I want to buy a new laptop but...

[Cliphead]

Having a hard time finding anything that doesn't have Windows 8 installed or have a downgrade path to 7.

Anybody setup a dual boot, blitzed 8 and installed 7 or run 7 in a VM?

[MPwannadecentincome]

I had the same problem and gave up looking particularly as now benched and waiting for new contract before trying again.

[doodab]

Lenovo are still offering a 7 downgrade on most thinkpads. I expect HP & Dell do too.

7 in a VM works fine as well.

[MicrosoftBob]

8.1 is to 8 like 7 was to Vista

Any reason you still want to stay on 7 ?, most of the annoyances of 8 seem to have been removed now

[Cliphead]

...most of the annoyances of 8 seem to have been removed now

Not enough for my liking. I mostly use Linux but need Win for some music software or I wouldn't use it at all. Looks like I'll just buy a laptop and stick a hooky win 7 on it.

[DirtyDog]

Not enough for my liking. I mostly use Linux but need Win for some music software or I wouldn't use it at all. Looks like I'll just buy a laptop and stick a hooky win 7 on it.

If you are planning on scrubbing Windows from it, you may be best to do a custom laptop build from someone like pcspecialist.co.uk and then you won't pay for Windows which you don't want.

[jmo21]

Got my laptop here:
Utopia Computers

Mostly aimed at gaming, but mine is great for all my dev tools, vms etc, and you can pick your OS, or ask for none to be installed if you already have a copy.

[d000hg]

What about Win8.1 plus one of those 3rd-party start-menus if you really can't deal with change? Get all the benefits and hide the nasty new things where you don't have to be frightened by them

[Spacecadet]

Any well specced modern laptop will be perfectly capable of running Linux as a base OS and Windows in a VM.

I run Windows 8 and then Windows server in a VM to isolate client specific software, VPN and other crap which I don't want to install on my laptop.
I don't even realise I'm in a VM most of the time. Even videos and spotify work as if they are on a regular Windows installation.

[d000hg]

Very true although for video/games this is more down to advances in virtualisation technology I think than pure computing power. A lot more stuff is "passed through" to the underlying hardware.

I can run realtime 3D simulation software on a Windows VM in Parallels, that runs very nearly as fast as the Mac version running natively on the same machine.