HP Probook 455 G3 Ubuntu

摘要

If you want a really cheap PC, every penny counts. The companies that make them are keenly aware of that. Although what they pay Microsoft to install Windows 10 is only a fraction of the £80-odd that it would cost you in a shop, it all adds up. One way to shave a bit more off the price is to install a free operating system (OS) instead. A couple of months ago (see Issue 455) we looked at Chromebooks, which come with Google's OS. An alternative is Linux, an open-source OS based on Unix, which dates all the way back to 1969 and is also the basis of Apple's OS X and iOS. This HP laptop is available with Ubuntu, the version of Linux that's easiest to use. The quad-core AMD A10-8700P processor, which sits roughly between Intel's i3 and i5, should be quite adequate, and 8GB of memory is plenty. There's little to slow down everyday tasks except the hard drive, which provides a full terabyte of storage but, being a mechanical drive, can't keep up with the other components. A lower-spec model, the Probook 355, is available for as little as £249, and well worth considering if your needs are modest, although it was out of stock at the time of writing.