Need some laptop suggestions

[Brett327]

PCs may be cheaper but unless you're really savvy it's pretty easy to pick up a virus or spyware, adware.

This is a specious argument for buying a Mac. Now, I may be PC savvy, but I don't regularly run any malware or anti-virus software and the only firewall I use is the one in my DSL router - never have and don't plan to in the future. I've been running various computers online since the mid 80s with my Atari 800 and it's 300 baud modem, to all the Apple products to PCs and I can count on one hand the number of times that I've picked up anything that was more than a minor annoyance. It's not that hard people.

Brett

 

[S.O.B.]

This is a specious argument for buying a Mac. Now, I may be PC savvy, but I don't regularly run any malware or anti-virus software and the only firewall I use is the one in my DSL router - never have and don't plan to in the future. I've been running various computers online since the mid 80s with my Atari 800 and it's 300 baud modem, to all the Apple products to PCs and I can count on one hand the number of times that I've picked up anything that was more than a minor annoyance. It's not that hard people.

Brett

You should have just posted your video Brett:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6553260189868317794#




I've owned several MACs and have been very pleased.

 

[Nordo]

I highly recommend that you do NOT buy a Mac.


I suggest a distro of GNU/Linux such as Ubuntu or Kubuntu. These are completely free, absolutely reliable, and have a major update every 6 months. If you are willing to learn a new OS, Ubuntu is better and cheaper than any Mac.

Download Ubuntu 9.04 (for free) and burn it to a CD. Put it into any computer and select "Try Ubuntu without making any changes into your computer." This will allow you to try Ubuntu without changing anything permanently. It will be a bit slower than it would be running from a hard disk drive.

You may think of GNU/Linux as requring lines of code in a console every time you want to install anything, but Ubuntu uses a packet manager where you can easily install programs that do everything you need, and update your OS every 6 months.

If you are worried about security, Macs are only less virus-prone because few write viruses for them, but they can be easily hacked into with a modem and rm / -rf. Macs are based on Unix, which is how they claim to be secure, but because they changed parts of Unix, they are not secure. Ubuntu is also free of viruses.

Ubuntustudio is what you will want to do audio, graphics, and video. Openoffice will replace Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc.

I would only recommend Windows over Ubuntu Linux if you want to play games, or use Windows programs (although you can run those in Ubuntu through Wine).
For what you want to do, Ubuntu is superior (Kubuntu is also very good).

 

[eddie]

You should have just posted your video Brett:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6553260189868317794#

Only problem with that video is that I can think of similar and comparable problems on the PC to many of the issues he brings up. But it is funny to see someone go office space on an iMac. I remember having similar apoplectic moments with them in the school computer lab as a child.

 

[S.O.B.]

I highly recommend that you do NOT buy a Mac.


I suggest a distro of GNU/Linux such as Ubuntu or Kubuntu. These are completely free, absolutely reliable, and have a major update every 6 months. If you are willing to learn a new OS, Ubuntu is better and cheaper than any Mac.

Download Ubuntu 9.04 (for free) and burn it to a CD. Put it into any computer and select "Try Ubuntu without making any changes into your computer." This will allow you to try Ubuntu without changing anything permanently. It will be a bit slower than it would be running from a hard disk drive.

You may think of GNU/Linux as requring lines of code in a console every time you want to install anything, but Ubuntu uses a packet manager where you can easily install programs that do everything you need, and update your OS every 6 months.

If you are worried about security, Macs are only less virus-prone because few write viruses for them, but they can be easily hacked into with a modem and rm / -rf. Macs are based on Unix, which is how they claim to be secure, but because they changed parts of Unix, they are not secure. Ubuntu is also free of viruses.

Ubuntustudio is what you will want to do audio, graphics, and video. Openoffice will replace Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc.

I would only recommend Windows over Ubuntu Linux if you want to play games, or use Windows programs (although you can run those in Ubuntu through Wine).
For what you want to do, Ubuntu is superior (Kubuntu is also very good).

If you understand what this guy is saying: don't buy a MAC.

 

[SynixMan]

This is a specious argument for buying a Mac. Now, I may be PC savvy, but I don't regularly run any malware or anti-virus software and the only firewall I use is the one in my DSL router - never have and don't plan to in the future. I've been running various computers online since the mid 80s with my Atari 800 and it's 300 baud modem, to all the Apple products to PCs and I can count on one hand the number of times that I've picked up anything that was more than a minor annoyance. It's not that hard people.

Brett

I think it's pretty safe to say you're a poweruser and that's not a typical PC practice. Joe-Schmo isn't going to change his habits, you have to protect him from himself. Sad reality...

 

[devil_dog_wife]

If you understand what this guy is saying: don't buy a MAC.

Yeah I was pretty much lost after "I suggest..."

I'm going to the Apple store this weekend, the more people keep telling me that I have to have one, I'm very curious.

 

[eddie]

I think it's pretty safe to say you're a poweruser and that's not a typical PC practice. Joe-Schmo isn't going to change his habits, you have to protect him from himself. Sad reality...

Protect us ("non-powerusers") from ourselves? Bullshit. That's what the Genius Bar wants you to think. It doesn't take a "genius" to keep your PC in order. It takes common sense, a Google search, and the self-control to never call customer support.

Devil Dog Wife,

Do you click on pop-ups? Do you look at a lot of porn? If the answer is "no," then the vast majority of problems you will encounter with a PC have already been mitigated.

 

[Brett327]

I highly recommend that you do NOT buy a Mac.


I suggest a distro of GNU/Linux such as Ubuntu or Kubuntu. These are completely free, absolutely reliable, and have a major update every 6 months. If you are willing to learn a new OS, Ubuntu is better and cheaper than any Mac.

Download Ubuntu 9.04 (for free) and burn it to a CD. Put it into any computer and select "Try Ubuntu without making any changes into your computer." This will allow you to try Ubuntu without changing anything permanently. It will be a bit slower than it would be running from a hard disk drive.

You may think of GNU/Linux as requring lines of code in a console every time you want to install anything, but Ubuntu uses a packet manager where you can easily install programs that do everything you need, and update your OS every 6 months.

If you are worried about security, Macs are only less virus-prone because few write viruses for them, but they can be easily hacked into with a modem and rm / -rf. Macs are based on Unix, which is how they claim to be secure, but because they changed parts of Unix, they are not secure. Ubuntu is also free of viruses.

Ubuntustudio is what you will want to do audio, graphics, and video. Openoffice will replace Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc.

I would only recommend Windows over Ubuntu Linux if you want to play games, or use Windows programs (although you can run those in Ubuntu through Wine).
For what you want to do, Ubuntu is superior (Kubuntu is also very good).

Dude, the OP is a chick, not a Linux nerd. You can't seriously suggest a Linux based system for someone like this. -1 for general SA.

Brett

 

[S.O.B.]

Protect us ("non-powerusers") from ourselves? Bullshit. That's what the Genius Bar wants you to think. It doesn't take a "genius" to keep your PC in order. It takes common sense, a Google search, and the self-control to never call customer support.

Devil Dog Wife,

Do you click on pop-ups? Do you look at a lot of porn? If the answer is "no," then the vast majority of problems you will encounter with a PC have already been mitigated.

It's over boys.... she's buying a MAC.

Devil Dog Wife, please let us know how it works out. Don't buy MS office at the MAC store, your husband can get it for nine bucks.

Best of luck.

 

[LazersGoPEWPEW]

9 bucks?

 

[Godspeed]

I'd equate buying a Mac to buying a Porsche..... They are really pretty and 'hip'. It'd be like buying a designer purse.

You walk into the store and everyone is super into fashion and shit. There's some homo erotic trance music going on and the employees are half walking around, half dancing and smiling their spindley asses around the store in their faggoty cardigan pullovers. Some gay guy named Trinity that is listening to his IPOD will walk up to you with a smile and ask you how he can make your Apple experience a sssssplendid one.

You end up buying this 'macbook' for 1k+, and end up promptly buying $300 worth of Apple brand proprietary overpriced accessories.

So you buy your Macbook, and get it home. Opening the laptop will be an experience. Set an evening aside for it, because you may shed a tear at how 'pretty' everything is laid out in the box.

Very rewarding so far. As you use the mac, you'll have a number of 'how cool am I now that I have an Macbook' moments.

You turn it on for the first time and your jaw will drop as the pretty apple on the back 'glistens'.

As you go to plug in the laptop to the wall, you'll notice that the cord magnetically sucks itself into the laptop... 'Whhhoa'

You turn on the laptop and you're greeted by a video of one of Trinity's cousins (in a cardigan pullover) teaching you everything you need to know about your pretty new designer laptop.

And then, several months later, when Trinity is yet a faint memory, and you couldn't give a flying f**k about the fact that your laptop has a magnetic cord or an apple shaped light on the back, you'll realize that is what you really paid for was aesthetics; that for the same price, you could've got a new PC laptop with a bigger screen, higher resolution, better video card, more programs, more accesories, much higher processing power and memory and upgradability for the same, or a much lower price.

You'll notice that parts or accessories for your laptop will be over 3X the price of their PC counterparts, and if you ever are going to need that Macbook worked on, you're going to have to take it to Trinity, who will charge you up the wazoo to work on it (oh, unless you spend an extra bill on Apple's 'protection plan').

The bad news about buying a PC? They're aren't as aesthetically pleasing, don't come in a box made of recycled hemp designed by Gucci, and ultimately aren't as 'hip'.

But hey, that's my opinion, I could be wrong.

 

[SynixMan]

You end up buying this 'macbook' for 1k+, and end up promptly buying $300 worth of Apple brand proprietary overpriced accessories.

That a bit of a stretch. Last I checked my MacBook Pro uses WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, SD Memory, Mini DisplayPort, FireWire 800, 1/4" Headphone Jack... Those are open standard computer interfaces.

Sure, the power adapter is proprietary, but so is everyone else's power adapter. And this one has MagSafe.

And their keyboards/mice/displays? You don't have to use them if you don't want. And if you did, they are high quality and not ridiculously overpriced. I rock a Logitech Nano mouse as their mouse doesn't really work for me personally.

 

[Flash]

9 bucks?

Actually it is $9.95:

http://www.microsofthup.com/hupus/home.aspx?culture=en-US

I'd equate buying a Mac to buying a Porsche..... They are really pretty and 'hip'. It'd be like buying a designer purse.

You walk into the store and everyone is super into fashion and shit. There's some homo erotic trance music going on and the employees are half walking around, half dancing and smiling their spindley asses around the store in their faggoty cardigan pullovers. Some gay guy named Trinity that is listening to his IPOD will walk up to you with a smile and ask you how he can make your Apple experience a sssssplendid one.

Did it strike a nerve with you when you went to the Apple Store? Hit a little too close to home perhaps?

You end up buying this 'macbook' for 1k+, and end up promptly buying $300 worth of Apple brand proprietary overpriced accessories.......if you ever are going to need that Macbook worked on, you're going to have to take it to Trinity, who will charge you up the wazoo to work on it....

But hey, that's my opinion, I could be wrong.

I didn't buy $300 worth of accessories and I have yet to take it back for service, unlike all of my PC's. YMMV.

 

[Godspeed]

Did it strike a nerve with you when you went to the Apple Store? Hit a little too close to home perhaps?

I'm not going to lie to you sir, it was the most awkwardly hip, overly fashionable electronics store I have yet to set foot in.