Pat - if you are looking for a standard laptop, you could do worse than start your search at PC World - they have some Easter deals.

Thanks skinny, will have a look
Saw this one from Simply Acer

Acer Aspire V7-581PG Core i7 12GB 500GB Windows 8 Touchscreen Laptop

Office 2013

Trade in your old laptop for up to �300 Cashback

Screen size - 15.6 in - 1366 x 768 Touchscreen Laptop
Processor - i7-3537U Core i7 3537U - 2 GHz
RAM - 12 GB
- We have great deals on memory upgrades
Hard Drive - 500 GB
Operating System - Windows 8 (64-Bit)
Optical Drive - None
Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M
Warranty - 1 year warranty
More Info...

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Was : £912.97 You save : £223.00
Now £689.98

Does anyone use a non windows or Mac pc ?? as in Linux,i have a spare fairly high spec puter that have been thinking about installing Ubuntu.Never used anything thing else other than Windows but just fancied playing around and as i understand it Ubuntu comes with FireFox all ready installed.

A couple of questions regarding linux,does this operating system have the same problems with virus attach,Malware that type of thing ??? mainly will be using the linux as a internet terminal and nothing else.Regards to system spec all though mine does have high spec am i right in saying that linux is less spec hungry than the Windows OS.

Mega

Mega,

Linux is generally used as a web server. Many Windows applications won't run under Linux, so you'll probably need to visit Wine HQ to get them working.

Fwiw, I use CentOS as a Linux distro rather than Ubuntu.

Hils,thanks for the input on Linux,the reason i wanted to use is was to try and learn it.

Will have a go installing it over the weekend,the Wine HQ add on looks to be exactly what i am after.

No recent tweets from you ?? no account.

It's not just about which OS distro you go for, Mega - you'll also need to decide which GUI to use. The GUI doesn't form a part of the OS, and I'm assuming you won't want to be using the CLI all the time to talk to the thing.

There are several Linux GUIs that you can choose from, of which Gnome, KDE and Enlightenment seem to be the 3 most popular, but you'll need to do some research. Sorry, I can't offer you any experience on using Linux as anything other than a webserver.

If you just want to learn some Linus (Unix) then you could use one of the many distributions that stays on a CD and doesn't use your disk space. You boot into that OS and it behaves as though it was on your PC. It is a good start rather than installing the whole thing.

Thanks ladies and gents for your input regarding Linux(unix) as i have a spare machine i think i will just add it onto the disk.

Hils,and you being a woman i thought you would have been good at multi tasking :o)

My idea of multi-tasking, Mega, is to eat a strawberry and paint my toenails at the same time. That's all any sensible girl needs to be able to do.

I have a micro distribution of Linux (there are several). I have it in a USB memory stick for booting from. I have another copy on a micro CD, which is the size of a credit card and is actually oblong. You can then boot from these. Once booted, you can 'mount' the C: drive and investigate problems and amend files etc. It is useful for extracting data from PCs and laptops that have corrupt windows OS.

Don't use Internet Explorer

And someone wrote this....

There's a hole in my software, dear Liza, dear Liza...

Well, fix it, dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it!

With what shall I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza...

Just patch it, dear Henry, dear Henry, patch it!

With what shall I patch it, dear Liza, dear Liza...

With software, dear Henry, dear Henry, with software!

But there's a hole in my software, dear Liza, dear Liza...

"Microsoft said it is taking appropriate action to protect its customers, which may include issuing a security patch, either through its monthly security update release process or as a one-off update.

However, people still using Windows XP will not benefit from a security patch, as Microsoft stopped supporting the 13-year-old operating system earlier this month."

Is it a ploy to get people to move away from XP?

No it's a ploy to get people to move away to Apple ... own goal alert -):

They say 77% of business still use XP including the NHS...... there's going to be trouble ahead.....

(Reuters) - Microsoft is helping the estimated hundreds of millions of customers still running Windows XP, which it stopped supporting earlier this month, by providing an emergency update to fix a critical bug in its Internet Explorer browser.

Microsoft Corp rushed to create the fix after learning of the bug in the operating system over the weekend when cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc warned that a sophisticated group of hackers had exploited the bug to launch attacks in a campaign dubbed “Operation Clandestine Fox.”

It was the first high-profile threat to emerge after Microsoft stopped providing support to its 13-year-old XP operating software on April 8.

Microsoft on Wednesday initially said it would not provide the remedy to Windows XP users because it had stopped supporting the product. But on Thursday, as Microsoft started releasing the fix for the bug through its automated Windows Update system, a company spokeswoman said the remedy also would be pushed out to XP customers.

“We decided to fix it, fix it fast, and fix it for all our customers," spokeswoman Adrienne Hall said on Microsoft's official blog.

Does anyone know of an easy way to record a player from IPlayer for posterity.

Replay Media Player looks good - but costs!

My grandson might be able to answer that one Skinny but he has just told me that he has too much homework to get involved! These Primary School kids these day eh?! Seriously though, I worry about how much they know and I don't. My Primary School day worries were which inkwell needed filling and was there enough chalk for the board!

Slightly off topic, more out of interest and curiosity, I bought a 2nd generation iPod Touch to take to New York in 2009; used it to confirm airline tickets and book fast track through airports, surf the net etc. I have used it constantly since despite having all the latest updated gizmos and until fairly recently have had to charge it every day, sometimes more than once or even twice. A few months ago it changed it's charging needs and now it holds it's charge not just for days but weeks. The last time I charged it was on the 18th April, it still has 25% charge left. Has anyone else experienced this?

I am getting messages (not opened) from Santander via email.

Somewhat strange, as I don't have an account with Santander.

Any ideas?

Forward them to the email address shown here under suspicious emails