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If Google Meet is the only thing you need, then why not buy a chrome tablet?
A decent one will cost only about 15k or so.

Thanks. However since my daughter is only 7 yrs old, she is not very comfortable in a tablet especially when it comes to typing queries and answers. Also sound is another issue. We already have an iPad mini and face the same issue.

If your requirement is only to run a new browser, you can do a fresh install of either Windows 10 or Ubuntu, provided the minimum specs are met.
You can download the Windows media creation tool from Microsoft website and do a fresh install of Windows 10. The process is pretty straightforward and all the steps are clearly laid out in the website. License can be purchased online but FYI, Windows 10 will run perfectly fine without activation. The only cons being the watermark present at the bottom right corner and no customization options (Themes). You'll receive all OTA updates irrespective of activation.
If you're one of the those who can't live with the ever present watermark, you can install Ubuntu. Meet will run just as fine in Ubuntu.

In any case I would recommend upgrading the Hard disk with an SSD since you'll be required to do a fresh install. Even a 128 GB SSD should be sufficient for your use case. It costs about 2000-2500 but worth every single penny.

The old Dell's are built to last. I have a 2007 Dell Latitude 620 running MX Linux and Windows 7 flawlessly. Being used by my daughter for her classes. However, I upgraded the RAM to 2GB (long ago) and hard disk to SSD.

Windows 10 should work, but do the upgrades. You did not mention the amount of RAM it has and I doubt you will get the same spec RAM now.

If you are OK with trying out Linux, try running a Live CD version of MX Linux (for low spec hardware) and see if it runs fine.

Having said that, the bottle neck for all the new video conferencing software is the Video Card of the old laptop. Windows drivers scores better here. But no harm in trying out the Linux software.

1. For your usage, I do not think it is necessary to throw your old one out for a new one. IMO, 25k is a very basic budget and won't find your enough decent options to last a while. Decent ones may be the refurbished Dell/Thinkpad laptops available at Amazon or 2gud.com

2. Instead of Win10, please go for Win7. I do understand that it will be pirated but the issue is that Win10 will make your processor lag a lot due to optimization issues. You can definitely upgrade the SSD and RAM if its still available and it shall give the much needed to revamp to your beast of a laptop.

3. I do believe that your laptop won't meet the basic Win10 requirements. What you may try is that you run an Android emulator (eg. BlueStacks) on your pc, and then install the app on it and try and run from there. Can't reliably comment whether this shall work though.

Even I think that Windows 7 is a better choice. I am using Windows 7 on my desktop. Did try out Win 10 but did not like it. 7 is much better as it requires less resources.

You can debloat Windows 10. In many ways I find Win10 is better than Win7. I'm pretty conservative about updates and new versions of anything (been burnt too many times). I waited a long time before switching to Win10, but I find it is much better than I expected and far better than Win7 - more stable and better drivers, especially Bluetooth. You could install it on a partition and try it out. That said, I've blocked Windows Update using a third party free tool - Windows Update Blocker for now.
Windows Debloater is here

I would buy a new laptop. Don't throw away the laptop, you can experiment with Linux (Mint is a good option). You could try Win7 or Win10 - Win10 is free
You could try debloating Win10 with some open source scripts as I've stated above. Good luck!

I was able to download the ISO file directly from the MS site. Once download of this 3.6GB file completed, I was all excited to do a fresh install, however seems I am out of luck.I am facing the below two issues

1) When I extract the ISO file using 7-ZIP and run the setup.exe, I am getting an 'Unable to find Autorun.dll' error. Tried troubleshooting by running integrity checks but no luck
2) Tried to create a bootable USB using the diskpart command, modified the BIOS preference and was all eyes for the install to start, but alas! I am getting an 'BOOTMGR error'.

Any advice on what needs to be done? Could it be that the download did not happen properly?

I run a 2GB RAM with a core2duo 1,5GHz processor. My system configuration does support Windows 10 32 bit as per MS website, but as mentioned before, I am unable to use the ISO file for a fresh installation.

If nothing works out, then UBUNTU it is. Could the experts point me to the preferred version I need to try based on the config details I mentioned above?

Use the instructions from here :
Most likely you don't have UEFI support in your BIOS, so act accordingly.
I suggest that you partition your HDD leaving about 20 GB for Linux. A data partition common for both Linux and Windows, and of course the first partition for Windows. In any case, install Windows first.

I'm not sure there's a 32 bit version of Linux available now.

Can anyone suggest a good laptop for 25 - 30k

This is for my 11 year old son who will be using it for his online classes and a bit of gaming. My 8 year old daughter may also fiddle with it.

I was looking at the MI launch today but then those are really quite slim and a bit pricier than I thought which is probably because they are aimed at the MAC's

Thanks in advance

I have Lenovo Ideapad with i3 8th gen processor, it is slim and light laptop. It is now being extensively used for online classes. I have upgraded RAM to 12GB from 4GB. Only thing is, it has HDD so bit slow while booting up compared to SSD.

The AMD A6 version of Ideapad comes below 25K. You can check that.

Also, I would suggest to buy laptop with MS-Office installed with license. This will help you to save cost.

Mi notebooks launched. What do folks think - good pricing ? There's no 16G variant.

https://indianexpress.com/article/te...price-6452800/

Although i am never a fan of ultra-books & Core U series processor, and will rather spend 20K more for a H series CPU & a dedicated GPU with a bit more bulk, this will surely cater to the plethora of buyers in the 40-50K budget segment. Also now in the age of 7nm AMD Ryzen 4000 CPUs, it felt funny that Mi is proudly flaunting its partnership with Intel, when they are in one of their worst phases in terms of competition. My impressions:

+ Competitively priced. Backed with Mi Support, will surely be popular with masses.
+ Nice build quality & good design.
+ Intel 10th Gen U series chips are as good as 9th Gen H series ones.

- They chose form over function. No integrated webcam. You need to carry the external webcam for all your video calls.
- No 16GB RAM & 1TB HDD variant.
- Keyboard has no back-lighting.
- No HDMI 2.0. Only 1.4
- No WIFI 6 in 2020 laptop. WIFI AC only.
- USB type C reserved for the i7 model only. No thunderbolt support also.
- MX350 is less powerful than GTX 1050.






https://youtu.be/CVxu9c6ArZc

Hi Folks, need a quick response on this. I'm getting the following PC at 53k, add another 3.5k for +8GB RAM upgrade (to be done later), is this a good choice?

https://www.flipkart.com/acer-aspire...NWZVZM8YICAJ6Z

Look around. You might find something with just the right amount of RAM. At a better price.