Laptop Shopping - Suggestions?

[Ramster]

Well I need to buy a new laptop in a week or 2.

What do you all think? Was looking at 2 types both with all of the bells and whitles. P4 2.8, Windows XP, DVD, Wireless Lan, ect. The two options were:

Toshiba Notebook and a Compaq Presario that is bigger because it has a widescreen. Toshiba would be my choice but that wide screen might be better in the long run?

What do you think? They are the same price here.

[Cleo]

I know you would never get this but it is my suggestion.

[Ramster]

I knew you'd post that.

They had a very nice little apple there but I have a hard enough time using a system I've been using for years. |rasta|

[Cleo]

I'll let you play with mine in August.

[MrMaryLou]

I seen some good buys at circuit city not sure if you have them up your way though

[Ramster]

Originally posted by MrMaryLou
I seen some good buys at circuit city not sure if you have them up your way though

I think they have one around here. Best Buy seems to be good and also there is Future Shop which is just like Best Buy, plus the other small shops here and there.

[lagwagon]

get an extra battery and i would go toshiba out of the two. but stick with p4........ or i agree with cleo get a powerbook, those things are super fly

[Torn Rose]

Dude, I would get a Dell.|rasta|

But if not I would look at SONY (I know plp who love and swear by them, I just never used it)

IMHO stay away from Compaq.|raygun|

We just bought KV a Compaq a few months ago and to say the least, I will never buy another. It's the small things that piss me off about it, and stupid shit that should be working doesn’t seem to want to work like "autorun".

I plan on reformatting it in a few weeks when we are moved and have time to see if that helps.

We are thinking of getting another laptop by the end of the year and I am 99.9% sure it will be a Dell.

[Surfn]

If you are going to buy a new laptop make sure it has a Centrino processor.

[Ramster]

Dell, I forgot about them. Probably better prices too online. I'll check it out. Ok, the Compaq is out. I think Toshiba has a much better name otherwise.

[Joneze]

I've used a Sony for the last 4 years. It's great, no problems at all.

HP is starting to look good too. Dell has a good machine. But their customer service sux.

[Bill]

Why is the centrino so hot, Surfn?

I've got a medium sized buttload of rewards points, I'm thinking of getting them in a bestbuy gift card, and getting a laptop, and seeing if I can use that as my main work machine.

I was looking at the loaded HP pavillions, they've been well reviewed as "desktop replacements", and they have them at best buy.

I'd enjoy getting a powerbook, I just don't know about the large cost of all new software and the potential learning curve and hassles. Better the devil you know than the potential angel you don't.

[Tommy]

I would get the mac

barbaras g4 is perfect not one flaw or hint of trouble in 6 to 7 months. Its much faster/smother then any pc I have ever owned

also its so easy to use a 10 year old could be a pro in a few hours

when she had the dell she constantly got all sorts of viruses and spyware programs

[Cleo]

Interesting read
http://www.seattleweekly.com/feature..._microsoft.php

I always like mail order for stuff.
http://www.pcmall.com/
http://www.clubmac.com/
http://www.cdw.com/
http://www.maczone.com/
http://www.zones.com/

[Tommy]

I had the same experence as that article

Barbara downloads everything, so she got so many viruses that almost every day I was fucking with that computer

I actaually got good at removing viruses and spyware
and for awhile I thought I was pretty smart

when I got sick of it and got her the mac
with in a few mins it was on the web, sending email, playing music and downloading sims

[Surfn]

Originally posted by Bill
Why is the centrino so hot, Surfn?

It's a double clocked processor the fastest on the market.

Also mine is about 1 year old and no problems at all...

[Ramster]

Surfn
I was reading about the centrino and it is looking real fast.

Ok you guys are really starting to make me think about a Mac. But seriously how hard is it to use? What are the major differences with a regular laptop system?

[Cleo]

Since you asked…

A couple of links
http://www.apple.com/macosx/
http://www.apple.com/switch/
http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/

Instead of a task bar we have a dock. Instead of there being something in the dock for each window there is an icon for each application and right mouse clicking on its icon gives you all open windows for that application.

You can have tons of applications and windows open without getting your screen all cluttered
up by hiding open applications.

Expose is another way of moving between open windows and applications.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/expose/

The Finder (this is what Windows calls Explorer) has Labels. This way you can label something without moving it or renaming it. Great for keeping track of what has been submitted, what needs to be archived, what pics have been used, anything you like, just like labels at that you use in the real world

Oh yeah, I don't run any kind of antivirus software and anything for disk maintenance. I've never crashed, never had a virus and never shut down or restart other then to install something.

Closing the lid on my laptop puts it to sleep and opening the lid wakes it up and it is ready to start using in under 2 seconds.

Macs ship with a one button mouse, but you can use a two button mouse, I do, and then you don't have to go reaching for the keyboard for a right mouse click.

[Ramster]

Ok I'm going to take a serious look at a Mac then.

I have to restart my Windows 98 PC at least once a day.

[Opti]

Originally posted by Ramster
Ok I'm going to take a serious look at a Mac then.

I have to restart my Windows 98 PC at least once a day.

Oh Boy! You are going to be sooooo happy whatever you get!


and I thought that I clung to win98 for a long time!

[Cleo]

Win98 Ouch LOL

The one thing that I notice about using a Mac verses using Windows is how many applications I keep open so as to multi task when I working. It is not uncommon for me to 20+ applications open at once.

You hide a running application and its windows so your workspace is not cluttered. Basically Macs are application centric where Windows is window centric. What happens is each application becomes its own workspace. You can also work pretty much the same as you would in Windows but it is much faster and easier not to. The hardest part is getting out of the habit of closing windows. Instead you just hide them for instant access later.

Here is a screen shot of my desktop with all my apps hidden and I added in labels so that you will not what stuff does in ImageReady.
www.cleoslinks.com/crap/mac-desktop.jpg

Here is my desktop with all the apps un-hidden and with Expose showing all the open windows.
www.cleoslinks.com/crap/expose.jpg


I don't want to turn this thread into a Mac verses PC thread, both have advantages and I actually do own both. Just thought I'd post Mac info for anyone interested.

[HarryM]

I sell a lot of notebook computers at my other job, I can't tell customers there but here I can, stay away from HP/Compaq. They release complete shit at ridiculous prices. |raygun|

[Ramster]

Windows 98, I know that's pretty fucking sad isn't it. LOL

I'm a cheap fucker what can I say. |rasta|

[Surfn]

I never liked or used win98. I hung onto my win95b until win2000 pro came out.

[Cleo]

Have to agree with Surfn. Out of all the Windows I like Win2K the most.