Refurb Win 7 Laptop or New Win 8 Laptop w/Classic Shell?

[Mendoza]

I should be picking it up tommorow or friday.

Its a Toshiba Satelite.

Windows 8

3rd Gen Core I 3

500gb hard drive

4GB or Ram

HDMI output, web cam, one usb 3.0 slot

A pretty standard set up for a budget laptop.

I'll be using it to grade papers and file docs for work when not at home.

Also allows me to use the net at work outside of the adjunct office, so that is a plus.

Its funny though, the processer is faster than the one in my older desktop. I guess since i never play games on my pcs I never really need that much in terms of power.

Maybe one of these days ill get a pc that can actually run games, but who knows.

My last pc before my current desktop still had a pentium 4 processor in it.

[Ziggy]

Mind if I ask what you paid for it? Just curious. I'm guessing $600-700.

[isiolia]

Similar machines on Bestbuy.com are priced in the $530-550 range.

[gtmtnbiker]

Having spent the last 16 months using Windows 8 on my primary development machine I can confidently say that Windows 8 is no harder or easier to use than 7 for getting actual work done. I agree that modern apps would be terrible for productivity tools, which is why the desktop is still there.

So how does that work at MS? When there's a newer OS, does everyone at the company have to upgrade to the newer version? Or just certain people in development?

It is kind of good to have people use their own product.

[fastbilly1]

It is kind of good to have people use their own product.

Funny joke about that, most ISPs use their competitors products for either telephony or internet. Unless they are old Ma Bell. During my stint at Comcast we had ATT for both at most offices, and telephones at all.

[MrPopo]

Having spent the last 16 months using Windows 8 on my primary development machine I can confidently say that Windows 8 is no harder or easier to use than 7 for getting actual work done. I agree that modern apps would be terrible for productivity tools, which is why the desktop is still there.

So how does that work at MS? When there's a newer OS, does everyone at the company have to upgrade to the newer version? Or just certain people in development?

It is kind of good to have people use their own product.

Since I'm working on the product I'm encouraged to have the latest stable version on my dev machine, and my test machine obviously gets reimaged all the time. There's a general culture of encouraging people to use the new stuff internally when it's still being worked on so that we get sets of eyes on the features from the "normal user" case. But I'm not sure what the general policy is with regards to a company-wide OS upgrade.

[Mendoza]

Mind if I ask what you paid for it? Just curious. I'm guessing $600-700.

Just Under 400

Here is the model number.

C855-S5111

Here is the best buy link

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+S ... &sellerId=

[Mendoza]

O.K here is my update on the machine.

I picked it up last Friday and was able to get it set up and running that night.

Set up was pretty much a breeze. I got classic shell and Office 2007 installed on it with no issue.

So far im having no problems using the system. The little bit of 8 that i used at first was a bit annoying, but I was able to work with it.

Now that classic shell is set up, its basically like running my normal win 7 desktop. The first thing i boot to after log in is the desktop with a start button icon. I can open programs and pin things to both desktop and start bar with no problem. Shut down works the same way as before as well.

I like the screen and even the on board speakers are pretty good. Nothing mind blowing of course, but more than adequate. HDMI output also works with no issues.

I got a laptop mouse to go with it and I much prefer that to the touch pad. Never liked those things, but i can use the provided one in a pinch.

Still need to do some system tweaking and remove a bit more of the bloat ware that came pre-installed. Also need to make a recovery disk and play around some more with classic shell to see if i can get it just hte way i like it.

I do like the ability it gives you to still use some of the features from Win 8 that seem usefull.

Overall, im pretty satisfied with the first impressions of the laptop. For the price point i think its a very good deal. Less than 400 for a machine that seems to fit all of my needs and is nice a light to boot is pretty good i think.

[gtmtnbiker]

One annoyance I have with Windows 8/2012 is the non-existent keyboard shortcuts when you are accessing a Windows 8/2012 machine in **windowed** remote desktop mode. If you switch your remote desktop session to full screen, then the shortcuts are available but not if you're in windowed mode.

[fastbilly1]

Its funny though, the processer is faster than the one in my older desktop. I guess since i never play games on my pcs I never really need that much in terms of power.

Maybe one of these days ill get a pc that can actually run games, but who knows.

My last pc before my current desktop still had a pentium 4 processor in it.

Both your old pc and your new one can run plenty of games. I highly suggest going to GOG.com and buying FTL today - its only $4 on sale.