I honestly can't wait to hopefully see if I'll have a new laptop with Windows 8. It's really not that bad.. however a couple of months ago I installed the Windows 8.1 release preview on my old laptop for testing purposes and the graphics card was really glitchy. I'm sure that's changed though for the final version.
Old laptops and new operating systems tend to not mix very well and might as well not give you a real picture of what you're actually getting with it. While it might seem to be something sensible, there's a reason why new hardware almost always work better with a newer operating system. They tend to support more... in both ways.
I like Windows, but I just don't like the direction that they're headed with their computer operating system. They are trying to make it look and behave sort of like a tablet, which I, unfortunately, am not a big fan of. d: I may switch over to OSX at some point in the future. I already have an iBook (and it's in totally new condition), but it's been released ages ago. It's completely outdated now. Mac are extremely pricey these days, so I would have to save some money from my paycheck for about six to seven months before I'm able to buy a new one.
Even if you want to get a Mac, for the same price as a Mac, you can also get a nice, beefy Ultrabook, gaming laptop, or maybe
both in the same machine. Just remember to check the screen, keyboard, storage, and graphics options - most laptops and desktops that are priced like a Mac should have sufficiently fast processors.
I really like the choice and flexibility of mid-size laptops, though my laptop can actually be qualified as an Ultrabook, weren't for its thickness (It's just 1.95 kg, but it's too thick by a few centimetres.) for all the ports, vents, and stuff - not to mention the optical drive. Hey, it at least have user-accessible components!
I'm ... all right with Windows 8. Though I haven't done much other than browse the internet on my mom's computer which I think is already virused. You can't use Firefox on it and while I'm not sure about Chrome (maybe I should casually download it onto her desktop sometime) you can really only use IE. Not really sure about anything I just said though haha.
My sister is getting a laptop really soon though. I'm wondering if there is anything that someone can recommend that isn't too pricey? I don't know much about the current laptops that you can buy and don't think I want to base it on my own experience. But we both want to make sure her laptop can last a while since we wouldn't know the next time she can get one. Don't want her to end up getting something like my first laptop that didn't last beyond (not even) two years. Luckily my current laptop is three and a half and stuff working fairly well but crappy battery and so forth haaa.
It's actually very hard to infect something with a virus unless somehow someone's been neglecting/suppressing automatic updates and disabled anti-malware solutions (NEVER do that even if you have a lot of common sense - zero day, anyone?). Chances are if you can't install Firefox, something is fundamentally wrong with it, though - try using Windows 8's built-in refresh/reset functionality and see if things change. (You'll have to reinstall desktop applications, but it'll usually do a lot.)
Ask her what she wants to do now and in the near future, and what she has in terms of both applications and media (like pictures, music, and videos). Is she comfortable with dealing with external drives and is willing to give up libraries?
