New laptop -suggestions please

@HarryS letters were originally in the centre of the keys, do you remember typewriters? I've still got mine actually. I learnt to touch type at school many moons ago and having the letters top left now is really off putting, which is why I've gone to HP.

 

Hi ricky....good suggestion there mate with the HP always had them and my Laptop as 8GB of memory AMD A8 and the speed 2.5 ghz and it's fast mate and it doesn't matter what you add in it, you can't seem to touch the memory plus as windows 10 with Edge

 

Sorry to hear your still in hospital FC...health issues become a total nightmare.

Sending you best wishes Gail

 

Woo i'm like you my first tower and screen was HP with matching keyboard and mouse and always had HP since...excellent brand in my eyes.

 

ricky sorry to hear also that your healths not good also...wishing you the best mate

 

I think choosing a laptop has a lot to do with what you use it for, so it is hard to give good general advice.
One thing I could suggest is to look up Dell Outlet UK, because you might be able to find some refurbished deal there with a proper warranty.

Another thing I would try is to install on your current laptop either Linux Mint or Linux Ubuntu.
These are alternative operating systems to Windows 10, which you can use instead of Windows 10 while still being able to access all your old files.
The advantage is that they are way faster on old machines that Windows 10. Actually, they would probably be faster on your machine than Windows 7 used to be.
Also, they are free and installing them does not delete your Windows 10. You simply decide everytime you switch on your laptop whether you would like to use Windows or Linux (it is called dual-boot).
Lastly, they keep you safe from computer viruses and they do not spy on you as Windows 10 does. Part of the reason your computer is slow right now is probably the "telemetry" feature of windows 10, which basically sends to Microsoft information on what you do with your computer and takes quite a lot of processor time while doing so.

The disadvantages are that lots of software for windows will not work perfectly on Linux.
For instance, if you need to use Microsoft Office very often, Windows is better. There are many ways around that, but they do require to fiddle with settings and software.
So, if you occasionally need to use that software, you will need to restart your computer and load Windows to do it.

However, if you mainly use your computer for browsing the internet, writing emails, listening to music, watching videos and so forth, Linux will do it all without problems, and much faster.
Also, Linux has all kinds of software for free, including some very high quality applications.

 

Hi,

@Aldo, mentioned earlier its just used for online banking so virtually no special needs other than staying secure.

Take your point about Windows being so much slower and have tried Linux Mint etc before but it comes down to two things I have never been able to get a clear answer to.

First is that Linux does not need any big firewall or AV, there seems two very distinct camps on this, each with very entrenched views, but when you see firms like Sophos come out with a free AV for Linux it makes you think its needed ...?

Second, under windows many banks Ask you to use Trusteer Rapport which in principle sounds a good idea, when it works, and always thought that if some thing happened to the account and we were not using TR they could use that against us ?
TR is not available for Linux and now seems even VPN is not as safe as they make it out to be.

If you could add any thoughts to the above it would be interesting to hear as the old laptop would, as you say, be so much quicker with Linux.
Did try a SSD in it instead of the Sata HDD but made little difference.

 

@ricky101
Sorry, I have not been on the site for a while, so I missed your message.

Regarding the need for an antivirus, my personal view is that if somebody is targetting you specifically and have technical knowledge, you would be more protected with Linux, but far from safe. And yes, there are of course plenty of variants of viruses, keyloggers and so forth, which are targetted at linux systems. So, an antivirus might help.

However, objectively, pretty much nobody is ever targetted specifically. Rather, people fall pray to generic spyware software through internet sites and downloads, and then become targets for the simple reason that the software in question rings home the scumbag who disseminated it, informing that your system is vulnerable and can be scanned for personal information and targetted for hacking with keyloggers and similar, just in case they manage to catch your passwords, credit card number and so forth, or for encription of the system to ask for ransom.
Most of this is done anyway automatically, with little human scumbag intervention.
In this respect, Linux users are not much of a target. The majority of people use Windows 7, 8 or 10. While there are so many variants of Linux based systems, which makes it very hard to to write one software to rule them all.
So the scumbags who just fish for possible targets do not bother, and focus only on Windows.
In this sense, using linux is a good idea.

Regarding your second point though, I agree with you that if your bank requires you to use a specific, Windows only, software to access your account, it would unwise not to do as they require. As you mentioned, if their software gets hacked or anyway fails to protect you from unauthorized access by others, the bank will simply cover any financial loss with apologies.
Conversely, if you were to use other ways to access your account, and get hacked, they could reasonably argue that you were provided with a secure system and refused to use it, so your loss is due to lack of ordinary diligence, or something on that lines.
Even though, for small losses, I suspect that they would simply cover them anyway with a warning that you should take reasonable care of protecting yourself online for the future.

There are ways around this of course.
Linux comes with emulators (mainly Mono I think) which allows to run certain windows software in Linux. Whether this would work well or not really would depend on the software in question. Sometimes it does, sometimes not, it is not something I would raccomend for software you need to rely on.
Another solution is to run Windows in Linux as a virtual machine. Basically a computer within a computer, to be used only when running some windows software. I do this all the time, running linux systems in Windows, windows 7 in Linux and all manners of combinations, and it is not terribly complicated to do.
But, if you really only switch on that computer for accessing your online banking, it is quite alot of added complications and you would not really enjoy the advantages of Linux.

A VPN is a good idea for many purposes, but perhaps not necessarily for security purposes when accessing your bank account. If you were to visit an internet page rigged to install malware on your vulnerable system, that would work even if you were connected via a VPN, and then the malware would broadcast your IP for attack effectively. A reliable VPN, or even simply the free TOR browser Tor Browser, is effective at preventing people from identifying your actual IP and your ISP from seeing and recording what your are doing, but not at protecting your from hacking (sorry if I am saying things you alreay know, but just in case..).

If you actually use your computer for other things apart of internet banking, and you think you might enjoy a faster system, what I would do is:
1) Backup your data and reinstall windows, choosing a Windows version adequate for your old system (so tipically Windows 7, which you might be able to buy for little money on Ebay, unless you have a way to install it otherwise)
2) Create a secondary partition, and move there your Document folder, Music folder, Picture Folder and in general any system folder where you store personal data
3) Now you have two partitions. One with Windows, which will mainly contain your installed software, and one with your data, documents and so forth, and no software.
4) The problem with windows 7 is that it slows down over time, it can develop problems which are hard to fix and if you get a virus it becomes a big headache.
5) What I do to overcome all of that is simply to make a clone of the windows partition and storying the copy on my data partition, after having installed all the software I normally use. When a problem arises, I restore the clone, basically resetting my system to the very moment I made the clone. Virus gone, problems gone, the system goes back to full speed.
6) There are many free software apps to clone a partition, I used the free version of this: [Windows Clone] How to Clone Operating System in Windows 10/8/7 - EaseUS
7) Install Linux Ubuntu or Mint in dual boot, so you can decide whether to load Linux or Windows when you turn on the computer. Use Linux for everything but when you really need a windows-only software. Save your personal data on the same data partition you created for windows, given Linux can read it. That way your photos, documents, music and whatever else are always accessible to you from both Linux and Windows.

If the above sounds too much work, simply install windows and use it only when strictly necessary, and Linux in dual boot to be used for anything else.

My experience is that Linux is significantly faster than windows on older computers. I used to run Ubuntu with KDE, which is the most colourful and resorces consuming graphical interface, and Windows XP as a virtual machine in it, and it would all run faster than windows 7 on the same old machine.
Recently I upgraded to a very powerful laptop, and the difference is less pronounced, even when comparing with windows 10. But this is simply because the processor is so fast that it makes no difference. But for older machines, it is definitely worth to try Linux, also because Linux does not force you to upgrade to newer and much heavier versions of the OS with no consultation, as Windows does, particularly since Windows 10.

As for the SSD Vs. HDD difference in performance, it really depends on what you do, I think.
If you keep open just a few internet pages at time, probably you will not see much difference. If you open many tabs, the difference should be more pronounced, given the system will start storing part of the memory on the hard disk.
Loading the operating system or virtual machines is way faster with an ssd, but this is really only beneficial if, like me, you have to restart the system often for work or use virtual machines all the time.
When doing video editing, as an example, the difference is immense, but of course it might well be that none of the things you do normally benefit a lot from an SSD.

Sorry for the long message, hope it was somewhat useful.

 

Hi @Aldo,

No need for any apologies, well worth waiting for.

Have read though it, but will need to take a longer look at it tonight to really understand all the many points you make.

Many thanks.

 

Hi again @Aldo,

Had time to properly look at your post and seems its only the main current account type of banks that ask you to use Trusteer Rapport but again TR limit the windows browsers you can use, so things like Tor are out of the question.

My old laptop was not any faster with the SSD but have to put that down the the mobo /cpu not being fast enough for the SSD; on my i3 desktop a SSD makes at tremendous difference.

I already do what you mention on my desktop and have all my data files on drive D and save backup images for C drive with just windows10; which seems to be becoming a pain to use as each spring/ autumn updates seem to bring a new raft of problems, I was perfectly happy with w 8.1 though many say they thought its was terrible, I liked it an never had any bugs like w10.

As you kind of say, there is no one real perfect solution, each has its own benefits and drawbacks.

Think what I really need to do is uses Linux more and hopefully start to understand and make better use of it, just that with these few old grey cells it does take me a lot longer these days !

Thanks again for you insights.

 

I understand that Rapport works as an extension of Firefox, but unfortunately it needs to be installed through a Mac or Windows installer, so it would only work through a virtual machine, if to be used over Linux.
In any case, I am not sure if passing through a VPN, or TOR, when accessing your bank account, would actually be beneficial in any way. Someone trying to steal your password and ID for your bank account will not try to track your down, which is what VPN/TOR protect you against.

I suspect it is not much a matter of old gray cells
Coming from windows or mac, Linux can be quite confusing.
I tried for years to use it on and off without success, out of curiosity.
What changed that was Window 7 getting inexplicably bricked one Xmas of many years ago.
At the time I did not have the clone partitions yet.
I was abroad, with only my laptop and I had work to do. Not doing that work would cost me several hundreds pounds in missed income, which for me is a lot of money, and also cast me in a bad light with the company I worked for.

So, given I had nothing to loose and all to gain, in a few hours I installed Ubuntu and frantically googled any issues I had and solved them, until I had a working system with all the software I had to use.
Over the following months, I never had a few days free of work, which I needed to reinstall Windows and test everything. So I never did.
Instead, I relied on the online Linux forums to solve my problems, most of time without even asking questions, because 99% of normal issues have already been asked about and solved.

My big problem initially was that I was scared of using the command line, and nearly all fixes I found online required to use it.
When I simply embraced that I HAD to use the command line, I soon realized that fixing a problem was just about googling the right terms, finding a solution, pasting it in the command line as provided, going back to work.
Sometimes I did not even understand what the code did, but it just worked.

Conversely on windows I would go to a windows forum, post a question, wait 24h for answers, post log files and other stuff as instructed, wait 24-48h for answers, try the answers, which were often conflicting and required me to download batch files by the dozens, be disappointed that it did not work as it should.
Or go to the Microsoft "knowledge base" and spend hours there, often without solving a single thing. So frustrating.

So, I started thinking that Linux wins hands down, if you know how to look for solutions and some basic things, like how to use Sudo permissions. And cloning the windows' partition solved all my frustrations when using microsoft stuff. I do not even wonder anymore what went wrong, I would just load the cloner from a usb stick, set it to restore the system and make myself a coffee. In 20 minutes I would have a perfect system. For a while

 

Hi Aldo, when ive used a VPN in the past for Ebay ive been blocked in must flag up as suspicious activity i presume banks might do the same,

I have started using Epic browser with built in VPN it appears to work well.
Epic Privacy Browser, a secure chromium-based web browser that protects your privacy and browsing history | a free VPN privacy browser

 

That is a good point.
However, as I can tell, the way blocking works with most sites is based on the IP you appear to be coming from.
Because the range of IPs a VPN, and TOR, will be able to assign you is limited, if somebody has been using that IP in the past for activities the landing site does not like, chances are that the IP will end up blacklisted.
So, it becomes a matter of changing VPN, as you did. But at some point even Epic Privacy might suffer from the same problem, if some of the users do something which ebay, and possibly any other sister company, finds objectionable.

In the case of banks, in principle they should be fine with access through a VPN, in itself. But obviously, if all of sudden I tried to connect to my bank from say a USA IP, while just before I was connecting from London, that would probably ring some alarm.
It is also possible that access through VPNwould be blacklisted 'just in case', because after all that is what a criminal would use to access your bank account through stolen passwords.

However, I would be anyway concerned about using a free VPN, let alone a free browser with VPN, to access my bank account. Basically, I am trusting all the data I exchange with my bank to some random computer.
At the very least they will record that I accessed that specific bank, linking my identity to my bank.
If the connection does not use HTTPS, they will also be able to read my data. Given the browser is provided by themselves, the padlock icon might get tampered with for showing that I am connected through https when I am not.

Probably Epic people are honest, but who knows?
Reading from their FAQ:

"Please note neither the TOR network nor the TOR browser can be considered secure as TOR network nodes are run by volunteers which include some malicious groups. Malicious TOR hosts are reported to have carried out serious attacks including one on a cryptocurrency website which resulted in tens of millions of dollars of losses to TOR users according to one report."

This is true. But if I set up a TOR VPN and set my browser to only connect via HTTPS, a malicious TOR host will not be able to actually decrypt my traffic. They will only see which sites I am connecting to. Conversely, with EPIC I have no control on any of that

Furthermore:
"All of Epic's code is visible and audit-able by anyone. We have not been able to release openly all our source code due to certain business reasons (it's taking considerable investment to keep this project going), but it has absolutely nothing to do with our commitment to transparency nor to open source software. We love open source software and Epic is built on open source Chromium. If you would like to audit any files, please let us know."

This is not how open-source works and protects everybody.
One thing is to say that I can download the source code and compile it myself.
Another is to say that I can be provided with part of the code if I ask to, but the full code is not available for compiling. As far as I know, whatever code they send me to audit could be significantly different from the code in the executable available for download.

So, just in case, I would not trust Epic with my bank account access, but I might trust TOR in some form.