Laptop recommendations :)

[akaykay]

My school doesn't have laptop specifications, so I was wondering if someone could recommend a laptop for me. I'm not big on the fancy entertainment stuff, just something that has a large storage, good speed, and long battery life.


***that sounded kinda x-rated for a second***

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[Phlame217]

You'll want to go with a portable class and keep the screen in the 15.4" range. I'd go with either dell or hp, both have their plusses and minusses. Just do a basic or premade package with a battery upgrade and harddrive upgrade if necessary and there yeah go.

 

[Old Timer]

The best Laptops are ACER, IBM and Toshiba. You will have to do research as to what model has the best battery life. You can get 2 hour battery life and you can get 4 hour battery life. Just remember it's like buying a car the numbers are for comparison you will get less....

 

[Caverject]

The best Laptops are ACER, IBM and Toshiba. You will have to do research as to what model has the best battery life. You can get 2 hour battery life and you can get 4 hour battery life. Just remember it's like buying a car the numbers are for comparison you will get less....

Actually, THE best laptop is a Apple MacBook or MacBook Pro

 

[njac]

I was going to say - I've got a 4 year old PowerBook that is still running strong. I'd look at Macs if I were you.

 

[Old Timer]

I was going to say - I've got a 4 year old PowerBook that is still running strong. I'd look at Macs if I were you.

My first Acer Laptop is eight years old and still running. Does that make it better??????

 

[TimeZero]

Is a laptop a must? I start in a few weeks and I cannot decide whether I should purchase a laptop or build a beast of a desktop...

Asus makes nice laptops by the way.

 

[UATL]

What about a tablet laptop? Would those be useful at all for school?

 

[twester]

OP, how much money are you looking to spend? The small, fast, roomy, battery-efficient laptops can get pretty pricey.

Battery life is the big unknown when buying a laptop. The manufacturer usually gets about 50-75% more out their batteries than mere mortals do. I'd suggest going to a few websites like:
Toshiba
Gateway
Lenovo

Find models you think are affordable and that have features you like, then google the model number for products reviews. Pay attention to the reviewers likes and dislikes to see if the review is relevant to what you expect from a laptop.

I didn't take my giant desktop-replacement Toshiba (which I love) to school at all last year (it's heavy and battery life is horrible at around 2.5 hours). When I needed a computer at school, I could always find one somewhere. However, I got tired of lugging around reams of powerpoint notes for studying.

This year, I'm going as paperless as possible. I just ordered a Toshiba Protege convertible. It's a lower-end model, but I only need it to manage my school work. My only concern is the battery life, but I think I can make it work.

Good luck.

 

[tungywungy]

Go to slickdeals.net and there you can find great deals on laptops every now and then whenever people post them up.

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=585563 and http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=588207

One's for the dell vostro and one's for the lenovo. I heard lenovos are really sturdy but I got the dell vostro anyways since it was cheaper for about the same internals.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

WVU's starting linebacker and cornerback lost a free college degree and a shot at the NFL to steal a Dell laptop over the weekend. They must be great machines!

 

[PharmDstudent]

WVU's starting linebacker and cornerback lost a free college degree and a shot at the NFL to steal a Dell laptop over the weekend. They must be great machines!

He was trying to recover the adult videos he had starred in .

 

[Caverject]

My first Acer Laptop is eight years old and still running. Does that make it better??????

I'm sure an 8 year old laptop will be real useful for pharmacy school

 

[WVUPharm2007]

He was trying to recover the adult videos he had starred in .

It wasn't Johnny Holmes. Though if it were, I would reply, "touche!"

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I'm sure an 8 year old laptop will be real useful for pharmacy school

It would, actually. You typically do not need a resource heavy machine for pharmacy school. Something with a wifi card, a web browser and a word processor are all anybody really NEEDS. Just run Ubuntu Linux with Firefox and OpenOffice productivity software and you'll have a more useful, simple, and reliable OS than anything Microsoft or Apple could ever dream of.

 

[PharmDstudent]

It wasn't Johnny Holmes. Though if it were, I would reply, "touche!"

It doesn't have to be his computer.

 

[McZyprexalynn]

What about a tablet laptop? Would those be useful at all for school?

I just purchased a Fujitsu T4220 tablet/laptop. I'm hoping to go almost completely paperless. Writing on the screen is pretty close to writing on paper and it came with Microsoft OneNote which allows you to search your notes, convert handwriting to text, import Power Point and Word documents and annotate them, etc. My school doesn't have any sort of laptop requirements, and I'm not sure how many students will have them, but I'm hoping it comes in handy. Surely, not having to carry around stacks of notebooks and papers plus a handful of colored pens and highlighters will be nice. I did a lot of research on tablets before purchasing mine and Fujitsu came out highly rated, as did Lenovo. Lenovo's tablets don't have an internal optical drive which is one of the main reasons I went with Fujitsu. Fujitsu also has a modular bay which can be swapped out - it comes with the optical drive there, but you can pop it out and put in a space saver (to make it lighter), an additional battery, or an additional hard drive. My modular bay battery is on the way, but with it plus the existing battery, I should be able to get close to 8 hours.

It is small at 12.1", but I had a 15.1" Sony Vaio previously and the size different hasn't bothered me much. 12.1" pretty much standard for tablets, as anything larger would be kind of big to use in tablet mode.

 

[TCB]

My school give us laptop , actually its sort of included in the tuition, they sometimes changes model every year. Class of 2009 had a Dell latitude D610, that is what I am using, it has a long battery life. Carterpillar, also uses the same laptop.

Have a dell inspiron, it is nice, small but it doesn't have a good battery life.

 

[rxblitzrx]

Is a laptop a must? I start in a few weeks and I cannot decide whether I should purchase a laptop or build a beast of a desktop...

Asus makes nice laptops by the way.

I'd vote against the desktop... I did that last year and my laptop still proves to be more useful. However, I love using my S-IPS lcd panel for reading... now if only they would use these on laptops instead of the TN's.

 

[da8s0859q]

It would, actually. You typically do not need a resource heavy machine for pharmacy school. Something with a wifi card, a web browser and a word processor are all anybody really NEEDS. Just run Ubuntu Linux with Firefox and OpenOffice productivity software and you'll have a more useful, simple, and reliable OS than anything Microsoft or Apple could ever dream of.

A smart post, methinks.

Of course, if you must stay in win32/64, a well-streamlined XP install with MS Office is a close runner-up.

(Or you could pony up for a new XPS notebook, as they're supposedly pretty nice machines...)

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Seriously....just buy a nice, fast desktop for home to play with, then a cheapo $200-250 laptop off of eBay for school. You can get both for the price of a nice laptop. You REAAAAALLLY don't need much for school.

 

[lord999]

Unusual Specifications (If you intend to round with them):

1: Secure wireless ability (A/B/G) without the use of a card.
2: Bluetooth access without use of a card
3: US manufactured to take advantage of the encryption
4: Lockjack or whatever GPS-security thing you want so that the stolen laptop can be traced.
5: Lightweight (Under 6 lbs if possible)
6: Power for 2-2.5 hours on a single battery (if you carry two)

Otherwise, buying something off the shelf nowadays is pretty idiot-proof. I haven't encountered any Mac-compatible systems but a Linux box is surprisingly helpful for interfacing with pharmacy systems.

I think anything from HP is all-right for most normal uses. If you really want top-of-the-line, get a Toughbook from Panasonic. It's what the government issues us when we do fieldwork in places where damage is quite likely (Indian Health Service, Bureau of Prisons, inner cities, foreign travel). They are pretty tolerant against severe abuse.

 

[Mags]

I bought a Toshiba tablet third year and wish I hadnt waited so long

I don't know about anyone else, but our professors have an OBSESSION with powerpoint.

It was so nice to be able to write directly on the notes, and zoom in on graphics that would not have turned out right if just printed. I don't think I printed anything out 3rd year except the reviews I wrote with the "Journal Writer" on the tablet.

 

[njac]

My first Acer Laptop is eight years old and still running. Does that make it better??????

I guess I should have elaborated. A lot of people balk at the price of the Macs. I've had mine a little over 4 years and it has survived all kinds of abuse (ie: I trip over the cord regularly, one time it was in my bookbag in the passenger seat when I was driving about 65mph down a hill with a redlight at the bottom. Lights turns red, I slam on brakes, bookbag with DiPiro and Powerbook in it SLAMS into dashboard. I start hyperventilating and am ready to cry. Got home, laptop fine.).

We shouldn't even talk about poor Powerbook hygiene... I far too regularly eat crumbly things while using it, I have 4 dogs so hair is bound to get in there somehow. It's nice to know that the machine that controls my life can keep chugging through all of my benign neglect. Plus it looks pretty sweet (and matches my silver Element extremely well...)

I hadn't really worked with Macs before I bought this from a family member who hated it (after my PC of 3 years kicked the bucket). I found the transition quite easy and it's not too heavy at 12".

 

[pharmgirl2011]

I just bought a Black Macbook and paid an extra $118 to upgrade from 1 GB to 2GB. I personally love it and I made the switch from a pc (dell inspiron 1500 that I got march 06' which seemed to weigh a million pounds). The reason I paid for the upgrade is to accomodate for windows if i ever need to run it,I didnt want to take a chance of slowing my system down. I would suggest a macbook bc its not only powerful and productive,its very lightweight, which was important to me.

 

[Old Timer]

I'm sure an 8 year old laptop will be real useful for pharmacy school

What I said was:

My first Acer Laptop is eight years old and still running. Does that make it better??????

That was in response to:

I was going to say - I've got a 4 year old PowerBook that is still running strong. I'd look at Macs if I were you.

So, while I am used to you twisting what other people say, it is getting old and slightly annoying. I replied to a post that simply said he had a 4 year old Powerbook running strong. I noted that I still had an 8 year old PC and it was still running strong. Did that make it better??????

I did not say or imply that the OP should seek out an 8 year old PC notebook as their best choice of a PC for school. Please note the ???? that clearly indicate I do not. You might also take note of the fact because of my post, NJAC, clarified his post as to why he really liked his Powerbook.

 

[Caverject]

What I said was:


That was in response to:


So, while I am used to you twisting what other people say, it is getting old and slightly annoying. I replied to a post that simply said he had a 4 year old Powerbook running strong. I noted that I still had an 8 year old PC and it was still running strong. Did that make it better??????

I did not say or imply that the OP should seek out an 8 year old PC notebook as their best choice of a PC for school. Please note the ???? that clearly indicate I do not. You might also take note of the fact because of my post, NJAC, clarified his post as to why he really liked his Powerbook.

Damn...I didn't mean to take a big giant crap in your bowl of Corn Flakes! I took your comment as a sarcastic joke (and I did find humor in it) so I responded in kind.

As a Mac user myself, I picked up on njac's logic right away since my computer is a little older. Usually, PC's tend to kick the bucket after 2-3 years (usually due to neglect). I clearly understood you were not recommending an 8 year old laptop. I did not think I was twisting your words but if I did, sorry...

 

[Old Timer]

Here is what you need to know:

Apple: Makes excellent laptops. Not as good a value as a PC. But a good high quality product. Avoid anything that is version 1.0 by Apple. Please see the original I-Pod non-replaceable battery fiasco. Also see the same problem with the new I Phone. Apple has a cult like following so don't ever attempt to debate an Applehead just let them enjoy their 5% market share. Apple is coming out with a new line of Laptops soon so you might be able to pick one at a good price now.

Windows: You have to be careful when buying a Windows PC. Please avoid Dell. They have had more recalls than any other laptop manufacturer. Also their service and support is terrible. The best laptop manufacturers are Acer, Lenovo (formerly IBM) and Toshiba. DO NOT buy an entry level laptop. At this point I would suggest you get XP-Pro. Vista is still getting the kinks out and Microsoft will support XP through the end of your school experience. You have to decide how you are going to use the laptop before you decide what model to purchase. If you are looking for a desktop replacement, you should get a larger screen with a wide screen. If you want to lug it around, you should look for battery life and weight. Unless you are gaming, XP-Pro with 512 MB of RAM will be fine for browsing and doing basic office apps.

Linux: This is best avoided unless you are a propeller head (like me). You need more than general knowledge to play with Linux. It is really secure and an excellent OS, but not for beginners. Let's all say recompile the Kernel.

If you have opportunity to buy insurance that includes accidental droppage, spillage, and other user induced damages, that is recommended.

Finally, the most important advice I can give you was given to me when I was learning to program in d-Base II and it has stuck with me for almost twenty years:

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF COMPUTER USERS, THOSE THAT HAVE EXPERIENCED HARD DISK FAILURE AND THOSE THAT ARE GOING TO.
​

What that little fortune cookie wisdom means is, you should make sure you have regular method of backing up your data files. I would recommend a 2.5" external hard drive with a USB connector. You should also e-mail important documents to yourself so you can get them from any PC. My computer crashed is the 80's equivalent of the my dog ate my homework and is not likely to be accepted by many professors.

Finally, whatever OS you choose, you must make sure you keep it up to date. OS X has security flaws and needs updating the same as Windows, though not as often and the same goes for Linux. Hackers are looking to take over your computer to use it for nefarious purposes and that means they don't want you to know they have succeeded.

This little public service announcement comes from someone who (in addition to being a pharmacist) has run a PC business for the last 15 years. That means I make money from college students who don't take care of their computers, don't backup their computers and generally take them for granted.

 

[dgroulx]

I became a computer programmer in 1979, so was there when the first PCs arrived, the first Mac, laptops, etc. I run Linux on our servers (we have a 7 computer network in our home). My Toshiba laptop bit the dust after 4 years. I only used it to watch lectures that were in Windows Media Player. My desktop computer is a Power Mac G5. I started using a Mac as my primary computer back in 1993. Every one of them has been more reliable than the PCs we have bought at home and at work when we had an office. The Mac OS comes with X11, so I can write code directly on the server without buying a terminal emulator. I still write software in my spare time.

We bought a brand new Gateway just to act as a music server, but it still crashes regularly. We'll just have to switch that task to my Mac. It runs forever and never needs to be rebooted, unless I download a software update.

With the new Intel based Macs, there is no good reason to buy another brand, unless you can't afford a Mac. You get what you pay for.

 

[Jbuprepharm]

Anyone makes a good laptop if you spend enough. cheap dells suck, expensive dells (latitudes/workstations) are awesome.

if you really want to spend some dough buy an alienware

 

[Jbuprepharm]

My school doesn't have laptop specifications, so I was wondering if someone could recommend a laptop for me. I'm not big on the fancy entertainment stuff, just something that has a large storage, good speed, and long battery life.


***that sounded kinda x-rated for a second***

go to www.newegg.com and search with those parameters, you should be able to find something you like.

 

[No1 Pusher]

Here is what you need to know:

Apple: Apple is coming out with a new line of Laptops soon so you might be able to pick one at a good price now.

They're coming out with a new line? What is it?

 

[willxm]

They're coming out with a new line? What is it?

They arent coming out with a new line unless it is a tablet. Apple just refreshed their laptops from the powerbook to the macbook and macbook pro. As far as picking one up cheap... wont be that cheap. Search on ebay, Macs have far better resale value than just about any pc manufacturer. What does resale value tell us? Well some may say that it shows that macs are more stable. Maybe people are just willing to spend more for the name.

This is an ongoing debate. I once disliked macs, until i was given one (desktop). I have since purchased a laptop and will wont switch back, or consider it, until windows figures out its stability issues. Bottom line, its difficult to describe how/why many prefer the mac, try one out if you can.

Ever experience your pc bogging down all the time? Maybe its due to spywear. You can get software to protect your pc from this, but with a mac the OS is inherently resist to this.

Im in my 5th year and have only once experienced a need for a windows based machine. In PK we had to run STELLA which was not compatible. In the same instance many pc users were unable to run the program as well due to lack of windows vista support.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

TAs far as picking one up cheap... wont be that cheap. Search on ebay, Macs have far better resale value than just about any pc manufacturer. What does resale value tell us? Well some may say that it shows that macs are more stable. Maybe people are just willing to spend more for the name.

It just means that people who use Macs are ****ing crazy. Yeah...crazy...trust me, takes one to know one....

 

[Old Timer]

They upgraded the Macbook and the Macbook pro. You will be able to get more favorable pricing on the current models.

This is an ongoing debate.

This is only an ongoing debate with 5% of the market who uses Apple. They still haven't figured out why the rest of us lemmings aren't as smart as they are.

I once disliked macs, until i was given one (desktop). I have since purchased a laptop and will wont switch back, or consider it, until windows figures out its stability issues. Bottom line, its difficult to describe how/why many prefer the mac, try one out if you can.

Windows XP SP2 is a rock solid OS. As solid a performer if the system is built well. You can't blame the OS when people sell systems that have insufficient and poorly made power supplies that degrade the components and lead to premature failure. You also cannot blame the OS when the manufacturer ships a system with 256 MB of RAM and an on-board video that consumes 128 MB of system RAM and the system runs like garbage.

Ever experience your pc bogging down all the time? Maybe its due to spywear. You can get software to protect your pc from this, but with a mac the OS is inherently resist to this.

Well first it is called spyware. And the word you are looking for is resistant, which OS X is now only slightly more resistant than SP2. The main and really only reason they leave OS X and Linux alone is money. Spyware and it's related on-line criminal activity. Hacking has gone from kiddie challenges to a multi billion dollar business. The reason they go after Windows PC's is they have 95% of the market. That's where the money is. I can guarantee you 100% if OS X had 95% market share they would be hacked just like Windows.

Despite all of the people who line up to buy PC's in the stores, most all PC's in the USA are purchased by businesses. They are not buying MACS with OS X. Apple does not have ability to change the market in any way and so they are and will always be a niche player in the PC market. Don't read that as bad I have owned Apple PC's and they make a nice product. Steve Jobs wants to build cool toys. These toys cost money and cannot compete in the business world. Apple is hip and cool and is an excellent company except for the version 1.0 problem I alluded to earlier. They want to be the cool upstart younger guy running circles around the old middle aged PC guy that's their persona....

 

[willxm]

Old TImer,
To each his own. You want to correct my spelling and my grammar fine, go for it. Feel free to correct this post as well.

Favorable Pricing:
Good luck going into an apple store looking for the clearance section, maybe you can find an older model, maybe, but generally they are shipped back to the the plant (or wherever they go). But hey, if you can find one great, wish i did.

Windows XP is rock solid:
Hey, if you say so. As far as “You can't blame the OS when people sell systems that have insufficient and poorly made power supplies that degrade the components and lead to premature failure. You also cannot blame the OS when the manufacturer ships a system with 256 MB of RAM and an on-board video that consumes 128 MB of system RAM and the system runs like garbage.” We are looking for the total package here right? Why would someone, or company, put out a configuration that would cause OS failures? Apple controls the hardware and software. I understand your point about sloppy configurations and not blaming the OS but Microsoft licenses its product to companies who ultimately create a sub-par product. As far as rock solid, well... to each his own.

Spyware:
Slightly more resistant? I dont know about that. I have no virus/spyware software and i have NO problems. When I had a windows machine i always got spyware popups that eventually bogged the pc down. Maybe i didnt maintain the antivirus software as well as i should have. If you dont have this problem great, i did, and im sure more than a few others have had the same problem. And if market share is cause of my lack of spyware, so be it, im still here enjoying SDN spyware free, 5% market share or not.

Apple is a toy:
Yeah im not going to lie, i use my mac for a whole lot of playing, so will most students. Dont get me wrong I can pull up a word processor on my toy as well. As far as business, sure, most cubical rooms are loaded with PCs, your right most businesses are. BUT many universities have mac based utilities. NMR, mass spec, IR, are mostly OSX based at my university, as well as my girlfriends. URI has two patient simulators that are run through a mac.
As for the cool young guy running circles around the guy downstairs, it just isnt young guys. I have walked by offices of professors in a few universities and saw macs. Pick your business? Why would a company pay for a higher priced mac when they can run accounting software on a
baseline pc? In the same instance why do many movie studios make movies on a mac? Why do universities spend more for mac computers to run the hardware? There are targeted audiences i guess. But your right, mine is a toy, i dont make computer generated movies. And i do not worry about updating antivirus software. Im not saying “dont buy a pc”, im just saying “hey, i have a mac and i like it. I paid more for it but im happy with what i have and after 4 years in pharm school im not regretting it.”

 

[willxm]

Another recent hot topic on this forum is "lurking". After being attacked by old timer i can see why people lurk. Feisty group you are.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I'm running XP2. No problems, no spyware. Runs perfect. Should run even more perfect when I get my new quad-core in the mail early next week. The typical idiot gets tons of spyware on their computers because they are...well...idiots, be it OS X or XP. If you really want to run a smooth, fast, resource light machine...get Ubuntu Linux. That's the closest thing to OS utopia out there right now.

 

[Old Timer]

Another recent hot topic on this forum is "lurking". After being attacked by old timer i can see why people lurk. Feisty group you are.

I'm apologize for attacking you. It was not my intent. I tried to point out some facts about the difference between PC's and MAC's. I tried to explain some of the misconceptions about Windows and the PC marketplace in general.

At no time did I disparage OS X, although I think Apple is a criminal company and because they have the cool hip image they get away with things others cannot. If you spent $399.00 for an Original 5 GB I-Pod and the battery died two years later you were screwed. Apple made it with a non-replaceable battery. To make matters worse they refused to replace the battery. A class action lawsuit was required.

You implied Windows is an unstable OS. It is not. Windows XP SP2 is a solid OS. I sell and fix PC's for a living. I am hands on with PC's all of the time and I have worked with every OS from DOS 3.3 through Windows XP and from Apple DOS/Apple CPM through OS X. Are there problems in the PC market yes, and Windows gets blamed for the failures of others.

You implied OS X is more secure than Windows. And as long as Microsoft allows any user access to the root, this will be true to a point. If OS X had 95% market share it would be the same as Windows.

I love OS X. It is a great product all by itself. You do not need to demean Windows to extol the value of OS X. You can't go wrong with OS X, it's a nice product. You cannot do hardcore gaming on a MAC. You are more limited in your selection of software with OS X. That being said, you can get all of the apps you need for a unsuccessful college experience. The main reason to purchase a MAC is the tight integration between the hardware and the OS. It becomes very easy to download a movie from your DVR and edit your movies. You get a complete package and it will serve you well. At the same time the tight integration is a double edge sword. Apple was trying to get everyone to go with IEEE1394 (Firewire) as opposed to USB. Once they switched to Intel from Motorola, they are fully on the USB bandwagon and people who who have older cameras and other peripherals that are Firewire only get left out.

 

[MindOverMatter]

My school implemented the mandatory laptop for all new pharmacy students, with the price added into our already inflated tuition. However, the tablet that we got (HP Compaq tc4400) is pretty amazing.

I don't know how I ever went without having the capabilities of writing over powerpoint slides, or throwing everything into OneNote. With all the information that has been thrown at us in the first week alone, it's a good thing we have these computers to keep ourselves organized.

If you want a functional, lightweight laptop, I'd suggest this tablet.

But then again, I'm just a P1. What do I know?

Despite what they say, this signature is not under construction. I'm just lazy/unoriginal.

 

[atkima]

They arent coming out with a new line unless it is a tablet. Apple just refreshed their laptops from the powerbook to the macbook and macbook pro. As far as picking one up cheap... wont be that cheap. Search on ebay, Macs have far better resale value than just about any pc manufacturer. What does resale value tell us? Well some may say that it shows that macs are more stable. Maybe people are just willing to spend more for the name.

This is an ongoing debate. I once disliked macs, until i was given one (desktop). I have since purchased a laptop and will wont switch back, or consider it, until windows figures out its stability issues. Bottom line, its difficult to describe how/why many prefer the mac, try one out if you can.

Ever experience your pc bogging down all the time? Maybe its due to spywear. You can get software to protect your pc from this, but with a mac the OS is inherently resist to this.

Im in my 5th year and have only once experienced a need for a windows based machine. In PK we had to run STELLA which was not compatible. In the same instance many pc users were unable to run the program as well due to lack of windows vista support.

STELLA should also be available as a Mac version too. I actually used it in high school on Macs. Cool, neat math modeling program.

 

[atkima]

On the topic Windows OS vs. Mac OS, I have this to say: Once you've tried MacOS for a few weeks (alas owning a Mac), you'd never want to go back to Windows (boring would be the first word out of my mouth!)... and I'm typing on my IBM Thinkpad (Vista) right now dreaming one day I can afford a Macbook

Buy a Mac if you can afford it.

 

[SpenceRx]

... Once you've tried MacOS for a few weeks (alas owning a Mac), you'd never want to go back to Windows ...

From my own experience this is NOT true. Five weeks ago I bought a new macbook pro. Its a great computer and I'm happy with it but it has its shortfalls. I had a networking issue and I was unable to solve it in Mac OS. luckily, I have Windows XP installed on my Mac (bootcamp) so I was able to boot into windows to sort everything out. This set-up allows me to have the best of both worlds. There is much more support out there for Windows users.

Buy a Mac if you can afford it.

I would say "Buy a Mac if you can afford to install Windows XP on it."


I should also add that the power adapter on my macbook is apparently faulty so I've been unable to use it for the past few days. The macstore won't have a replacement until this Tuesday but they tried to sell me a power adapter off the shelf for way too much money. I am not impressed at the moment.

 

[atkima]

SpenceRx: If you plan to use Windows most of the time on your Mac, you should return your Mac. Macs are not for everyone.

 

[akaykay]

I'm now actually looking forward to buying a tablet pc. I hear toshiba's are good. Any good tablets out there with a budget of $1500.

thanks for all the advice.


p.s. I'm not a mac person. sorry mac diehard fans.

 

[SpenceRx]

SpenceRx: If you plan to use Windows most of the time on your Mac, you should return your Mac. Macs are not for everyone.

Oh no, I am really glad to have Mac OS and I do use it. I'm probably in it about 50% of the time. Having both Windows and Mac OS is truly the best of both worlds and I have no plans to return my Macbook. Even if I was going to use Windows 100% of the time I would still have bought a macbook partly because it has the illuminated keyboard

 

[dgroulx]

I'm now actually looking forward to buying a tablet pc. I hear toshiba's are good. Any good tablets out there with a budget of $1500.

thanks for all the advice.


p.s. I'm not a mac person. sorry mac diehard fans.

I bought a Toshiba in 2003 and it served me well, until I installed Service Pack 2. The video adapter stopped working. I had a 3-year warranty, so Toshiba took my laptop back and sent me another one. It was pre-service pack 2, so it ran fine. But, wonderful Microsoft forced me to install Service Pack 2. It stopped working again. It stays up for about 5 minutes before crashing. We're throwing it in the trash. My next laptop (if I get one), will be a Mac Book.

 

[twester]

I'm now actually looking forward to buying a tablet pc. I hear toshiba's are good. Any good tablets out there with a budget of $1500.

thanks for all the advice.


p.s. I'm not a mac person. sorry mac diehard fans.

I've owned four Toshibas. Two are long-dead, but served me well. Currently, I've got two, a three-year old Satellite running XP SP2 and a new tablet. I've really been happy with the Satellite. I should be able to get a couple more years of use out of it. I can do almost everything on it, including 3-D gaming. It's all but replaced my TV as the entertainment center in my house.

I just bought the Toshiba Portege M400 tablet (it's within your budget). The OS is Vista. I'm really enjoying it so far. Vista is slick (even though it's kind of weird). The tablet is small and light. The battery life is reasonable (I can get about 3-1/2 hours in power-saving mode). I only have 1GB of RAM and will probably upgrade eventually (if you want more, don't by the RAM from Toshiba, it's 50% less expensive from CompUSA or Circuit City). Don't expect to be able to run 3-D games or anything (the Intel video adapter is bare-boned) - it's strictly a productivity machine.

To be honest, I've had issues with the new tablet around networking XP and Vista together. I've gotten most of those ironed out, but the next hurdle is getting Office 2003 to run on Vista - some things work and some don't. I will succeed since I don't have any more money to spend on software right now. (Success!). Now if I can just get Outlook to sync...

I'd not consider a Mac right now because there's so little software available for them and Apple doesn't make a tablet. When they finally get around to it, the thing will probably cost $10,000. That's exaggeration to make the point that Mac's are not good value for the money they cost, IMO. However, they may be easier to use, which is great for people who don't enjoy messing around with computers.

Anyway, I like Toshiba laptops.

 

[Quiksilver]

While everyone is talking about macs, now is a great time to buy. I bought mine with an educational discount along with a new ipod, and a new printer and they gave me a 200 dollar rebate on an ipod and a 100 dollar rebate on printer. A great steal if i must say.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I got an HP with an Intel Quadcore Q6600 (9.6Ghz), 3GB Ram, 512mg video card, dual TV tuner, 250GB HD, Windows Vista Premium (will install Windows 2000 for dual boot when it gets here...), & a 19" Hidef LCD Monitor for $1066.

Beat that.