Laptop - Ubuntu or Windows 7(or 8?)

[notetcetera]

I have a laptop (Toshiba A505-S6960), and I'm wondering what OS would be best for me as someone that uses his laptop to watch videos, browse the internet and write papers.

I'm currently running Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.04(Installed thru Windows), but I find that Ubuntu is super inefficient compared to Windows 7. Is there anything I can do to make Ubuntu more efficient?
Also, how would I go about installing Windows 8, and more importantly, how does it run compared to Windows 7?

Thanks fellas !

 

[scottd34]

windows 8 is pre beta and has quite a few rough edges. Best bet is to download the free vmware player in win 7 and give win 8 a try first.

 

[Jabroni31169]

Install ubuntu not though windows and run 10.04 LTS as opposed to 11.

 

[notetcetera]

windows 8 is pre beta and has quite a few rough edges. Best bet is to download the free vmware player in win 7 and give win 8 a try first.

i thought it was at least in beta by now.. i'll wait to check it out in that case.

Install ubuntu not though windows and run 10.04 LTS as opposed to 11.

ah, didn't even see that before..! how much different is 10.04 than 11.04?

 

[ripken204]

if you don't know the difference between 10.04 and 11.04, then why are you asking about using ubuntu?
what are your reasons for using it and have you used it before?

btw, 11.10 is coming out very soon, most likely next week

 

[heatlesssun]

windows 8 is pre beta and has quite a few rough edges. Best bet is to download the free vmware player in win 7 and give win 8 a try first.

The rough edges will depend a lot on the hardware. For all the people ranting on about how Windows 8 is geared towards tablets the Windows 8 install on my QX9650 desktop with a GeForce 430 GT is almost rock solid. Everything I've installed works, games, MS Office, Visual Studio 11, etc., it's be running 11 days straight now with no reboot. A few glitches but the machine is as usable as Windows 7 minus the things not in this release like Media Center. By contract my EP121 tablet has quite a few more problems, full screen games won't run etc. Still usable since I don't play games on the EP121. But the short story is that you might find the Windows 8 dev preview VERY stable, it will just depend on the hardware you run it.