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Ask Slashdot: Buying a Laptop That Doesn't Have Windows 8

Posted by timothy on from the craigslist-if-available dept.

First time accepted submitter Sagan's Pie writes "I'm starting to look for a laptop for college, and the only thing I seem to find are laptops or tablets that have Windows 8. I have used Windows 7 for a long time now, and would not have a problem giving it up, but not for Windows 8. After visiting many major online retail sites, I've found that finding either a Windows 7 laptop, or even a laptop without an operating system is nearly impossible. So where should I go if looking for laptops sans os, or at the very least sans Windows 8?"

4 of 570 comments (clear)

  1. Just try it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    The only difference is it's a start screen instead of a start menu. It's really not that bad once you give it a chance.

    All this anti new UI stuff cracks me up. WHO MOVED MY CHEESE?!?!?!

  2. Re:Try NewEgg by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1, Troll

    Well so far every mac user I know spends almost all of their time in windows. I'm not sure why you'd pay a premium (double and sometimes triple the price) to have OSX when you never really use it.

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  3. Re:Is it normal ? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1, Troll

    If you swap out Explorer on Windows 8 with a Windows 7 one (possibly slightly modified; I haven't tried it), you'll get a Windows 7 experience. The other differences between 7 and 8 are infinitesimal. Metro completely disappears. (Except for things like the session manager, which are really just decorated to look like Metro.) This is what (at least some of) the "third party start menus" actually do, which is why you can't keep the ribbon in Explorer if you install them.

    The result is really best described as Windows 7 SP2. Not an inferior product in any sense, although working around the modified files may require a bit of effort when it's time to update.

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  4. Re:Try NewEgg by myowntrueself · · Score: 1, Troll

    "they just bought a Mac because it looks cool"

    Bingo. Where I work lots and lots of people carry their MBPs from meeting to meeting in style but most of them run win7. They've bought into the Apple "style" but still want to get things done. I don't get it personally. I've never thought of my computer as a fashion accessory but I'm not going to judge them. Buy what works and you like.

    LOL

    in my last job I asked for a Mac Pro because I wanted a *nix workstation that wasn't Linux. Because if it was Linux I'd spend half my time messing around with customising it. OSX is so amazingly uncustomisable I'd have to focus on my work. And its *nix under the hood and a great powerhouse workstation.

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