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Lenovo (which btw took over the IBM pc business many years ago ...) also makes nice laptops for Windows 11. Earlier this year I bougt one in Germany and after a little discount the price was just 280€.including W11.
Not bad.

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I have owned 3 laptops over the years and I never had good luck with them so I use Desktops because they seem to be more robust. I have (2 Dell and 1 Lenovo with W7) and (1) Dell running XP. I use the Lenovo Think Centre as my primary computer and the other 3 seldom go online allthough they are still connected and capable. I use one for a media computer for watching movies and videos. It has a 2GB HDMI video card, one of the others has photographs on it and the other one has videos about DIY projects. I should get a more up to date computer but until I have no choice I will use my current fleet. Certainly updates seldom happen from MS but I still get updates from other software from time to time. My neighbour said she would help me with setting up InterSpar for me so I should be set by the weekend.

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Agreed, desktops seem to have more longevity than laptops do ! I was quite happy with XP and 7 but the 10 just doesn't feel right, a laptop trying to replicate a mobile 'phone without the calling feature ! I can't imagine going back to Windows after using Mac for so long, they just quietly do what they are supposed to do but I guess it's what you are used to. The Mac desktop I use now has been going well since I bought it new in 2012 but I've upgraded the OS as far as it can go so that will be it now until it dies on me ... can't say that I'm looking forward to shelling out over 2k sterling to replace it though !

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My first desktop was a Dell. The stupid delivery driver carried all three boxes in his arms. He dropped the biggest box, desktop, just as I opened the front door. Immediately I complained to Dell who agreed to exchange the desktop dropped but I had to fork out the cost for that before getting a refund on the dropped desktop!
I agree desktops are more robust but as the one mentioned above was on it's way out got a Dell 15". It was more practical because the desktop was in the 3rd bedroom upstairs. We had no room downstairs to put it. As my wife moved in before we married and was using it most of the time I bought myself a Dell 13" and additional monitor. At work we were all given Dell 14" laptops with WiFi and mobile broadband so we could use them off site, I.e. at other sites where we attended meetings. The laptops were also loaded with Lync, the business version of Skype. Jeez, no one thought how heavy the laptops would be. Some colleagues were given a second laptop to use when working from home so they didn't have to lump it around commuting to work and home. The laptop bag wasn't fit for purpose so I bought something more suitable. A wise choice because a colleague cycling along the road had it ripped off her.
At one time NHS was in partnership with Microsoft offering NHS employees the lastest Windows for just £18.
My latest Dell 13" laptop has Windows 10. Seems I cannot update it to Windows 11 because it's not compatible. Strange! Atleast I have Microsoft Office which I used extensively for our move here in Hungary.
Working for NHS using the Dell 14" laptop I had two additional 21" monitors all plugged in so I could jump between laptop monitor and the other two.

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I didn't know Lenovo took over IBM. The first desktop I used at work in 1983/4 was an Apple with Visicalc software! A year later that was switched for an IBM with Lotus 123. I was pretty good with both and ended up training my department's colleagues and others within the financial services side of the company I was working for. I got two very nice pay rises one year apart for that work. But I was gutted not to be sent to Paris and Toronto to install our IBM and Lotus 123 software. I left after year 3 but it was another three years before the skills above were used again because desktops and software at the charity where I went to work were about 20 years behind! It was impossible to get anyone to consider using Lotus 123! Then working for NHS they used Microsoft Excel.

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Since we're here in the fond memories thread I have to describe one of my favourite projects:
Many, many years ago in the mid 80s the IT boss of one of my customers told me that he and his assistants would travel to the USA to look at the IT development there. Over two weeks they would visit IBM and othere computer companies from NYC to Silicon Valley, several large banks from San Francisco to Atlanta and the World Bank in Washington DC.
Wow I said and the he asked me:
Would you like to come with us?
Sorry, but that trip would be beyond my monetary limit ...
No, no! It would be a paid business trip for you - we need a guy with us who speaks really good English and me and my assistants are not that good as you in English and IT - we know you!
That journey gave the company a lot of valuable info - so it was repeated twice over the next years.
On the last trip we even visited Boca Raton ...

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I worker for IBM for 25 years starting in 1968................And then became a farmer - Nuf said !

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What a small world!
My ex husband worked for IBM from 1963 until his death in 1983. He was top world salesman twice, the first time in 1964 having sold an enormous number of IBM dictating machines to the monitoring station at Bracknell. We were then transferred to South Africa where he organised the launch of the IBM systems 32 in 1976. He made top world salesman for the second time if I remember rightly in 1978.

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:thumbup:

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Reading the above about your careers I'm quite envious I didn't get the same opportunities. For a start I'm profoundly deaf so had to go away to a deaf boarding school to get a decent education. At boarding school the deputy headmaster was the history teacher and for fifth & sixth formers careers advisor. As the deputy he was constantly called away from history class to deal with emergencies! As to careers I don't recall sitting down for a serious chat with the careers advisors. As to my parents looking back I think they could have got some of my Uncles and cousins to talk to me about that. I didn't do very well to get my place at the sixth form college but I was admitted. I pulled out because I had no confidence in one person on the interview panel. I had passed more GCEs and CSEs than the others in my class! Most of them went into a trade having had help from their parents, social workers, etc. It took me six months to find my first job, one that didn't require GCEs or CSEs! It was obvious every boy in my class had a much better paid job than myself. We all wrote letters to keep in touch back then!
But atleast I'm very content with my life now. One of my classmates has MS and is confined to a wheelchair, one is going blind, one has serious mental health issues, one has a long list of medical conditions (half of which I think are fake to get maximum PIP for motability car). I retired in a a job at a much higher level than any of them and learnt skills to be almost 100% independent. There's a few occasions when we need help from someone to make telephone calls here in Hungary. We didn't need that in UK. Thankfully, alot of banks, service providers, DWP, etc. have a sign language interpreter service!