If you do buy a Windows machine from a place like Best Buy it will come bloated with all the bundled software you will never use.
Thanks. That's what I'm looking to buy. I don't need a Lexus. As I said in the original post I'm looking for something to surf the Net at a moderate to high speed, watch games on line and watch DVDs.
i like the HP envy desktops. Huge ass screen and can be found cheap without the touchscreen. not 300 cheap but a little more. if you get a bloated laptop, you can rid it of most of the junk by simply deleting it. HP laptops arent durable but have quality screens. I had an asus, it was ok. toshiba is decent.
I've used one quite a bit actually, otherwise my response here would be "I've heard they're nice". I'm not one to make choices without being well informed, especially when it comes to electronics. I'm not much for locked-down OSs with candy-coated GUIs. Cheap is a relative term, but I don't care for cheap computers either which is why I have never used one. I'm just immune to Apple's marketing. I don't need "the best" or to look cool. I just need to get it done. The extra money in my pocket just doesn't make me look smarter. It makes me smarter. Probably the ASUS X750JA. When I purchased it, the model was a year old and a set up with Best Buy to be sold as a student edition. Office was loaded and paid for, backlit keyboard, etc. I basically stole a $1000 laptop for $700. It might be the last laptop I buy for personal use. I'm probably going towards purchasing more tablets for the house and set up a media server to stream everything out to the tablets. I still need something around for spreadsheets and word processing occasionally, so I will just hang on to this one until she dies. Another reason I have resisted upgrading is that I'm not a fan of Windows 8 GUI. I'd pretty pleased with Win7.
Dude, it's a UNIX machine. You can go the command line and hack it to pieces if you wish, and if you really like to dink around with operating systems, UNIX is amazingly powerful. I use UNIX commands all the time to do stuff. The thing is that you don't have to. I also run Windows on it for one friggin' essential program I use. I get the feeling that COTiger is not a system tweaker and would love a GUI that makes using it a breeze, so I toss out that option to him. There are more factors than money involved. I'll repeat . . . to each his own. I see you are taking this personally. That's funny. I don't need the best either, I simply prefer the best. 40 years of working with computers has taught me a few things. I like to let the computer do the tech work and leave me free to do the creative stuff. I'm damned cool anyway, way smart and I've got plenty money. And it ain't the computer, amigo.
