Hi Bruce, get a Dell notebook - they are simply the best in terms of service. I've been through a few makes before Dell and the service has always been worse than terrible. Seeing that you will be working with the notebook, you will not be able to afford to spend 2 weeks (or 6 weeks) waiting for it to be fixed. So service is the most important consideration, IMO.
A friend of mine had a hard disk pack up in a Dell notebook and Dell drove to his house in Worcester (!) to fix it the very next business day. I have had Dell come out to my house on the island of Crete (!) to fix my Dell notebook, also next business day. My notebook has been fixed in Austria and Johannesburg whilst on business trips. The nice thing with Dell's all-risk guarantee is that they fix it even if it is partly broken. They do not argue whose fault it is, they just replace the component. For example, when my keyboard was replaced, there was one loose key. I could have continued working like that for a long time, but Dell simply came to where I was working that day and installed a brand-new keyboard. I personally work on a Dell D800 and I can recommend a later derivative of that model (D830, etc.) However, before you buy it, I recommend waiting for the quad-core notebooks to be released, they should be any time now. Get lots of RAM. 2GB at least, but preferably 4GB. Monitor I would recommend 1680x1050 resolution, and then simply set your font size to be 200% if you cannot read it. Get a large, very fast HD. At least 7200RPM, preferably 10000RPM. My personal recommendation: kick off Windows and use Ubuntu instead, far more productive once you get used to it. Lastly, I am CC'ing a friend of mine, Johan Mostert, who is one of the few Dell computer dealers. You can also buy it online at http://www.dell.co.za, but Johan might be able to give you additional good advice and help you customize it. Regards Heinz -- Dr Heinz M. Kabutz (PhD CompSci) Author of "The Java(tm) Specialists' Newsletter" Sun Java Champion http://www.javaspecialists.eu Tel: +30 69 72 850 460 Skype: kabutz McFinnigan wrote: > Don't the newer Apple notebooks have a 19" screen? > > J > > On Jan 7, 2008 8:44 AM, Bruce S. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I'm considering buying a notebook. Never having owned or developed on >> a notebook before, I'm not sure what annoyances I'm going to >> experience when I start using my first. I am wondering what screen >> size/resolution to go for (I generally use eclipse as an IDE on a 19" >> CRT monitor with resolution set at 1280 X 1024 or a 17" CRT monitor >> with resolution set as high as I can manage...not sure what it's set >> to). I realise I won't be able to do that on a notebook. >> >> I know there are loads of you out there working on all shapes and >> sizes. What do you all consider a minimum screen size/resolution for >> working with your IDE on your notebook? >> >> As an aside (coming from someone who hasn't used a notebook before, >> and considering that as developers we may tend to have specific >> requirements for our machines), anyone got any cautionary advice, >> "must have" advice or other? >> >> Cheers and many thanks, >> Bruce. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CTJUG Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CTJUG-Forum For the ctjug home page see http://www.ctjug.org.za -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
