Dell....

[iBreatheApple]

I was only 14 at the time but from what I remember, Dell's were notorious for hard drive failures around 2004. And their customer service was far from superior. Without seeming ethnocentric let's just say they had quite the diverse group of customer service representatives who were exceptionally accented. Haven't owned a dell in years and went Mac in 2009 so I can't speak for now...

 

[malman89]

Stick with Windows 7. Windows 7 is a great OS like Win XP. Win 8 is a terrible OS like Win Vista. With Microsoft every other OS is good or bad--depends on when you start counting.

Except pretty much every benchmark and reported performance in Win8 is better (although marginally in most cases) than Win7. Plus Windows brought the Start button back for the whiners.

With 8.1 and it being cheaper than Win7, as much as I do love Win7, I don't see the point in going that route.

 

[roadbloc]

Win 8 is a terrible OS like Win Vista. With Microsoft every other OS is good or bad--depends on when you start counting.

Total nonsense. I must be the only person to understand Windows 8 or something because I've yet to have a single problem. It's faster, more stable and much more feature complete than Windows 7. The only thing you have to grasp is the fact that it has the ability to run tablet apps too, thus having a tablet interface you never need to see on a desktop.

The dual-interface isn't perfect as is. Improvements are needed and many of them are well on their way with the 8.1 update. But to compare it to Vista simply because the interface has changed from the norm is nonsensical. Vista was literally unusable at moments with the amount of bugs were in it. Windows 8 is the most solid OS from Microsoft I have ever used, much more stable and faster than Windows 7. Once you've learned the ropes on the newer interface, Windows 8 isn't as bad as the world likes to make out.

Saying that, there is nothing wrong with Windows 7 either and if the OP wants to stick to what he/she knows, then that is fine.

 

[designs216]

A "friend" of mine gave me a Dell Inspiron without OS because some money he owned me. In theory I can go to Dell and download W7. But now I know why he didn't do it...

What a lack of navigation, dead end roads, and bureaucratic that web site is.

Oh.. and now I have to pay $127 for W7.

Once you are on a Mac you never go back.

I assume the deal was attractive because you have a use for this machine? By now you're wondering if it was worth it. Besides confirming the reason you prefer Apple computers, you now know to accept cash for debts owed.

 

[0dev]

Just throw Ubuntu on there and enjoy if you don't want to bother with Windows.

If the laptop came with Windows 7 and you do want that, download an ISO here (official and legit) and it should activate itself automatically when you install.