Hello good Purple Porters,
A post in the hope that some knowledgeable person might be able to assist.
I have an old(ish) Windows 7 laptop that I am planning on giving to a good friend who currently does not have a computer.
The problem being, it does not have any internet security sofware installed at the moment so I would like to ask the good people at PurplePort if anyone knows of any suitable software that I could install.
Many Thanks
Myson
Myson said
Thank you Huw, I'll have a look into AVG.
It should be a free download. :)
I used AVG and ZoneAlarm in the days before firewalls and antivirus became built into Windows itself.
I *personally* wouldn't run something so recently EoL with a connection to the outside world, even with 3rd party security.
Windows XP has been EoL for a decade now and is probably less of a target. Windows 2000, which is basically XP minus a few frills, even less so.
Now I wouldn't do anything mission critical on that machine still, but Windows 7 is in the position XP was a decade ago, in that it was a perfectly good OS and was being killed off for purely commercial reasons. That said I believe they're killing 8 off at the same time, if they haven't done so already.
Myson Question that darts across my mind is: does your friend actually need Windows?
We've been routinely replacing Win 7 (and other defunct unsupported Microsoft operating systems) with Debian (stable). It's free, open source, easy to install, easy to use, secure, receives regular security updates from the Debian Security team, upgrades smoothly and does not require the layer-upon-layer of anti-fungus that Windows seems to need. And all the software you need is free too, and kept in safe, secure, properly-curated repositories.
If it can run Windows 7, it will probably be capable of running Windows 10.
Gothic Image said
If it can run Windows 7, it will probably be capable of running Windows 10.
Which in itself goes End of Life in October 2025. The laptop definitely won't support Windows 11 with its added security minimum requirements of needing a TPM chip (There are ways around it but it's probably beyond the scope of this topic)
I often find you 'think' you're doing someone a favour giving them an old computer you no longer use but you end up becoming their first port of call for every problem they come across and it can be more trouble than it's worth.
Firstadekit said
Gothic Image said
If it can run Windows 7, it will probably be capable of running Windows 10.
Which in itself goes End of Life in October 2025. The laptop definitely won't support Windows 11 with its added security minimum requirements of needing a TPM chip (There are ways around it but it's probably beyond the scope of this topic)
I often find you 'think' you're doing someone a favour giving them an old computer you no longer use but you end up becoming their first port of call for every problem they come across and it can be more trouble than it's worth.
Never a truer word ... :-)
It has Windows Defender built in. The big problem is probably the lack of Spec for current use and be snail slow.
waist.it said
Myson Question that darts across my mind is: does your friend actually need Windows?
We've been routinely replacing Win 7 (and other defunct unsupported Microsoft operating systems) with Debian (stable). It's free, open source, easy to install, easy to use, secure, receives regular security updates from the Debian Security team, upgrades smoothly and does not require the layer-upon-layer of anti-fungus that Windows seems to need. And all the software you need is free too, and kept in safe, secure, properly-curated repositories.
If you know what you're doing, Open Source is great and ideal.
But for a layperson it is very complicated. It's not for everyone.
Thank you for the advice EVERYONE.
I have changed tack and have obtained a fully reconditioned HP laptop running Windows 11 with Avast antivirus/security installed.
Much better than the slower/older Windows 7 laptop.
Thank again to all.
Myson
JME Studios said
waist.it said
Myson Question that darts across my mind is: does your friend actually need Windows?
We've been routinely replacing Win 7 (and other defunct unsupported Microsoft operating systems) with Debian (stable). It's free, open source, easy to install, easy to use, secure, receives regular security updates from the Debian Security team, upgrades smoothly and does not require the layer-upon-layer of anti-fungus that Windows seems to need. And all the software you need is free too, and kept in safe, secure, properly-curated repositories.
If you know what you're doing, Open Source is great and ideal.
But for a layperson it is very complicated. It's not for everyone.
True back in the nineties and early/mid noughties. Not so today. My 90 year old mother runs Debian. She likes the simplicity and reliability. It always works. She also enjoys the freedom from malware. No antivirus software needed and no subscriptions to pay. Installation is really simple too. In most cases, especially on older kit, you don't even need additional drivers.
Assuming the O/P knows how to create a DVD or a bootable USB stick in MS Windows or on MacOS, then try the free Debian "LiveCD". This runs from DVD or USB stick, so one can try it before installing it. Debian is particularly good on older systems and this latest stable version with the KDE Plasma interface looks like an improved version of MS Windows. It's the version we normally use...
Alternatively, try the Ubuntu "LiveCD"...
Or the Kubuntu one (Ubuntu with Windows-like KDE Plasma desktop)...
Edited by waist.it
waist.it said
JME Studios said
waist.it said
Myson Question that darts across my mind is: does your friend actually need Windows?
We've been routinely replacing Win 7 (and other defunct unsupported Microsoft operating systems) with Debian (stable). It's free, open source, easy to install, easy to use, secure, receives regular security updates from the Debian Security team, upgrades smoothly and does not require the layer-upon-layer of anti-fungus that Windows seems to need. And all the software you need is free too, and kept in safe, secure, properly-curated repositories.
If you know what you're doing, Open Source is great and ideal.
But for a layperson it is very complicated. It's not for everyone.
True back in the nineties and early/mid noughties. Not so today. My 90 year old mother runs Debian. She likes the simplicity and reliability. It always works. She also enjoys the freedom from malware. No antivirus software needed and no subscriptions to pay. Installation is really simple too. In most cases, especially on older kit, you don't even need additional drivers.Assuming the O/P knows how to create a DVD or a bootable USB stick in MS Windows or on MacOS, then try the free Debian "LiveCD". This runs from DVD or USB stick, so one can try it before installing it. Debian is particularly good on older systems and this latest stable version with the KDE Plasma interface looks like an improved version of MS Windows. It's the version we normally use...
Alternatively, try the Ubuntu "LiveCD"...
Or the Kubuntu one (Ubuntu with Windows-like KDE Plasma desktop)...
Edited by waist.it
Did she find the leap from MS Office to LibreOffice/OpenOffice much of a learning curve?
Unfortunately in the game I'm in in the day job, I'm forcibly wedded to Windows somewhat - I require MS PowerPoint specifically and use Adobe Audition regularly too.
That's not to say I don't think I'd get on with Linux. Indeed, away from my PC everything runs on Android. My mobile, my streaming stick on the TV, my tablet, heck even my car all run on Android.
How old a machine could you "get away" with running these on? As stated upthread, Windows 10 goes EoL next year, which will effectively brick every desktop machine I own; only my laptop is capable of running 11, which is has done for about three years now. Though I am surprised at how early they're doing it for Win10, which is only 9 years old currently. XP lasted 13 years and Win7 lasted a similar amount of time. And, again, this time it's going to brick a lot of machines as only machines less than, what - 5 years old? - are going to be able to upgrade to 11 if they're not there already.
Most machines that run Windows 10 can actually run Windows 11 with a little effort. I think I've unofficially upgraded five now with no issues.
Good questions.
WRT my mum: Her transition from Windows to GNU/Linux happened in 2010 when we bought her a new Novatech (a rebadged Clevo) laptop. Her main uses are email and web. She was already using Firefox and Thunderbird on Window XP. So much of her move went almost unnoticed. Libreoffice writer was close enough to the old Word 97 she was using - before MS decided to use that horrid "ribbon" thing. So all-in all, her transition was pretty smooth.
She even did her own software updates until very recently - they are generally pretty smooth and straightforward too. However, these days I generally do them for her remotely over ssh (secure shell), same time I do my paying customers and our own remote servers. I usually perform an incremental off-site backup of her home directory at the same time, using rsync over ssh. Debian's OpenSSH implementation is excellent and Debian's Security Team is very quick to address any security issues that may arise.
WRT how old can the machine be? I'd say pretty old. I just did an upgrade on an 2010 vintage 17" Vaio laptop running Win 7, for my cousin up north. It was quite a high spec machine at the time of purchase. It's an early i5 c/w 6GiB RAM. It was pretty straightforward too...
The performance improvement was stunning. About 15 seconds from "post" to GUI login. And 3 seconds from GUI login to usable GUI. (Took around 4-5 minutes in MS Windows). Thunderbird loads up in seconds (took several minutes in MS Outlook). Plays MP4 & MKV video in VLC and SMPlayer in full HD. LibreOffice Write, Calc and Impress open all her MS Office documents without issue. And Okular has proven a much faster and more useful document viewer than Acrobat reader. Of course, some of the performance improvement is due to the SSD. As it happens, Debian and its derivatives love SSD. But not having to run any antifungus software also helps. Debian is particularly adept at adapting to the hardware upon which it runs. In fact Debian is arguably the most scaleable OS currently available. We run it on everything from a tiny Raspberry Pi, right up to multi-user web and mail servers.
FWIW I'm on a Debian machine right now - a 2020 i5-series10 Clevo with 32GiB RAM on a 2TB Samsung SSD, running Debian "testing" branch (next version on from "stable"), fully loaded, with full disk encryption. Goes like the proverbial clappers! And for the record, I'm really looking forward to all those lovely high-powered non-TPM2.0 machines hitting the market, dirt cheap! :-)