RE: OT - notebook computer advice

[Guest guest]

Adler wrote:

>

> There is so much wisdom in this group that I feel like asking you guys

> about everything!

>

> I'd like to get a notebook computer. Ideally, it will replace my

> clunky desk top.A new model, not used. This will be my first notebook

> and I want something high quality. I have been advised by my

> programmer friend that I should favour IBMs (great keyboards,

> apparently, but pricey compared to other brands) and Toshibas over

> Dells and other brands. Well, or choose Apple, but of course it's a

> Windows world, unfortunately.

We've bought several notebooks for our company, and IBMs have the best

track record. EVERY other brand we have bought has died within a year or

so. Also, if you buy through CDW they give great support.

I don't use the keyboard on the notebook usually, I have a wireless

keyboard and a Wacom stylus for a " mouse " (it looks like a pen, writes

like a pen, great for artwork too). I also use a LCD display at home,

using a docking port for the notebook (you don't need a docking port

unless you travel with the notebook a lot). Many of our clients have

gone to using notebooks instead of desktops: they ARE harder to

maintain, but the portability is so nice!

Apples are, I think, more reliable. It may be a " Windows world " , but

unless you have a specific need for Windows, there is no reason not to

go with Apple. Word and Excel both run on Apple just fine. Me, I HAVE to

run on Windows because we support business clients, but we spend amazing

amounts of time fixing Windows problems (I just lost 4 days of

programming because of a Windows bug ... ;-( I got my daughter an Apple

for Christmas, and the thing is soooo reliable, so easy to upgrade.

-- Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

Thanks for your reply, Heidi. I was hoping you'd have advice for me.

>

> We've bought several notebooks for our company, and IBMs have the

best track record. EVERY other brand we have bought has died within a

year or

> so. Also, if you buy through CDW they give great support.

>

What is CDW? I'm in Canada, in case it makes a difference.

> I don't use the keyboard on the notebook usually, I have a wireless

> keyboard and a Wacom stylus for a " mouse " (it looks like a pen,

writes like a pen, great for artwork too). I also use a LCD display at

home, using a docking port for the notebook (you don't need a docking

port unless you travel with the notebook a lot). Many of our clients

have gone to using notebooks instead of desktops: they ARE harder to

maintain, but the portability is so nice!

>

That sounds good.

> there is no reason not to

> go with Apple. Word and Excel both run on Apple just fine.

I know, but I would have to spend a lot of money to buy Word and Excel

(I already have Office for Windows). Apple charges much more for

software. I like Apple much better. And I'm sure it would be good if I

learned Linux one day. I loathe Windows. <sigh>

[Guest guest]

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Heidi [mailto:heidis@...]

>

> Apples are, I think, more reliable. It may be a " Windows

> world " , but unless you have a specific need for Windows,

> there is no reason not to go with Apple. Word and Excel both

> run on Apple just fine. Me, I HAVE to run on Windows because

> we support business clients, but we spend amazing amounts of

> time fixing Windows problems (I just lost 4 days of

> programming because of a Windows bug ... ;-( I got my

> daughter an Apple for Christmas, and the thing is soooo

> reliable, so easy to upgrade.

Which bug was it? Back in 2000, I spent about the same amount of time

puzzling over some odd behavior caused by a bug in Windows 95 (either A or

B; it was definitely fixed in C). I don't remember exactly what it was, but

it had something to do with an API for multi-byte character strings. I

believe that there was a parameter that was supposed to represent the size

of a buffer in bytes, but Windows interpreted it as characters, meaning that

if there were any two-byte characters, there was a chance of a buffer

overrun. The upshot was that you had to pass a buffer twice as big as you

should have needed in order to guarantee that there would be no overrun. If

it makes you feel any better, Microsoft was the one paying my salary while I

figured it out.

But that was Windows 95, and you'd get shot for writing stuff like that at

Microsoft nowadays. Personally, I haven't had any problems with Windows

since I upgraded to Windows 2000, and later XP.

[Guest guest]

Adler wrote:

>

> What is CDW? I'm in Canada, in case it makes a difference.

http://www.cdw.com/. But I can't say about what they do in Canada.

> I know, but I would have to spend a lot of money to buy Word and Excel

> (I already have Office for Windows). Apple charges much more for

> software. I like Apple much better. And I'm sure it would be good if I

> learned Linux one day. I loathe Windows. <sigh>

Actually we've been using Open Office, which you can get for FREE and it

runs on Apple also. A lot of the software we have, it turns out, runs on

either Apple or IBM. The Open Source movement is alive and well!

-- Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

Berg wrote:

> Which bug was it? Back in 2000, I spent about the same amount of time

> puzzling over some odd behavior caused by a bug in Windows 95 (either A or

> B; it was definitely fixed in C). I don't remember exactly what it was, but

> it had something to do with an API for multi-byte character strings. I

> believe that there was a parameter that was supposed to represent the size

> of a buffer in bytes, but Windows interpreted it as characters, meaning that

> if there were any two-byte characters, there was a chance of a buffer

> overrun. The upshot was that you had to pass a buffer twice as big as you

> should have needed in order to guarantee that there would be no overrun. If

> it makes you feel any better, Microsoft was the one paying my salary while I

> figured it out.

>

> But that was Windows 95, and you'd get shot for writing stuff like that at

> Microsoft nowadays. Personally, I haven't had any problems with Windows

> since I upgraded to Windows 2000, and later XP.

>

>

The " bug " on one machine was that I tried to upgrade to Service Pack 4,

and it refused to boot. Removing the service pack, we could get it to

work in " safe " mode but that was it. The recommendation was to wipe

everything and start over. OK ... but ... the Apple users in my life

never have to put up with stuff like that!!!!

The second one seems to have had a hardware failure, unrelated.

-- Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 10:53:09 -0000, Adler

<wapriceisright@...> wrote:

>

> I'd like to get a notebook computer. Ideally, it will replace my

> clunky desk top.A new model, not used. This will be my first notebook

> and I want something high quality. I have been advised by my

> programmer friend that I should favour IBMs (great keyboards,

> apparently, but pricey compared to other brands) and Toshibas over

> Dells and other brands. Well, or choose Apple, but of course it's a

> Windows world, unfortunately.

I have a Toshiba that I use nonstop. I work from home, so it's going

from morning to night on a lot of days, and at night I just close the

lid for it to hibernate, and open it in the morning to start where I

left off. I've had it for over a year now with absolutely no problems.

While I do transport it occassionally, it's mostly stationary, which

does help prevent a lot of the causes for repair for most laptops:

dropping them, etc.

I use an external keyboard, mouse and LCD monitor, but when I've

needed to use the keyboard and monitor on the Toshiba, I've been very

happy with their performance. The screen is crystal clear. It's 15.4

inches wide, so is as wide as my 17 " LCD montior. The keyboard is also

very comfortable to use.

You can read more about the model I have (Toshiba Satellite M35 S359) here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000DYFLF/

I don't know what their current model is, but I imagine it now has a

DVD-RW drive instead of the CD-RW/DVD combo drive.

Have fun shopping!

Fern

[Guest guest]

-

>This will be my first notebook

>and I want something high quality. I have been advised by my

>programmer friend that I should favour IBMs (great keyboards,

>apparently, but pricey compared to other brands) and Toshibas over

>Dells and other brands. Well, or choose Apple, but of course it's a

>Windows world, unfortunately.

Macs are very, very interoperable nowadays, so I wouldn't worry about it

being a Windows world. You can run Office and IE on a Mac if you so

choose, and there's always Firefox and other great programs out there.

That said, I have two words for you: PowerBook, and ThinkPad.

-

[Guest guest]

-

>I know, but I would have to spend a lot of money to buy Word and Excel

>(I already have Office for Windows).

You might be able to crossgrade, or you could sell Win Office and buy

something else for the Mac. (There are alternatives to Microsoft Office.)

-

[Guest guest]

Thanks everyone for the advice so far! I'll call up IBM to see what

they can do for me. Apple is probably out of my price range (based on

prices here).

[Guest guest]

> >-

> >

> >>I know, but I would have to spend a lot of money to buy Word and Excel

> >>(I already have Office for Windows).

> >

> >You might be able to crossgrade, or you could sell Win Office and buy

> >something else for the Mac. (There are alternatives to Microsoft Office.)

Also: I bought my daughter's powerbook on ebay. It was not the latest

and greatest, but it was a really, really good deal and it works great.

-- Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

>-

>

>>I know, but I would have to spend a lot of money to buy Word and Excel

>>(I already have Office for Windows).

>

>You might be able to crossgrade, or you could sell Win Office and buy

>something else for the Mac. (There are alternatives to Microsoft Office.)

There's an open source 'office' for mac which is free and perhaps

better than the MS stuff. And, doesn't AppleWorks come with the new

machines? It can read your MS files and, AFAIK, offers the same

features in wordprocessing and spreadsheets as the higher priced

spreads...