Thread: Laptops

OK. I hate to intervene.
I have been following this topic because I too wish to get a laptop.

But I am more confused than when I began.

My two main priorities are to be able to illustrate landscape design and development to my customer base.
Second I would like to have a movable Internet source.

Are all new programs now Vista?

I don't want to be that sucker that sells me everything I do NOT need.

Originally Posted by MSG

Here's my rundown

Mac

• You look cool (at least until this trend stays alive).
• Apple is a very good hardware company
• The computer is a bit more stable
• The Mac has a sweeet program packaging system
• It costs a lot more money (SolSyke, not everybody lives in kingly luxury like you do )
• You're screwing yourself compatibility-wise by using (and buying programs for) OSX
• You may just develop an obsession like other Mac and Linux users

PC

• More bang for your buck (why try and convince yourself that it's just as fast as 3.0ghz when you can actually have 3.0ghz?)
• You don't have to worry about "ugh, it's Windows-only" (people actually develop for Windows)
• Windows Vista is astronomically more stable than previous Windows versions, (perhaps even moreso than Mac or Linux, we'll have to see). (I'm currently sitting on 38 days uptime - and yes, I'm actually using my computer)
• You get wonderful spyware and viruses if you're too careless on the internet
• Like in the case of SolSyke's toshiba, the manufacturer you buy from might be really crappy

Linux

• ...Uhh.. well, you always have the possibility of recompiling your kernel <strike>if</strike> when something goes wrong&#33;

[/b]

Wow nice list. Thank you.

Ok, so I might as well go with a pc, sounds like a better deal for my money and needs. I would like to know more about windows vista I&#39;ll check it out in some stores over the weekend, if i can. Is there anywhere I can get a laptop, say at wholesale, or at least at a better price than retail, where I don&#39;t have to wait up to 6 weeks?

Other than Toshiba what other brands are crappy, and which ones are reliable?

Kaniaz, you said I could get internet via satellite, how, and what company offers the best deal, is it stable/reliable internet?

Thank you everyone for the input your all awesome.

Originally Posted by MSG

Wait what kind of programs are you running or is "uptime/running time" just how long it&#39;s been since you last restarted? If so I&#39;ve restarted my computer maybe 3 times since I installed Vista close to 4 months ago.

Granted 2 of the times I did restart was because I tried screwing around with software that wasn&#39;t compatible with Vista and it crashed... Although MS has started releasing drivers now that Vista is officially out.
[/b]

I&#39;m running mostly general stuff, record keeping, payment logs, internet exploring, (connecting to DV&#39;s) while away from my home base or at work in remote places. I also may start a internet web site using pitchers of my work etc.

I would like to know more about windows vista I&#39;ll check it out in some stores over the weekend, if i can.[/b]

Controversial topic, this one. You may just have opened a can of worms. Vista seems to be quite polarizing. But for some relatively non-biased overview of Vista so that you can form your own opinion, take a look at Wikipedia&#39;s article. It lists some of the "controversies" (lies I tell you, all of them&#33 along side the good parts, so it&#39;s a good way to get yourself acquainted with what Vista is like, along with some of the very pretty screenshots, without having to deal with the inevitable hubris and crap from us biased lot. Of those problems they list, I don&#39;t think any will really be a problem for you.

(And now for my inevitable hubris and crap). My personal opinion on Vista: I like it. I bought Vista Ultimate and have yet to encounter claimed DRM, also known as controversy of the year, crashes, incompatibilities or even so much as a single driver that needed installing. Although I may just be the luckiest man on the planet, I like to think that Vista is not half as bad as the news articles and crazy long-haired people like to claim.

You could buy XP, which I presume will be a lot cheaper and tempting in that sense now that Vista is out, and I&#39;m sure it will work - and it is still supported by Microsoft - for some while to come. But face it, XP is old (really old) and if you&#39;re going the whole hog pick an up-to-date OS. You&#39;d be buying a whole new, hopefully nice and fast computer and putting something on it that&#39;s a bit old and cranky. An up to date OS doesn&#39;t necessarily have to be Vista if you decide you don&#39;t like it enough, but I think if you want to stay up-to-date that&#39;s going to be the best choice for you in any case.

Be aware there are several versions of Vista. Some are very expensive and contain features you would never want in your lifetime (e.g. Ultimate) and could scare you pretty easily. Judging by what you&#39;ve told us so far, I&#39;d say Home Premium would work fine and still have all the nice pretty stuff. If you already own XP, you can buy an Upgrade version which is discounted. If you do not own an XP disc, you will have to pay the full price. Setup only needs it placed into the drive to check you&#39;ve bought XP. That might be a bad idea, though. As Tsen said, I wouldn&#39;t really recommend Linux for you. It is still too complicated to be accessible enough to some people.

Kaniaz, you said I could get internet via satellite, how, and what company offers the best deal, is it stable/reliable internet?[/b]

Yes, you can get internet via satellite. I&#39;m told it&#39;s a little more expensive, at least it seems to be in England, and as for stability/reliability it&#39;s actually not that bad. Unless you happen to be in a cyclone or something, then the cloud cover might just cause a problem.

I don&#39;t know where you live at all and have never had satellite myself. You would have to research some providers.

Sprint and Verizon both offer wireless broadband. Basically, it&#39;s just a card that you put in like a wireless card. Access isn&#39;t everywhere, though, so be sure to check for which one (if either) is better for your location. There might be a few other brands out there, I&#39;m not sure.
Here&#39;s a list of Sprint&#39;s covered cities.
I don&#39;t know exactly how much it&#39;ll run you per month, but it probably won&#39;t be cheap by any means.
So unless you really, really need it, I&#39;d just go with a wireless b/g card and rely on wireless networks wherever you go.

And Howetzer, I&#39;d recommend PC for you, too. Really, with laptops, PC&#39;s the way to go unless you&#39;re a trendy college student or something.

Are all new programs now Vista?[/b]

Not yet. Probably not for a while.

Eventually, yes, but most programs will continue to be XP/Vista for now. You will not be "forced". Eventually developers, depending on how the market share of XP declines with the Vista upgrades, will not want to spend their resources on developing for XP. So eventually you will have to take the plunge if you want to continue in the Windows line of things.

All of this is coming from a previous avid PC only user, and I&#39;m telling you that Macs are better in so many ways. I have no reason to make stuff up. The Majority of people don&#39;t become Mac users because it&#39;s trendy. I suppose all professional graphic artists and musicians are just following the trend then? That is a retarded assumption. Of course, I didn&#39;t think it was possible for me to like Mac either, until I started doing music and realized I needed to curb my bias with Mac, and invest in one because my bias was unfounded.

I&#39;m telling you anyone with some sort of bias against Macs simply can&#39;t afford them. Period.

My roommate has a Macbook. I used an iMac for two years for Photoshop and Illustrator work. My mother&#39;s a graphics design teacher, and has an entire lab of Macs for which I usually wind up doing maintenance and/or tech support, since she&#39;s rather computer illiterate.
So frankly, SolSkye, YOU&#39;RE A FREAKING FAN BOY.
Macs aren&#39;t more stable. Me, Kaniaz and MSG have been over this a hundred times. I always, half joking, tell them that I like Linux because it&#39;s my "dedicated porn browsing machine" since it&#39;s immune to viruses.
But I&#39;m always half-joking because, while Linux and Mac (which is *nix based, btw) are more &#39;secure&#39;, the real difference is made by the simple fact that Apple (and Linux) has a smaller market share, so fewer people are actively constructing exploits. Trust me, as secure as Linux and Mac might be (which isn&#39;t really THAT much more than Windows), never doubt the ingenuity of hackers. It&#39;s just not worth their time.

And NO, Mac is not faster. NO, Mac is not more stable. ESPECIALLY when it comes to laptops. Laptops don&#39;t frequently swap hardware, and drivers are the big cause of most Windows errors, so it just doesn&#39;t apply.
And provided you don&#39;t spend all your time opening dodgy email attachments, downloading &#39;songs&#39; from limewire with ".exe" extensions and browsing porn, you won&#39;t get viruses on Windows.

Further, this guy&#39;s talking about doing business work with a laptop. Windows wins there, hands-down.
Macs aren&#39;t anywhere NEAR as compatible with business networks. Not necessarily a flaw of Mac design, but simply because businesses almost exclusively use Windows, and the best OS for networking with Windows is...well, Windows.

In short, he&#39;s looking for a working, compatible, capable business machine, not a fashion statement.

I&#39;m sorry, but I&#39;ve had NOT ONE system crash since I bought the computer so you&#39;re wrong. It simply is not a matter of being a fan boy, it&#39;s a matter of fact. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I&#39;m not a gullible yuppy with too much money on my hands, I just do my research before I buy anything. If it truly were no different, I would be here preaching another story, like the one I had with Toshiba about being ripped off, but I simply do not feel my money was wasted. So what, if it&#39;s only the issue of hackers, viruses, and spyware bots not targeting Mac because it has a smaller market share. It doesn&#39;t change the reality that it IS safer, and easier to browse the internet, among many other things than any other computer currently available.

And, Of course, I&#39;ve had my fair share of PC experience to be able to say it is clearly faster. Whether that is software or hardware based is debatable. I&#39;m inclined to agree that it is only the software, but to your everyday user, if they had to choose between a linux-based PC, or the easier to use Mac OSX, that really is no contest. Yeah, I agree that basic software support for Mac sucks, especially if you are trying to run standard windows applications. And, as far as basic word processing the Mac definitely sucks with flying colors on that, as well.

However, I could easily point anyone in the direction of some reliable torrent sites where you can get cracked versions of MS Office, Word, Powerpoint, Adobe Photoshop..etc etc... for free so that solves all those issues right away. No computer is without it&#39;s need to tweak off the assembly line. Mac&#39;s are just more solidly put together machines. Pretty much, Apple is a proprietary company that doesn&#39;t outsource their parts to Dell or other third party companies to assemble, so it&#39;s only natural that the programs running on it would be faster. The less possible combinations of setups the less troubleshooting for the people programming code for the machine, and the more solid a program. It&#39;s just like why certain console video game systems would be able to handle one version of a game better than a high-end PC would. I don&#39;t see why people like to argue about that.

Ah yes, the good old Windows vs. Mac argument again. Give it up guys, this is like religion. No matter what you say, you will probably not convert anyone to one side or the other.

Though I am partial to Mac laptops, there are a wide range of laptops one could choose. It really depends on your needs. I wouldn&#39;t get a dell; I have one that my college gave us through a laptop program they have implemented about ten years ago. They are alright, but they are too expensive for what they really do. I&#39;m not complaing about being given a computer. Contrarily, I love it. I just wouldn&#39;t buy it.

Originally Posted by Kaniaz

PCs do not look pretty.
[/b]

What about alienware? I know theyr not laptops, but they&#39;re pretty cool.

More on topic, I have to admit that my windows desktop has a tendency to crash every once in a while, and comes up with a blue screen which makes everything reboot.

Even so I would go with a pc, just because everything&#39;s compatible with them. Even iPods&#33; HP make good laptops, so do dell, Toshiba, IBM. There&#39;s more variety to choose from with pc.

More on topic, I have to admit that my windows desktop has a tendency to crash every once in a while, and comes up with a blue screen which makes everything reboot.[/b]

Are you still running &#39;95 or something? They tossed the blue screen of death a while ago.

And SolSkye--saying you can pirate programs enough to make a Mac compatible with Windows networks is...well, stupid.
Frankly, I don&#39;t care enough to keep arguing, but you&#39;ve at least got to realize that&#39;s one of the worst arguments anybody&#39;s ever brought up.

I&#39;ve worked with computers ( PCs ), and I&#39;m going to have to say, if you buy a good PC, instead of a &#036;400 throw-away one, you won&#39;t have any realiability issues. I&#39;d say get a PC, but if you do decide to get a Mac, do your research on what software you want to use, and make sure that it will be compatible. I do music production, which means that, if my computer stalls for a mili-second, it can mess up the whole project, so I can vouch for the PC.

Since you requested suggestions on a laptop, I&#39;d recommend a Toshiba, they function pretty smoothly.

Great question—and it’s smart that you’re planning ahead if you're traveling more for work. Based on your needs (internet access and basic business tasks like email, documents, spreadsheets, etc.), you don’t need anything super high-end. A reliable, mid-range laptop in the $700–$1000 range will absolutely do the job.

If you're deciding between PC and Mac, both can work well, but here’s a quick guide:

PC (Windows): Typically more affordable and flexible, with a wider range of options at your price point.

Mac (MacBook Air): Great build quality and battery life, user-friendly, but tends to cost a bit more for similar specs.

For your price range, a Windows laptop with at least 16GB RAM, a recent Intel i5/i7 or AMD Ryzen 5/7 processor, and a Solid State Drive (SSD) is ideal. Speaking of which—SSD speed is a game changer. Look for models that use NVMe or at least SATA SSDs, and if you're working with larger files or want faster boot times, a system using enterprise-grade storage like a SAS 12Gbps SSD 480GB (2.5-Inch) in servers gives you an idea of how efficient and durable solid-state drives can be.

Old thread... Please don't dig up old threads. Please read the RULES!!