Go with times, man. I said "Oh, crap!" the first time, too. Instead of Start-Programs-, its keyboard click[Window Key] and search. You find the program or file you need almost instantaneously. For icon management, You right click on the app list-send to start page. Now, you have minimal clutter on your desktop. App icons can be grouped and don't mix with file icons. I don't know about you, but I hate clicking into the c:\Program Files folders to find my obscure apps.
But seriously. Almost anywhere you can still buy laptops with W 7 on it. Ebay, Newegg, Tigerdirect or Amazon, just type in "laptop windows 7" Beside that, for extra money, someone can install it for you if you are so not geeky. You can also have the laptop dual booted, having both W 7 and 8 on it. What kind of laptop? Any kind. The cheapest laptop today is better than the best laptop 10 years ago, and guess what, people used laptops back then for trading. So decide it based on your like, because any laptop can handle trading easily. Are you going to use it on battery, outside, traveling a lot, etc? Those are the things to consider.
thanks, I just ordered the Lenovo t540, they helped me spec it out. Mine will come with win 7 downgraded from 8.1, so I will be able to load win 10 later on if I want to for free.
I would go with the T540p with the quad core cpu which is twice as faster as the i5 cpu http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t540p/
+1, also the screen matters a lot. A glossy screen that performs poorly in sunlight would be awful. Many new laptops have crappy keyboards that are very hard to get used to for someone like myself. Have an older Lenovo T-series at the moment and would consider getting another one if the people at Lenovo weren't complete idiots.
I'm not saying they are idiots, but kids today do things a little differently than we did I was half way through placing my order and "Tiffany" said, "I need to go to a meeting, can I call you back in a half hour?" (probably a "sales" meeting)
I waited 30 minutes and she never returned the call, so I completed the order with "Mustafo", Tiffany and I did get eventually hooked up again, and then she started bitching that Mustafo's name is now associated with the order Lord only knows what kind of a butthead they have running their "sales department" at any rate, I spent over 1k for a new laptop (state sales tax) and thanks to xandman and others for pointing me in the right direction should be here in 5 to 7 days, and that's about how long this old broken down Toshiba should last
I actually wrote of Lenovo when IBM sold out. But, then I also heard that they were maintaining the IBM standards. It is only a matter of time until the designs get outdated and Lenovo starts cost cutting with exotic parts manufacturers with limited driver support. But back in the IBM days, I would run an install of some exotic Linux distro without so much as researching the drivers.
I don't mean the salespeople. I mean bundling software that creates massive security holes in your system and other great ideas along those lines. That was indeed a better time. The problem for Lenovo is that they are under pressure to increase sales, which isn't that realistic when manufacturing laptops. Therefore they start cutting corners and using lower quality components to boost margins. The pressure to grow can often kill a good product.