Win Vista or Win 8

[chazus]

So, I have a bit of a predicament. I have a slightly older laptop, which was originally designed for Vista. I need to wipe it and get it ready for sale (going to use the money to get myself a newer, proper laptop)

The laptop does not have drivers for Win8, and some of the video drivers feel... jimmied. I had to use some 3rd party drivers to get it to work. However, Vista sucks, but it has drivers for it.

I can't use 7, because it's not worth it to me to buy it ($90 OS for a ~$200 laptop). I have multiple Vista licenses from deprecated systems that have been parted out, and Win 8 is only $15.

[Deleted]

Win 8 over Vista, less bloat.

[vesseblah]

I had an old 32bit only Fujitsu-Siemens laptop from 2006 with official manufacturer support of drivers only for Windows XP Home Edition. I dropped Win8 consumer preview (and before that Win7 Home Premium) into it without any problems. Every single piece of hardware was detected 100% correctly except old analog telephone modem.

What you should do is try install Win8 on it (preview should be still easily available legally) and see if it detects all hardware. W8 is significantly smoother, especially on low spec machines it's almost night and day difference to Vista and will make it easier to sell.

[Cyanotical]

what about ubuntu? it's free, and you can let the next owner deal with driver issues

[vesseblah]

what about ubuntu? it's free, and you can let the next owner deal with driver issues

It will be harder to sell (bigger price difference than $15) and strangely enough straight out of box current ubuntu is so bloated it works worse on crap computer than W8.

Of course one option would be loading Xubuntu on it and trying to sell it for more computer savvy people first (with original Vista discs included).

[chazus]

Yeah, I have a bunch of Vista and XP licenses that are effectively worthless on their own (and I think, technically illegal to sell alone?). But if I can slap that on a system, it's pretty much instant value added. Where's Ken Steacy when you need him?

[SwizzleStix]

I haven't tried 8 yet, but I know I would never buy another Vista system. I'd go with 8 if you can.