[Concentrate]

I need advice, I need to buy a new computer for work. Very hesitant to by Winblows10.But I feel I have no choice. Apple?
I need MS Word, to make things easier. Does Apple have that, or can I get it? Or will it work? Thanks!

[dayglored]

> I need advice, I need to buy a new computer for work. Very hesitant to by Winblows10.But I feel I have no choice. Apple? I need MS Word, to make things easier. Does Apple have that, or can I get it? Or will it work? Thanks!

You can get MS Word for Apple Macs, using the Office365 version. The Mac App Store has a free read-only version that lets you open and read, but not create or edit, standard MS-Word documents. To get full functionality you need to open an Office365 account and pay Microsoft for it. In my experience it works very well.

My standard answer to "What kind of computer should I buy?" is:

"You, like all of us, are going to have issues with your computer.
They're unavoidable, and how you solve them is your choice.
If you want to solve issues with money, get a Mac.
If you want to solve issues with time, run Linux.
If you want an unpredictable hybrid of the two, try Windows."

If you follow the Windows, Mac, and Linux threads here on FR, you will see that although the above is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, there's a lot of truth to it. Good luck! :-)

[BipolarBob]

LINUX. Mine is just as fast now as the date of install so very long ago. My Windows 8 upgraded to 10 during a night while I was asleep. it kept getting slower, slower and slower. I ran virus scan after virus scan and finally gave up.

[taxcontrol]

Linux is your freedom. Yes it requires some learning but once you invest in your PC education, you will never go back to Windows.

Linux Mint is available in a DVD that you can burn and then boot from. In other words, try before you buy. You can go to the Linux Mint download page (https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php) and look for the version called Linux Mint 19.1 “Tessa” - Cinnamon (64-bit). It is available as a direct down load or as a torrent.

Once you have downloaded, burn to a DVD, pop it into your DVD reader and reboot. It will load and run from the DVD without altering your PC.

The distribution should include LibreOffice which parallels MS Word. All free. Try it, see what you think. If you like it, you can back up your files on your PC, install Mint and retore your files.

[Tell It Right]

"I need advice, I need to buy a new computer for work. Very hesitant to by Winblows10.But I feel I have no choice. Apple? I need MS Word, to make things easier. Does Apple have that, or can I get it? Or will it work? Thanks!"

You can get Word and all other Office apps for Mac. There's a free reader version of Word for Mac if you don't want to create or edit Word documents.

However, as with anything else Apple related, there's a price. Apple makes good laptops and desktops, but they should be awesome because they cost an awesome amount of money. For about half to 2/3rds the money you can buy a Windows version that runs circles around the Mac version. And because it's so much faster than the Apple version, when Windows gives future updates that chew up resources (a legitimate gripe about Microsoft's OS), your Windows machine won't get bogged down any more than a Mac would on future updates. Basically a good Windows machine can handle the workload of a boogered up OS update that a cheap Windows machine can't.

It's when you buy the cheapest Windows machine (or hold onto an expensive one for many years) that future OS updates bog your machine down. So if you're not going to get a little tech savvy and go with Linux, go with a Windows 10 machine for about 1/2 to 2/3 the cost you'd pay for a MacBook or Mac. My year-old HP laptop with 8GB ram, 32MB cache and a 2.7Ghz 4-core processor didn't get bogged down by the update -- and it cost $500 a year ago. (Probably about $700 w/o my wife's employee discount.) Compared to the $1,200 MacBook Air from that time (2-core, 3.6Ghz "turbo speed" meaning combined both cores) 4GB RAM, 4MB cache. Note I picked the "cheaper" model of the MacBook from last year. If I had picked a higher end model I still could buy a Windows machine with much better specs for 1/2 or 2/3 the cost. This same kind of specs/price comparisons happens with desktops too. There's simply no reason to buy the Apple version unless you require niche software that Apple has cornered the market in.

[catnipman]

if a desktop is OL, then i’ve bought several desktops from this company and they’ve been fine, though i’ve had zero luck with their refurb laptops:

https://www.dellrefurbished.com/desktop-computers?filter_brand=188&filter_grade=14&filter_operating_system=214&filter_optical=226&filter_os_bit_version=50&filter_processor_brand=357&mc_cid=a76418e730&mc_eid=d41de5726f&utm_campaign=a76418e730-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_%24179+E6430+Laptops_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Dell+Financial+Services&utm_term=0_53922fa7ea-a76418e730-144433877

buy one of these and clone the HD onto a samsung evo 860 SSD and add RAM if they don’t come with 8GB

[daniel1212]

I need advice, I need to buy a new computer for work. Very hesitant to by Winblows10.But I feel I have no choice. Apple? I need MS Word, to make things easier. Does Apple have that, or can I get it? Or will it work? Thanks!

The problems with Windows 10 are overblown but get attention due to about 95% of Desktop computers running it. You can try Linux by creating a Linux live USB drive, but there is a learning curve and it can have its own issues (visit some Linux forums).

You can build your own fast computer for under 400 without the OS which is about 100 for Windows 10, and which you can easily and customize using such safe freeware as Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4 (200 tweaks). See thread Custom build you own modern computer (new Ryzen CPU) for under 400.00