Time for a laptop. What to buy?

[Dantilla]

Hey, guys.

My computer is pretty obsolete, and am thinking oif replacing it with a laptop. I've always used PCs, but would consider a Mac this time around. What do the Pelicanheads recomend? What do I stay away from?

Success stories?
Horror stories?

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I'm planning on a new iBook or PowerBook but I'm going to wait until the "version 2" Intel-based ones.

[island911]

What do you need it for?

Internet appliance? . . .video editing? . .. 3-D modeling? . . . ?

[mb911]

we use Dell inspiron 2200 here at the business . I have several of them they work very well. But I don't do any gaming,and mostly send picture answer emails and come to this website

[gassy]

Powerbook!

[MichiganMat]

Powerbook

Unless you have a really special need that the Mac can't fill (ie corporate network VPN, landscaping software, etc), I can't think of a better route to go.

[beepbeep]

Dell is good.

Mac if you are digitally challenged

[YTNUKLR]

Powerbook has done me well.

[david.avery]

Get a Dell XPS Gen 2!

I pin-modded mine to get a $60 ebay processor to go up to 2.26GHz, and I installed a 7800GTX card in it. This card scores 7400 on 3dmark 2005. My rather built desktop scores 5200!

[TimT]

Panasonic Toughbook.. I have a Toughbook that I bring to the track for datalogging, and engine management adjusting.

I picked one up on Ebay for a few hundred, it has a waterproof keyboard, touch screen, built in wireless..

f you dont mind used, you can get one of these fow cheap, then load it with Window XP or a Linux distro or both

[techweenie]

PowerBook.

Virtually crash and virus/worm/spyware-immune.

[MichiganMat]

Toughbooks are badass. They used to make one for the police, could deflect bullets, get the hell shook out of it , etc etc etc. Pretty awesome.

[dd74]

We upgrade every three years. Currently we have Dells, but have used IBMs in the past and Mac Powerbooks.

If you don't need a lot of PC software or have to connect to a network like Novell, I'd go Powerbook. I'm not sure, but I don't think OSX can yet connect to a Novell network.

If you need PC, Dell is very good. IBMs are made by someone else now - I forget who - but I assume they're good machines as well.

Toughbooks are very cool - but a lot of money.

[red-beard]

The real question is how much do you want to spend? Set your budget, then you'll be able to get a realistic idea of what you can get.

Dell low end notebooks, 15 in LCD screen, loaded with 512MB ram, 40-60 GB harddrive, Word 2006, CD-RW/DVD drive, 802.11g adapter built in, go for under $700.

Price wise, hard to beat.

[TimT]

Toughbooks are very cool - but a lot of money.

New they are expensive, used they arent to damaging to the wallet

Toughbooks are badass.

Thats why I bough a Toughbook... I bring it to the track often, and things sometimes dont get handled as gently as possible.

I think I paid $350 for mine, it has a 20 gig hd, 1.2 mhz processor, 256 (now 584 ram). Touchscreen, waterproof keyboard, shock mounted HD. I put Win XP home and a free Linux distro on it. Has built in Wireless..

But buying a used pc isnt for everybody.

[stomachmonkey]

From the OSX page at apple.com

Mac OS X can talk to the most popular file server protocols on every major server platform in the market today — including AFP, SMB/CIFS, WebDAV and NFS file services running on Mac OS X Server, AppleShare, UNIX, Linux, Novell NetWare and Windows NT, 2000 and XP servers.

[dd74]

Originally posted by stomachmonkey
From the OSX page at apple.com

Mac OS X can talk to the most popular file server protocols on every major server platform in the market today — including AFP, SMB/CIFS, WebDAV and NFS file services running on Mac OS X Server, AppleShare, UNIX, Linux, Novell NetWare and Windows NT, 2000 and XP servers.

Yeah - we tried Novell with a couple of OS 9-something machines, and it didn't work out as easily as it does with XP. We have a dual-processor Mac, and as far as I know, can't get X to cooperate with Novell - me thinks it's a licensing issue - I dunno.

Maybe it's time for a new tech...

[RANDY P]

Dell isn't bad, - I'm on a Inspirion 6000 with 512 Megs and XP Pro. I do a huge amount of multi tasking with big math programs and it works pretty well.

Minor gripes - The keyboard could be a bit wider, some have full - sized keyboards for a comparable size screen (IBM Thinkpad), the unit dims slightly when you unplug it- power saving feature, I find it annoying.

Biggest gripe is that as I depress the keys, my fingers always catch the keys above where I'm pressing, so occasionally I'll pull keys out of the keyboard as I type. My "D" key has probably been pulled out once a month easily. You get used to it.

For the money though, it's been a good laptop.

rjp

[anh911]

IBM (now Lenovo) Thinkpad, Toughbook or Powerbook if you don't need tons of special software or networking. Depends to some degree on what you plan to do with it. My company used to buy Dell by the dozen and they are cheap but I wouldn't have one for my own use. (IMO)

[techweenie]

Why you guys even mess with Wintel machines is beyond me.

-------------------
By industry / IT

Windows PCs face ‘huge’ virus threat
By Kevin Allison in San Francisco
Published: January 2 2006 18:18 | Last updated: January 2 2006 22:19

Computer security experts were grappling with the threat of a newweakness in Microsoft’s Windows operating system that could put hundreds of millions of PCs at risk of infection by spyware or viruses.

The news marks the latest security setback for Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company, whose Windows operating system is a favourite target for hackers.

-----full story-----

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/0d644d5e-7bb3-11da-ab8e-0000779e2340.html