basic windows laptop - suggestions?

[tenst...@me.com]

I've said I'll help my stepfather buy a laptop from PCWorld, he's 75ish, and really only wants to check emails.

Is there such a thing as a basic Windows laptop that will let him do that? with no confusing software pre-loaded and no invitations to buy stuff or use the cloud or whatever (is on dialup internet!). I use mac at home and ubuntu at work, is Windows 10 going to be a nightmare or is it ok?

Any thoughts appreciated, thx, Harriet

[tmp...@gmail.com]

iPad

[Aidan Dunbar]

I would agree with Tim, except that getting dialup to work with an iPad will be a struggle if possible at all. If you can get him upgraded to broadband then yeah sure.

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[tmp...@gmail.com]

Sorry, I should say more: I used to work in IT support and dealing with my mother's attempts to get to grips with Windows almost drove me mad. She's about 10 years older than your stepfather. 

This was before the iPad so eventually I got her a Mac Mini which allowed her to do the church stuff (basic office type things), browse the web and email. And I didn't have to worry about her clicking on a random malware link. There was still a bit of a learning curve and some unlearning of the Windows things.

With hindsight (and more money) I'd have got her an iMac so she could use FaceTime/Skype. 

You need to recognise that dialup is not a tenable option. ADSL2 is ok (for limited usage such as you describe) if close to the exchange but at 3 miles we struggled to get 3Mb/s which is not sufficient for streaming...

hth

[Tom Oldbury (Email #1)]

I can't think of any commercially available laptop that doesn't come shipped with a vast amount of crapware. However, you could always nuke that using various pieces of free software, or Add / Remove programs (or whatever it's called on Win10)

I think the least worst laptop you can get would be a Lenovo or Dell because at least they are still designed by Lenovo or Dell. Laptops from other lesser-known manufacturers like Toshiba and even HP now are often rebranded, especially cheaper models, so it's always a mixed bag. 

If it were me I would avoid PC World entirely as their after-sales support is dreadful and next to nonexistent. 

On Monday, 20 June 2016 20:09:27 UTC+1, tenst...@me.com wrote:

[tenst...@me.com]

This is all helpful, thanks.

I did wonder if an iPad might appeal, but sounds like unless I can persuade them to pay for broadband (yes, it is available in the bit of nowhere that they live in) it wouldn't work.

Gonna try and explain about the importance of better interweb, then progress to hardware.

On Monday, 20 June 2016 20:09:27 UTC+1, tenst...@me.com wrote:

[Stanto]

If you have to go with a laptop, then http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/ is a good place to start. They have a showroom you can walk into and they may help you out.

Windows 10 still supports dial up. There are laptops on there which come with Windows 7 if you want. Finding a combination of windows 10 and a modem integrated may be difficult. Or an external modem that is supported by windows 10 may be expensive.

Any software on the laptop you can always remove (or ask someone at the hackspace to remove) before handing it over to him.

On Monday, 20 June 2016 20:09:27 UTC+1, tenst...@me.com wrote:

[YouMustBe Joking]

4G/3G? They probably haven't a clue what possibilities the web can open up for them and therefore can't see the value. 

Frankly, it's gonna be impossible to do anything better than text email on dialup and they might as well just use a phone for texting. One of the questions you need to ask yourself is when to point this out 

hth

T

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[Onlyhalfdone]

Could you even update windows (or any computer) these days on dialup? All updates are soooo big. I get 15gb of data for £15 per month from EE