Hi y’all! Well, I think my seven-year-old computer is dying a slow death on me. The last three afternoons have been hairy. It starts up fine in the mornings, but by the time I get home in the early afternoon, it’s slowed down a ton, and each time I get it going, it takes two or three tries. One of the fans stopped working about a year ago, and because of its age, replacing the fan would near-about be impossible simply because of the way the computer was put together. I really haven’t wanted to put in a lot of extra $$ either.
As a computer tech, I’m trying all of the tricks I can think of. But, I’ve known that this day was coming…
Anyhow, I’m seriously considering a replacement. I like desktops, but my hectic lifestyle tells me it’s time to invest in my own laptop (my children each have their own). Plus, I’ll be able to use it next year when I start teaching. I’m thinking of maybe getting something with a docking station so I can use it like a regular desktop at home.
Now, I know I can google the heck out of laptop recommendations, but I wanted to get y’all’s opinions too. (And I’m so tired of doing research right now…my senior seminar college class is kicking my hiney in the research dept.)
What kind do you have? What do you like about it?
I’m partial to Dells, but I’m open minded. I know that much depends on RAM, yada, yada.
Well I have always been a PC girl, but in March I got a MacBook Pro. I can’t even tell you how much I LOVE it!!! I really can’t say enough good things about it. I never thought I would get (or like for that matter) a Mac, but I don’t regret it at all.
I’m partial to Dells myself. You can go to their website and spec it out just the way you want it. You can even order them pre-loaded with Linux instead of Windows now.
I have a Dell laptop for work and it is wonderful. We are probably going to get a Dell laptop for house purposes also. We have a Sony Vivo tower that is great and they make some tiny laptops which might come in handy for space & carrying purposes!
I couldn’t imagine choosing with everything that is out there :passedout:
Hey Mason, I was thinking about Linux. I know you’re a Linux guy. Do you think it’s the way to go? I’m wondering about the compatibility with my other programs.
Oh, and I love “building” computers at the Dell site. It’s so user friendly. Of course, this is going to cost some $$ as I just gadgets and new technology.
my husband just ordered that one. he received it yesterday and it had some bugs right out o the box, but they are fixable for any linux geek
he said you have to get into grub and manually edit a config file to get it to reboot
i recently got a macbook bc im not a geek ( not that kind of geek. im a record nerd)and im so in love with mac now. it all works perfectly. i dont have to think and its super fast and lovely. and NOT microsoft
if youre interested in editing and programming a bit, its totally for you. im NOT at all. i just want the thing to work. ive spent five years trapped by linux of various forms (red hat, mandrake, slackware, debian, linux from scratch, and ubuntu) and ive hated every bit of it. they dont work well with video files and sound… like i couldnt easily surf and listen to music. it was always a PITA for me. but reed loooooves it. which is why i got a fancy macbook and he got his dell laptop
I have a Dell desktop and laptop and both my daughters, my father and two of my brothers have Dell, too. :teehee: I’ve always found their customer service to be great, but I’ve heard a few who had problems. That could certainly happen to any computer though.
All that being said… no matter what you get, get the best you can afford. They become obsolete pretty quickly. :teehee:
You know…at this point I just want something reliable. I’ve read that Linux is more stable than Windows. And, now all of the new machines come with Vista, which is not compatible with many things yet.
On the other hand, I don’t have a lot of time to tinker. I don’t mind it, but I’m in the middle of college classes, along with working and raising a family. I’m planning on taking four classes next term, and that’s when my daughter’s soccer schedule gets revved up again (yeah, she’s going to start playing soon…after knee surgery in February!).
Hey Jan, I was just looking at the Dell website. They have some really nice ones for $3,000. Dh is gonna you-know-what when he finds out. :teehee: :teehee:
we have a laptop a piece and can dock them. we sit in the same room and send emails to one another jokes etc…:):roflhard::roflhard:
:yay: one Dell and one Toshiba
While I use Linux for everything and have no problems at all (can listen to music, view videos, watch DVDs, etc.) I really don’t recommend it for a casual or technically challenged user.
I personally prefer Linux over any other OS, but then I am something of a computer geek. :rofling:
I have my desktop set up with four desktop screens on a 3D cube that I can rotate from one screen to the next and it has some pretty nice animations and special effects. Here’s a link to a picture of it.
I’ve been using Macs for a very long time and they beat Win - doze:sleepy: hands down.
My dh uses various PCs --his latest is a SONY Vaio and he is ALWAYS having trouble with it. I can’t tell you how many times he has had to reformat his drive and start all over again. It’s not just him, it’s all the guys that work for him. Most of them are fairly serious computer geeks and they are always having computer troubles. And don’t get me started on how much fun they are having with Vista.
Not me though.
The only problem I have is that my laptop is getting old. My IMac is smoking though.
Too bad they cost so much. If PCs weren’t so cheap compared to Macs I know lots of people who would switch in a heartbeat.
I forgot to mention that you can download and burn a LiveCD version of Linux that will run right from the CD so you can check it out to see if it’s something you might be interested in trying.
Ubuntu Linux is a LiveCD that can also be installed. You can just boot the computer with the CD and run a full Linux system without installing anything. It runs kinda slow because a cdrom is slower than a hard drive, but it’s still a decent way to check it out.
Yes. you download the cd iso image. You’ll need to make sure you select “burn image” or whatever the option is for the burning software you are using. The word image is what you would be looking for.
Once you burn it just boot the computer with the CD. When you reboot, remove the CD and boot the system normally.
The most common way most people start out with Linux is to install a dual boot system so that when you boot you are presented with a menu that allows you to choose either your Windows system or Linux system. It’s easy to have both operating systems on a single computer.
My laptop has a small Xp partition for some trucking specific software I need for work that doesn’t come in a Linux version, and the main Linux partition.
My desktop PC has three different Linux distros on it and I just pick the one I want to boot from a menu.
The last three afternoons have been hairy. It starts up fine in the mornings, but by the time I get home in the early afternoon, it’s slowed down a ton, and each time I get it going, it takes two or three tries. One of the fans stopped working about a year ago, and because of its age, replacing the fan would near-about be impossible simply because of the way the computer was put together. I really haven’t wanted to put in a lot of extra $$ either.
gadgets and new technology.
