba satellites. i figure that's got to be a good sign. then comes the problem. i learn that the operating system in computers now is this vista stuff & that it's not compatible with much of anything. YUK!!! i literally get enough migraines as it is. i truly don't need anymore. really. i came across this website the other day while trying to do some research on vista v. xp & thought i would post an entry on the forums to see if anyone could offer any help as i'm looking for an objective, knowledgable source to help me make this decision. i've never worked w/ vista in my life. as a matter of fact, i only heard of it recently for the first time. i know i have windows xp professional on my computer at the office where i work & i had a compaq desktop computer at home once & it had xp on it & i was fine w/ xp on it. i know i don't want another compaq computer though. i'm on a tight budget and had planned on going out the weekend after thanksgiving & buying a toshiba satellite until i learned about the vista ordeal. i have since learned i could buy xp & have it installed, but one computer person (a friend of a friend of a friend who works w/ computers) told me that he wouldn't suggest doing that right off the bat. he didn't have time to go into why not. another computer person sd he would suggest doing that. how do you know what to do??? sooo ... since i can't wait until the kinks are worked out w/ this vista stuff, i guess the dilemna is whether to 1) buy a laptop w/ vista & deal with it, 2) buy one w/ vista & get rid of the vista & have xp installed to replace the vista immediately, or 3) have a laptop specially made with xp. with my limited knowledge of computers these are the only options i've come up with. if anyone knows of anything else i can do or has any suggestions/answers to my dilemna please let me know because i'm trying to DECREASE the number of headaches coming my way from this if you know what i mean. from the research i've done it sounds like watching videos (& this is a really important feature to me on the laptop) isn't one of the best things about vista at this point. from what i've seen thus far, i'm afraid in order to get a toshiba satellite w/ xp on it, i'm gonna have to have it specially built. i hope i'm wrong b/c that's definitely going to be more than i was hoping i was going to have to spend.

thank you!!

looking forward to responses...

shadowpr
12-05-2007, 07:39 PM
I definately wouldn't suggesting getting a laptop with vista and then trying to install xp. You will probably encounter problems with drivers.

I believe there are some laptops that you can get with xp on it, but not 100% on that.

As far as getting a laptop with vista, that should be fine for what you need as long as the laptop has 2gb of ram. Vista has been out for a good while now and is stable. All newer programs work with it, and I believe most older programs that worked with xp can work with it.