[saminfl]

Last year I had an old windows machine running Vista. I used it as my primary computer and to read my CAC card to check my work email. It got slower and slower, so last March I decided to get a new computer. I took one look at the Windows 8 format and said, "No thanks." We were in Birmingham where my wife was being treated for leukemia so I went to the Apple store there and paid nearly $1600 for a new MacBook Pro.

Today, that MacBook is for sale on EBay with about seven hours left to go and the high bid is less than $700.

The first problem with the MacBook Pro was that it was a hassle getting it to recognize my CAC card reader. Then I got tired of guessing whether I could just touch the mouse pad or had to push the center so it would click. I personally thought the thing was a hassle to use.

I finally bought a new Windows machine from Amazon for a little over $300 and it runs Windows 7. The OS recognized my CAC card reader without me having to do anything but plug it in. When this computer dies or gets slow I can just throw it away and find another cheap Windows machine.

[GeronL]

Today, Tiger Direct has a low-end Windows 7 on sale for $99

It’s a Core 2 thing with 1.8 ghz processor and 2 GB RAM and only an 80GB hdd. But the price and Windows 7 sure make it more attractive.

Even as a back-up.