Advice about laptop please

[Odd-no-more]

Now I have retired, I am thinking about doing away with my home office and desktop pc. I will want a laptop for basic use, I'm familiar with windows but should I wait until windows 11 is up and running? What about a Chromebook? I do run old software office 2003 and Adobe writer 6 with they run on a Chromebook? Or window 11?

Any advice very welcome thanks

 

[SpeedyDux]

I rarely use Office 2003 that I have on my old laptop running XP.

Libreoffice is free, runs in Win 10, and for my purposes just as good. It allows me to save documents in Office 2003 format to retain compatibility.

 

[gpat]

Now I have retired, I am thinking about doing away with my home office and desktop pc. I will want a laptop for basic use, I'm familiar with windows but should I wait until windows 11 is up and running? What about a Chromebook? I do run old software office 2003 and Adobe writer 6 with they run on a Chromebook? Or window 11?

Any advice very welcome thanks

Hi

Don't worry about Windows 10- Windows 11. It will make no difference. You will be able to upgrade for free but probably not worth bothering.

Windows 10 will be supported for a good few years.

Office 2003 might work OK but to be honest its very outdated as is Adobe writer6. Better use a newer version or freeware like open office

Office 2003 will not work with chromebook. Chromebook is fine but its more for internet with occasional use of office stuff rather than the other way around. Depends what you do, if you just want to open the odd word/excel file it would be fine. If you want to run a home office it won't

 

[cmcardle75]

Now I have retired, I am thinking about doing away with my home office and desktop pc. I will want a laptop for basic use, I'm familiar with windows but should I wait until windows 11 is up and running? What about a Chromebook? I do run old software office 2003 and Adobe writer 6 with they run on a Chromebook? Or window 11?

Any advice very welcome thanks

You can't run that software on a Chromebook. The Chromebook is pretty locked down and doesn't run 20 year old Windows software. I'd go straight in with Windows 11 and wait until the laptop you want is available with it pre-installed. It saves you the risk of the almost immediate upgrade that will happen if you buy with Windows 10. Never try to hang on to old versions, they soon run out of support and cause you problems.

Whether Office 2003 and Adobe Writer 6 will work on a modern computer is anyone's guess. You can be sure they won't be receiving security updates!

 

[Just smiffy]

Get an iPad, best thing I ever did… laptop now seems like a steam engine…

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[Puddleduck]

WPS Office is also a decent free program and will read / save .doc, .docx, .docm and many other formats - and you can pay a small annual fee to unlock extra features.

 

[Odd-no-more]

I rarely use Office 2003 that I have on my old laptop running XP.

Libreoffice is free, runs in Win 10, and for my purposes just as good. It allows me to save documents in Office 2003 format to retain compatibility.

Thanks I have Libre Office as well, but I find the odd document will not always open in that so I keep the old 2003 as well

 

[Pjdow]

iPad Air and keyboard.

It will do 99.9% of 99.9% peoples domestic computer requirements

 

[Odd-no-more]

I had an Apple computer before, a few years ago and never fully understood it, so I'm reluctant to go down that route, I am a bit of a dinosaur and would like to keep my desktop but the space can be put to better use

 

[Pjdow]

What phone do you have?

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[Speve]

iPad Air and keyboard.

It will do 99.9% of 99.9% peoples domestic computer requirements

I agree I splashed out on a MacBook Pro but much prefer my iPad Pro so very rarely use laptop

 

[cmcardle75]

I had an Apple computer before, a few years ago and never fully understood it, so I'm reluctant to go down that route, I am a bit of a dinosaur and would like to keep my desktop but the space can be put to better use

You can use your old desktop's monitor and keyboard with the new laptop when sitting down to do real work.

 

[gpat]

So long as it's not vga

 

[cmcardle75]

So long as it's not vga

I guess running Office 2003, it might be an old CRT one! Even then, some laptops do still support VGA...

 

[kevenh]

You can use your old desktop's monitor and keyboard with the new laptop when sitting down to do real work.

Probably not either.
Might be a PS/2 keyboard & mouse
And VGA or DVI
Not the types needed on a newish laptop

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[cmcardle75]

Probably not either.
Might be a PS/2 keyboard & mouse
And VGA or DVI
Not the types needed on a newish laptop

DVI isn't a problem. Can almost certainly get a cable for that. VGA is a bit hit and miss. Depends on the laptop chipset. PS/2 keyboards and mice! It's been a long time since I've seen either of those! I wonder if anyone still has a 5 pin DIN keyboard and a 9 pin D-sub mouse?

 

[Odd-no-more]

So long as it's not vga

Mine is that old

 

[Odd-no-more]

The computer is not too old about 4 years the keyboard and mouse are wireless USB so will work ok but I may not need them, now I'm retired all I do is banking, buying stuff and MHF

 

[Stonemags76]

The computer is not too old about 4 years the keyboard and mouse are wireless USB so will work ok but I may not need them, now I'm retired all I do is banking, buying stuff and MHF

You need an iPad - it’s child’s play. I had a windows machine for 30 years, but wouldn’t use one now if you paid me to do it!

 

[The Wino]

You need an iPad - it’s child’s play. I had a windows machine for 30 years, but wouldn’t use one now if you paid me to do it!

It's horses for courses. We had a few iPads at work and wouldn't buy another after apple tried to charge for software support after less than a year when one froze. I now use laptops and an Amazon fire 10 tablet I know it's not as good a display as an iPad or anywhere near the same performance but wanted it just for my guitar music it's fine and only about£100. On the buying one theme I wonder if whatever the op choses if it's worth waiting for black Friday

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[kevenh]

DVI isn't a problem. Can almost certainly get a cable for that. VGA is a bit hit and miss. Depends on the laptop chipset. PS/2 keyboards and mice! It's been a long time since I've seen either of those! I wonder if anyone still has a 5 pin DIN keyboard and a 9 pin D-sub mouse?

PS/2 was still a thing when I spec’d my ~5yo PC and will be a gamer’s choice.
Less latency than USB

Until details of the OP’s old PC were known (wireless keyboard & mouse. Monitor unknown ) it was worthwhile saying they could use external devices on a laptop but needed clarification.
DVI does have adaptors options tho - good shout.
HDMI & display port will also have converter options

 

[gpat]

It's horses for courses. We had a few iPads at work and wouldn't buy another after apple tried to charge for software support after less than a year when one froze. I now use laptops and an Amazon fire 10 tablet I know it's not as good a display as an iPad or anywhere near the same performance but wanted it just for my guitar music it's fine and only about£100. On the buying one theme I wonder if whatever the op choses if it's worth waiting for black Friday

I agree. I wouldn't spend any of my hard earned on anything apple.

I have a work ipad and mac book. They are OK, but just OK. They are not the bees knees. I am not paying so I don't complain but I wouldn't be spending my money on them.

 

[The Lord Squid]

The computer is not too old about 4 years the keyboard and mouse are wireless USB so will work ok but I may not need them, now I'm retired all I do is banking, buying stuff and MHF

The above and watching films on BFI and iPlayer, etc is more or less all I do. I recently bought a Pixelbook and really like its simplicity, good screen, light weight and decent sound. A delight to use compared to the office laptop running loads of programs.
I neither have nor want IT technical knowledge and the Pixelbook suits me fine.

 

[berni109]

Keep the old PC for the occasional time you might need the software you run. Buy yourself a good 10" tablet (android-samsung) which will do all you need.
I dont like apple products and never have but that's just personal preference.

 

[Isabellah]

recently I've bought a laptop just for internet surfing and Office software , A lenovo thinkpad laptop, Ryzen 3 , 8 Gb RAM, 256 SSD, paid nearly 500£

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[dna]

If you do buy a new windows PC / laptop, it would be worth checking, before purchase, that the hardware is fully supported by windows 11 even if you initially run windows 10. There are new requirements for windows 11 (especially the "Trusted Platform Module") which windows 10 doesn't demand and could prevent a future move to 11.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-11-specifications?r=1 describes the current requirements for windows 11