Ask Slashdot: What Should A Mac User Know Before Buying a Windows Laptop?

New submitter Brentyl writes: Hello Slashdotters, longtime Mac user here faced with a challenge: Our 14-year-old wants a Windows laptop. He will use it for school and life, but the primary reason he wants Windows instead of a MacBook is gaming. I don't need a recommendation on which laptop to buy, but I do need a Windows survival kit. What does a fairly savvy fellow, who is a complete Windows neophyte, need to know? Is the antivirus/firewall in Windows 10 Home sufficient? Are there must-have utilities or programs I need to get? When connecting to my home network, I need to make sure I ____? And so on... Thanks in advance for your insights.

Comments

wow

[Anonymous Coward]

ask your son he probably knows more about computers then you do

Avoid the crap

[Cyberglich]

One reason pc laptops get a bad rep is the good deals are full of crapware. Pay a bit extra for a Microsoft signature edition (usually less then $100 more then same hardware) but these have ZERO crapware and have had extra driver testing.

Re:Raise your child properly

[rtb61]

First up gaming laptops have a real problem, overheating to death. Basically whilst they last they last, but once warranty is over don't expect them to last more than say three times the warranty period. They run hot, real hot and system elements will fail. That is a high powered gaming laptop. Reality is for gaming get a good desktop and for school and other stuff get a cheap near disposable notebook. Cheapest notebook pretty much anything running Linux and a range of free open source software will be good enough (for computer learning experience they now have a foot in both games, windows for gaming all it pretty much can sort of be relied on for and Linux for everything else). So desktop to play games and the cheapest possible Linux notebook for school work, some of the work can still be done on the desktop. Just remember to remind them M$ will be spying on them and not to 'you know' in front of the microphone and camera that M$ is monitoring.

Re:ugh

[whoever57]

4) remove IE, install chrome

Isn't that the wrong order?
https://imgur.com/gallery/9TxW...

mac are thin overpriced and hard to fix good chice

[Joe_Dragon]

macs are thin, overpriced and hard to fix he made an good choice and that is just for gameing but for all.

One word

[TomGreenhaw]

Surface

Are you guys serious?

[River of Souls]

What is this, AOL? This such ridiculous FUD I can't believe it.... the shame!

- Good computing practices are good computing practices, regardless of which platform you use
- Teaching your kids safe computing practices, again, irrespective of platform
- I don't consider MACs significantly more or less secure than PCs running Windows, but I doubt we will ever know...
- How fast were MACs hacked in the last hacking contest?
- If MACs had a 90+% market share, they would be under attack too...

Now, I am in the Windows camp, because that and VMware is what pays my bills, but I am just as likely to recommend MACs, I have been using computers years before either came along. It all depends on use case.

So, for "safe computing" advice, and again, regardless of platform:
- Practice least privilege, so yeah don't run as admin regularly, only when you need to, and only when you initiate it
- Use "defense in depth", don't rely on any one method
- Run a good anti-malware / anti-virus program, possibly more than one, (Malwarebytes, etc.)
- Run an ad-blocker, which has other benefits as well
- Run a good router / gateway / UTM (like Sophos), rather than the one from your ISP or Best Buy so you can filter the Internet for your kids and so forth
- Use a password manager + physical two-factor authentication
- Learn how to properly secure your wireless networks
- Back up your data, with one copy preferably off-site
- Run the latest supported OS you can, keep up to date on patches
- You might want to use a local firewall, especially if it is a laptop
- I am sure others can chime in with additional suggestions....

And separately from this, for this use-case:
- Get a laptop if you must, but for gaming Windows Desktops are still at the top of the food chain
- But, which games are we talking about specifically? MACs can run more than they used to... (again, use case)
- If you have a Windows desktop/laptop, but you like MacOS, run a nice hackintosh, only use Windows for the games if you like
- How about just dual-booting your MAC into Windows? Not perfect, but might do the job just for games
- Lastly, you will save a fair bit of money, I don't think anyone really disputes that MACs are more expensive, unless it is a very high end Windows box
- Plenty of Windows laptops with sexy hardware similar to or rivaling MACs

-RoS

Re:Windows 10 Field Guide by Paul Thurrott

[lucm]

I can only imagine that it's peer-pressure convincing his kid that he needs Windows. ("No! You need to play *this* game, specifically.")

This is not peer pressure, this is social gaming. They all get the same game and half the fun is talking shit over bluetooth headsets while you murder each other and/or work together to rob a bank or kill a dragon. There's nothing wrong with it, this is the same kind of thing that us dinosaurs used to do in LAN parties, except now it's done over the web and doesn't require you to carry your desktop computer to someone's basement.

Sure you can find solo games on any platform (or get your kid a connect-4 board in the $5 bin at 7-11) but to play high quality games with the best multiplayer features, you need a good machine running Windows. That's how it is.

Re: subject

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha ha ha, no. For most consumer laptops, youâ(TM)ll be lucky if you can even find replacement parts after the first year, never mind on the cheap.

Re:Raise your child properly

[mjwx]

Ever notice how they always get viruses

Spare me this tired meme from 20 years ago.

We've got five Windows 10 machines in our family, used by me, my wife and my two kids. I just let Windows Defender do its thing and I haven't seen a virus in years.

This has been the case for years. Mac OS is no more or less secure than Windows since XP SP2. The major cause of insecurity remains the user and almost all Windows malware is now user installed and its worse for the Mac because the Mac user believes it's automagically protected (and the cure for Malware on a Mac is to buy a new Mac*).

Also remember that almost all malware this day and age is intentionally non-destructive. They've taken a leaf from microbiology and if a virus kills its host, it cant propagate and send spam, DDOS or mine Bitcoin.

* OK, you could re-install OSX but having to do this for simple problems is why I stopped doing Mac support over a decade ago.