Getting a Laptop - Which and Where?

[CofyCrakCocaine]

I think the time's come where I need to acquire one of these fabled machines that do alot of stuff and you carry around with you. I want something that is at least 12" screen, weighs less than 7lbs, is overall reliable, handle wireless connections WELL, has a 3-6 hour battery life, and won't be dead in three years.

I primarily want to use it for doing work- so presentations like powerpoint or other office programs are a must. I have zero intention of playing games on it.

Where should I get it/what model should I look for?

They used to sell broke ass laptops in BestBuy. I walked by the other day and they had Dells!! dude. I really don't feel like ordering a fucking laptop online. Is BestBuy reputable with laptops now?

[boosterp]

Asus is currently the top dog for the laptop you describe, you can buy direct and find a coupon code for a discount or buy from New Egg. Model Eee 1000 HE

I have began to turn around on these things.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

Asus is currently the top dog for the laptop you describe, you can buy direct and find a coupon code for a discount or buy from New Egg. Model Eee 1000 HE

I have began to turn around on these things.

Thanks. Will check it out.

[Death Metal Moe]

I can't speak for the battery life of ANY laptop, but I've actually had very good experiences with HP. I can't say enough good things about mine. I have a Pavillion 9000. Got 17" widescreen, DVD burner, wireless card, blah blah blah. Fucking thing rules, I can game on it too.

I like HP because they were the website I could customize my laptop the most on, had the most choices for things like video cards, processors and Hard Drive choices, and they have very nice bright screens standard with almost all the laptops I shopped there.

I had a refurbished one for years, now I have had this one for about 3 years. Just got my grandma's HP laptop about 2 weeks ago too, she loves hers. I really recommend them.

But search around. Newegg, Amazon, Ebay(careful), Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc.

[Death Metal Moe]

Sorry, just noticed you didnt want to order online.

Yea, open your Sunday paper and look at all the latest store flyers. PC Richads, 6th Ave, Best Buy, Office Max, Staples, even Wal Mart.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

I was walking into Bestbuy today and some angry guy with a laptop comes storming by, then stabs his finger at me and sez: "YOU! DON'T BUY A COMPUTER HERE! EVERYTHING HERE SUCKS! EVERYTHING SUCKS! YOU GOT THAT? NOTHING IS WORTH BUYING HERE! THEY'LL JUST TELL YOU TO TAKE A HIKE!" It woulda been nice if he ended it with "NOW YOU GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!!!" like that producer in The Godfather

OK, so I've thought about it and done some research and have decided to go in the complete opposite direction and buy a Macbook instead. The thing that gives me pause, like all other people, is that it's more expensive. But from the sound of things, Macs are generally more reliable and will have a longer lifetime capacity, thereby offsetting the initial extra $300 spent buying one.

Now the question, do I go for that nifty $999 white Macbook, or do I go for the $1299 macbook with the tricky touchpad?

Ah choices...

[Death Metal Moe]

Eh, I'm sure the Macs are nice but I just can't use them. I know you'll get good customer service, but you won't get a lot of software, upgrades or a machine you can work on at all.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

Eh, I'm sure the Macs are nice but I just can't use them. I know you'll get good customer service, but you won't get a lot of software, upgrades or a machine you can work on at all.

By machine you can work on do you mean professional stuff (outlook, onenote, etc. I hesitate to say powerpoint because I've seen it since 9th grade and never struck me as very professional)? What basic functions does a mac not have- not which programs, but more like, can it be a word-processor, can it display presentations, will it not work with a projector, etc.?

My only real gripe with Mac so far is that everything costs too much $$$.

If you meant work on in terms of computer games, I'm not terribly interested in gaming anymore. I find it sucks up too much of my time/life, so that's not really a factor for purchase.

Last time I bought a laptop, I let my friends convince me that I should get the latest videocards and processors so it could play games - which was a mistake.

I know the mac version of Microsoft Office has some serious issues, there's some mac program whose name I forget... Keynote, or iSomething... that fills in for Word and Powerpoint.

But I hear ya about having issues using them. It's got an interface I'm completely unused to. I'm deliberately getting something I'm not too used to so I don't abuse it (and get distracted and waste time instead of doing work).

[Death Metal Moe]

I meant customization of the hardware, but to be fair there's not much I could do to a PC notebook either. Just adding RAM if there's an accessible DIMM slot.

Apple makes a quality product, you'll enjoy it if you're not looking to play computer games on it. I'm sure there's Microsoft Office and other programs available for it.

[biggestmexi]

actually the reliability of a lappy is just the root cause of the operator.

My boss has sever win laptops from several years ago and still uses them to this day.

I would go with a win laptop for sure.

You can go to places such as new egg and get new hdd's more ram. and if anything ever happens to a lappy that not mac you can go to impactcomputers i believe its called. it has tons of replacement parts that you could not find anywhere else. like laptop keyboards.

If you really aren't going to be doing much other than presentations and simple work stick with a win lappy and keep it clean. youll be fine.

alos make sure you check connectivity(such as videos out) that way while you are at work you can maybe hook up the lappy to a projector

and if your not looking to get one that you can game on go for toshiba or IBM. along those lines. Acer is a decent under-rated brand as well. my friend has one from 4 years ago. still uses it.

[ToiletCrusher]

Mac.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

This leads to a new question: Why do people constantly want to upgrade their rigs? Do all computer eventually get slower and the upgrade is desired?

I'm usually content to keep what I've got, the only reason in the decade I've been using computers for wanting to upgrade was to enhance gaming.

Moe, definitely know what ya mean about not having much you can do with a PC laptop. Imagine my joy when I found out Dell didn't support or intend to create any updates for the ATI Radeon Mobility card and the lady told me to buy their gaming laptop instead. A-Booo.

[Death Metal Moe]

The problem is eventually all technology is replaced. We want smaller, faster and more powerful all the time.

I like PCs because I can swap out my shitty video card for a better one at almost anytime. I can get a faster processor and seat it on my motherboard at anytime. If those demand more power I can get a more powerful power source at anytime. Then when my motherboard won't support the processor I need I get a new motherboard but most likely reuse a lot of my other components that aren't obsolete yet. We are talking about PC towers here just to clarify.

As for the laptops, I can't do much with them. I do know that I can get new Hard Drives and RAM upgrades for almost all of them now.

Another conern is I don't know how it is rewriting the Mac Operating System. That might be another problem you have to take your machine back to them for.

I have NEVER and will NEVER take ANY of my pc products to someone to get me through a hardware or software problem. I can do it all myself or with help from friends and/or online forums.

I can't say that you can do that with a Mac. As I undersand them, they stay as they are out of the box and anything out of the ordinary that happens to them, they have to go back. I could be wrong, but they make very few games for PC and limited other software so I'm no interested.

[PapaBear]

Asus is currently the top dog for the laptop you describe, you can buy direct and find a coupon code for a discount or buy from New Egg. Model Eee 1000 HE

I have began to turn around on these things.
Asus also has Express Gate. I have it on my desktop, but it's most useful for laptops. It allows you to get to the net or your pics in 5 seconds from boot. It's very good if you just need to check your mail or something while on the fly and don't want to completely boot your computer.

[boosterp]

As for upgrades; I often upgrade the HD to a faster one, put more RAM in it, and some processors and video chips are replaceable. But, I have ever only replace one processor.

Macs are nice but you are paying a price for name and pop.

Also, openoffice.org is a nice sub to MS Office.

[scottinnj]

Had a budget of about 600 bucks, and wound up buying two Acer ASPIRE ONE netbooks.

Display is small, touch pad is weird (got wireless mice) but for 250 bucks a pop they're great.

Not much storage space on it, but my documents folder has always pointed to my file server anyway, so I really don't need that much.

[badmonkey]

I just got this about 2 weeks ago and my only complaint so far is the right shift key is tough to hit without hitting the arrows. Other than that, it's a badass laptop for $799. Gotta get it from Amazon tho. Can get a bigger HD and screen for about $1400 I beleive.

MSI GX630-028US 15.4-Inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Athlon Dual-Core Processor, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, 512 MB Geforce 9600 Graphics, Vista Premium) (http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GX630-028US-15-4-Inch-Dual-Core-Processor/dp/B001L5U0RG/ref=pd_ts_pc_15?ie=UTF8&s=pc)

[DrDrew319]

mac

[Death Metal Moe]

Asus also has Express Gate. I have it on my desktop, but it's most useful for laptops. It allows you to get to the net or your pics in 5 seconds from boot. It's very good if you just need to check your mail or something while on the fly and don't want to completely boot your computer.

I have that on my desktop. I never bothered to turn it on because I usually want all the things on my computer to work instead of just a few, but now that you mention it, it's probably very useful on a laptop.

Eh, maybe I'll go in the BIOS and turn my Express Gate on to fuck around with it.

[Death Metal Moe]

As for upgrades; I often upgrade the HD to a faster one, put more RAM in it, and some processors and video chips are replaceable. But, I have ever only replace one processor.

Macs are nice but you are paying a price for name and pop.

Also, openoffice.org is a nice sub to MS Office.

That's the other problem with Mac. It's trendy, sleek and you pay for the name and design. I won't say Apple's products don't look appealing but they're just computers.

Plus the fact that it's such a small percentage of the computer market you pay more for it. It's all supply and demand, smaller runs usually mean higher prices.

[boosterp]

That's the other problem with Mac. It's trendy, sleek and you pay for the name and design. I won't say Apple's products don't look appealing but they're just computers.

Plus the fact that it's such a small percentage of the computer market you pay more for it. It's all supply and demand, smaller runs usually mean higher prices.

Especially since Intel now makes their internals. Just another laptop with a different operating system that you pay for the trend.

[Death Metal Moe]

Especially since Intel now makes their internals. Just another laptop with a different operating system that you pay for the trend.

Are you serious? Now that I didn't know. I thought the whole idea of Apple was it was their OS with their parts, now they're just using Intel?

Very lame. So people are really just paying $500 more for a laptop with a designer name on it.

[boosterp]

Are you serious? Now that I didn't know. I thought the whole idea of Apple was it was their OS with their parts, now they're just using Intel?

Very lame. So people are really just paying $500 more for a laptop with a designer name on it.

Mac (http://www.apple.com/macbook/features.html)

Think fast.

Inside the new MacBook is a powerful Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at speeds up to 2.4GHz. MacBook also boasts an increased 1066MHz frontside bus and next-generation 1066MHz DDR3 memory. That faster memory lets you quickly and easily manipulate large, complex files and keep more applications open at once.


2 years now.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

Nevertheless, the tech support people not only can see you in person, but they speak english and have a fair chance of even being white! I don't see how I could not spend the extra million dollars!!

[vamessenger]

I love my macbook air. Bought it the day before Thanksgiving for less than $1100.

[KnoxHarrington]

Are you serious? Now that I didn't know. I thought the whole idea of Apple was it was their OS with their parts, now they're just using Intel?

Very lame. So people are really just paying $500 more for a laptop with a designer name on it.

It's a far different chip than anything a PC uses.

Besides, this is an exceedingly good thing, because you can run any legacy Windows programs you need on it now. Just pick up Parallels or (my preference) VMWare, slap Windows into there, and you got it. Macs run Windows better than a lot of PC's.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

Bottom line, you're not just paying for a prettier laptop with a bigger name. You're paying for something that is going to last longer, have stronger coding, and less likelihood of breaking than your average laptop PC.

I'll put it this way. Friends I've known who use PC laptops replace them every 2 or 3 years (on average there's the occasional fluke who keeps his computer running 5 years) and people who use macs have used them for like, years man.

I'd never buy a macbook air though. Those things are so light-weight I'd start fumbling them. And I do draw a line after certain prices go up.

Like I said, I'm not looking for a power-pc or anything, just something that is relatively stable, is going to do my basic requests (since I want to be a writer and I am a student, the word processor deal + good battery life = MOAR), and feel good all while I do it is what I want.

$1200 is better than spending $3000 on a shitty custom pc laptop that's only going to be replaced in 2 years anyway.

[boosterp]

It's a far different chip than anything a PC uses.



No, Intel makes the processor, motherboard, and Nvidia makes the graphics. It is the same board minus the Apple legacy chip (required for OSX, like a second BIOS) that you would find in a Dell, Lenovo, etc. Performance is the same, memory same, etc.

[Death Metal Moe]

No, Intel makes the processor, motherboard, and Nvidia makes the graphics. It is the same board minus the Apple legacy chip (required for OSX, like a second BIOS) that you would find in a Dell, Lenovo, etc. Performance is the same, memory same, etc.

http://www.paulandstorm.com/tournament/images/stevejobs.jpg

"You don't seem to be buying into our ad campaign friend. Here, let me show you this new app I just downloaded. Just stare into it for about 30 minutes and then go talk to one of our Apple reps. They can fit a nice Apple product into your life."

[CofyCrakCocaine]

No, Intel makes the processor, motherboard, and Nvidia makes the graphics. It is the same board minus the Apple legacy chip (required for OSX, like a second BIOS) that you would find in a Dell, Lenovo, etc. Performance is the same, memory same, etc.

Does this somehow disqualify the fact that Macs have superior video and audio-processing components? That the OS is generally a fuckload more stable than PC Vista? Macs are different machines from PCs, and more importantly their company unlike all the PC companies, aren't tanking in customer service and quality of design. Dell, HP, and Sony all have terrible reputations with shoddy pieces of shit that break down after you put your elbows on 'em and even shoddier tech support.

If I can avoid going to "GeekSquad" or whatever, I will do it. Besides, you make it sound like Intel is a shit brand.

I dunno, I guess I'm just not wanting to have a computer drive me batshit insaneo within six months of splooging a large hunk of salary on it.

[Death Metal Moe]

1st you were asking what laptop to get like you didn't know anything about them, and now you're really sticking up for Apple. If you want one, just buy it.

I'm not OVERLY impressed with them. I've had 4 iPods within the 2 year warranty period I had it covered under, Apple makes shit that breaks too. Opie just had a story about his wife's Mac shitting the bed, and how he went to an Apple store for help and was told he wasn't alone in this. They're just computers.

I had a refurbished HP laptop for like 3 years. Not just Apple makes things that last and are extremely usable.

It's your money, go get the Apple laptop.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

1st you were asking what laptop to get like you didn't know anything about them, and now you're really sticking up for Apple. If you want one, just buy it.

I'm not OVERLY impressed with them. I've had 4 iPods within the 2 year warranty period I had it covered under, Apple makes shit that breaks too. Opie just had a story about his wife's Mac shitting the bed, and how he went to an Apple store for help and was told he wasn't alone in this. They're just computers.

I had a refurbished HP laptop for like 3 years. Not just Apple makes things that last and are extremely usable.

It's your money, go get the Apple laptop.

Just applying what I'm learning!

My last post was pretty fanboyish, but it kind of irked me to hear that because it's Intel it's the exact same thing as PC because it's the same company that makes the components.

That's like saying a Geforce 8800 is the same as a Geforce 9400 because it's made by the same company- it's similar, but not the same. It does the same function, perhaps, but it is NOT the same thing.

If the Intel chipset were identical in a Mac as is found in a PC, a PC would be a Mac just with a different OS.

I'm sure a Mac could break and that they make faulty products like any other company- but I'm not sold on the argument that 1 in 5 macs breakdown versus 3 in 6 Pcs break down = Mac sucks. It just sounds like lost money either way. PC breaks, BestBuy won't replace it. Mac breaks, Applestore replaces it.

[biggestmexi]

It's a far different chip than anything a PC uses.


please explain

[vamessenger]

I have both a PC (Gateway) and my macbook air. I like them both. I prolly wouldn't have bought the Mac if I hadn't gotten such a good deal. An $1,800 laptop for $1,060? Yes, it is light but it is sturdy. I can't treat it like my heavy ass Gateway, but why would I. Best of both worlds for me.

[boosterp]

Does this somehow disqualify the fact that Macs have superior video and audio-processing components? That the OS is generally a fuckload more stable than PC Vista? Macs are different machines from PCs, and more importantly their company unlike all the PC companies, aren't tanking in customer service and quality of design. Dell, HP, and Sony all have terrible reputations with shoddy pieces of shit that break down after you put your elbows on 'em and even shoddier tech support.


The only things that makes Macs different now are the OS and their customer service. OSX is a UNIX based code and yes, it is less problematic than MS based OSs and you will not hear me say anything good about Vista. The components that make up Macs are the same components down to the plant that the are made in as what is put into a PC.

What makes Macs good at video and sound is the OS also, and the software aps that they use. I can do the same with a PC but the software would cost me a lot more and might take a bit more time where as Macs because of their OS inherently do a good job already.

Where Apple has succeeded is in trend setting via their technology innovations like the Ipod, their OSX, Itunes, and the Iphone. They have forced the industries around them to step up and invest money on research and technology to compete. I will not say anything bad about Apple because their competition has been forced out of the 20th century to compete and this has been good for consumers.

[biggestmexi]

If the Intel chipset were identical in a Mac as is found in a PC, a PC would be a Mac just with a different OS.

your right it is.

Their probably more stable and uses less ram that vista. so it will seem faster.

and comparing video cards is like comparing a Pentium 2 to a Pentium 4

[SatCam]

Allow me to share with you the laptop I purchased a few days ago (or "netbook" as they call this thing) It's a Dell Inspiron Mini 9. 8.9" monitor, 1gb RAM, 8gb solid state storage, 2.5lbs, battery ~3hrs, ubuntu linux

Now I am not raving about this thing yet because they haven't even built it. The estimated arrival is March 30. BUT it only cost me 285 after tax (discount thru work helped a bit). So I am willing to give it a chance. I know there is already a thread about the Aspire One so Im not trying to derail this one.

It is below your specs but it is an option to consider. Again I dont have a positive or negative rating about the thing besides cost. Also it won't be my primary computer, I'm actually just going to leave it in my car. Anyway first time laptop buyer here myself..... thought id share. :drunk:

[boosterp]

I love (in my little knowledge) Ubuntu and wish I had more time to keep learning it. It is in my opinion one of the easier linux builds to learn.

[biggestmexi]

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=1224023

[SP1!]

Bottom line, you're not just paying for a prettier laptop with a bigger name. You're paying for something that is going to last longer, have stronger coding, and less likelihood of breaking than your average laptop PC.

I'll put it this way. Friends I've known who use PC laptops replace them every 2 or 3 years (on average there's the occasional fluke who keeps his computer running 5 years) and people who use macs have used them for like, years man.

I'd never buy a macbook air though. Those things are so light-weight I'd start fumbling them. And I do draw a line after certain prices go up.

Like I said, I'm not looking for a power-pc or anything, just something that is relatively stable, is going to do my basic requests (since I want to be a writer and I am a student, the word processor deal + good battery life = MOAR), and feel good all while I do it is what I want.

$1200 is better than spending $3000 on a shitty custom pc laptop that's only going to be replaced in 2 years anyway.

They pretty much are paying for a snobbier name for the mac, they are ok for beginners and quite a lot of design work but for every day use PCs are easier, if they werent then there would be a shitload of macs being sold every day.

And who changes PCs every 3 years? I have used the same one for almost 6 years, it has run like a champ, and I just replaced the HD because I didnt like the noise it was making, I got it to last so long because I could add RAM, upgrade soundcards, and video cards. $1200 will buy a really kickass PC, we just got one for the GFs kid and it blows away the desktops, seems to me most younger people are buying macs cause its the hip thing to do when in reality every company uses PC as long as they arent graphic designers.

And once again most people leave mac alone because hackers want to make a splash like a boulder thrown in a wadding pool not be just a pebble thrown in the ocean, with the advent of the iphone and more apples getting in the market you can bet there will be more viruses getting spread for them.

If you are a student then you need to also make sure that your classes can use mac or pc equivalent programs, it would be a shame if you had to get rid of it because you needed a PC to run school shit.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

The only things that makes Macs different now are the OS and their customer service. OSX is a UNIX based code and yes, it is less problematic than MS based OSs and you will not hear me say anything good about Vista. The components that make up Macs are the same components down to the plant that the are made in as what is put into a PC.

What makes Macs good at video and sound is the OS also, and the software aps that they use. I can do the same with a PC but the software would cost me a lot more and might take a bit more time where as Macs because of their OS inherently do a good job already.

Where Apple has succeeded is in trend setting via their technology innovations like the Ipod, their OSX, Itunes, and the Iphone. They have forced the industries around them to step up and invest money on research and technology to compete. I will not say anything bad about Apple because their competition has been forced out of the 20th century to compete and this has been good for consumers.

Very well stated. Thank you for informing me- are you in the computer industry by any chance? You definitely know what you're talking about.

My bias against PCs come from years of being fucked over by all the PC companies I've named, and the fact that I know better than to rely on Best-motherfucking-Buy for tech support (or myself, because I'm even worse than they are). I had an Inspiron, some HP laptop, and a Sony Vaio. All of 'em shit the bed prematurely, and were hardly working before they broke. The tech support people might as well have picked up the phone and started jerking off for hours straight because that would be about as fun and useful to listen to as their "support" was (which they fucking charged me for in spite of warranty plans in one case, sons of cocks)

Anyway. Memories make me total emo.

For me, it feels more like a potential clean slate to get a Mac. Plus it's incompatibility with most games is a huge plus for me. Think alcoholic who doesn't wanna be around too many bars no more.

[SP1!]

The only things that makes Macs different now are the OS and their customer service. OSX is a UNIX based code and yes, it is less problematic than MS based OSs and you will not hear me say anything good about Vista. The components that make up Macs are the same components down to the plant that the are made in as what is put into a PC.

What makes Macs good at video and sound is the OS also, and the software aps that they use. I can do the same with a PC but the software would cost me a lot more and might take a bit more time where as Macs because of their OS inherently do a good job already.

Where Apple has succeeded is in trend setting via their technology innovations like the Ipod, their OSX, Itunes, and the Iphone. They have forced the industries around them to step up and invest money on research and technology to compete. I will not say anything bad about Apple because their competition has been forced out of the 20th century to compete and this has been good for consumers.
Vistas biggest problem is that MS tried to do to much and didnt create away to turn off all the crap people didnt need. Its not macs OS that makes it good at video, it is how it allocates resources which is partly the OS but mainly the board which they dont let people touch, I can get a decent MOBO and a great matrix card and come pretty damn close to a mac everytime and a lot cheaper. When MS 7 comes out people will love it, they took vista, removed all the shit and added useful features, so unlike MS where you had to piece shit together. The clip paste feature on a touch screen is nice and you can use the feature as well on a regular computer by just putting a circle around an area to screen cap that area, the beta I saw was sweet.

Right now technology is coming from outside sources, apple got lucky with the ipod when people thought portable music was dead, they just happened to catch people using data sticks to carry music, the rest was right place, right time. And what forces people to proceed is the fact that technology is always changing and the biggest driving force in internet tech is google. They are spending millions on research and it makes me pissed I didnt use my spar $5K to buy googles IPO, that shit is still high.

[biggestmexi]

we just got one for the GFs kid

huh?

[boosterp]

Very well stated. Thank you for informing me- are you in the computer industry by any chance? You definitely know what you're talking about.



I have been working with computers for 19 years and built my first one in 1996. I first over clocked one of my computers in 2000. Computer building/tweaking is a major hobby of mine.

With the computer trade magazines/websites, a couple college courses, and experimentation I have learned tons. I can usually run circles around many tech support people both over the phone and in the business place.

Vistas biggest problem is that MS tried to do to much and didnt create away to turn off all the crap people didnt need. Its not macs OS that makes it good at video, it is how it allocates resources which is partly the OS but mainly the board which they dont let people touch, I can get a decent MOBO and a great matrix card and come pretty damn close to a mac everytime and a lot cheaper. When MS 7 comes out people will love it, they took vista, removed all the shit and added useful features, so unlike MS where you had to piece shit together. The clip paste feature on a touch screen is nice and you can use the feature as well on a regular computer by just putting a circle around an area to screen cap that area, the beta I saw was sweet.

Right now technology is coming from outside sources, apple got lucky with the ipod when people thought portable music was dead, they just happened to catch people using data sticks to carry music, the rest was right place, right time. And what forces people to proceed is the fact that technology is always changing and the biggest driving force in internet tech is google. They are spending millions on research and it makes me pissed I didnt use my spar $5K to buy googles IPO, that shit is still high.

Wow, where to begin?

I was a late Vista beta tester (forget which RC I jumped on) and from this I got in on a thing that allowed me to get Vista the day it was released. Vista's biggest problem was that MS tried to do something very different from their prior software, and if I dare they tried to make Vista look a bit more like OSX. They also were trying not to take a hit again on security so you have all these UI warnings and pop ups that bug the shit out of you. There are ways without jumping into the registry to turn off much of the UI warnings. Dispite all of this added crap MS had to rush out patches during the first month that Vista was released, hell SP2 for Vista will soon be released. Also, never before has MS had problems with users making the switch to the newer OS like they have with Vista. Hell, I had Vista installed for mere days before formating my drive and reinstalling XP. That Vista is tucked away in a box in storage.

As for your second paragraph I will agree to a point that yes, right now technology is coming from other sources, more so with the push for better, more, and new. But one can not dispute Apple's impact on the technology market with many of their products and other companies rushing to catch up. Apple also redefined the "smart phone" and the way an OS operates cleanly.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

I need to take a few college courses on this stuff... so I have a better idea of how not to annihilate my machines by virtue of being a bad dad.

[boosterp]

I need to take a few college courses on this stuff... so I have a better idea of how not to annihilate my machines by virtue of being a bad dad.

If you have a few electives and some money to burn it is a great way to get some of the basics. I started in my local community college with an Office XP course followed by a networking course, and for shits and giggles I took a hardware type of course but knew almost as much as the instructor. I took an advanced networking course but it was not geared towards anything I was doing, more of a business big scale kind of thing.

The Office thing was just something that I could put on my curriculum Vitae (academic sort of resume) to show I had more than a working knowledge of MS Office.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

Fuck. I'm still undecided.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

worthless update:

Definitely getting the Mac but now can't decide what particular kind of mac to get or what each one brings to the table. Don't want Pro, leaning towards the white macbook or that other macbook, the black aluminum glossy screened one. Probably going for the cheaper of the two.

Ah well. Thanks for helping me out with your advice everyone.

[biggestmexi]

worthless update:

Definitely getting the Mac but now can't decide what particular kind of mac to get or what each one brings to the table. Don't want Pro, leaning towards the white macbook or that other macbook, the black aluminum glossy screened one. Probably going for the cheaper of the two.

Ah well. Thanks for helping me out with your advice everyone.

yeah go for the mac.

i love seeing people waste their money. not mine.

[boosterp]

yeah go for the mac.

i love seeing people waste their money. not mine.

:dry:

[CofyCrakCocaine]

yeah go for the mac.

i love seeing people waste their money. not mine.

I have alot more money than you, probably. So eat my ass.

[Death Metal Moe]

Well, it's my opinion you're making a mistake but whatever. Just go get the thing.