On Thu, May 24, 2007 10:16 pm, James G. Sack (jim) wrote: > This question has gone around before, but everyone's needs differ > somewhat. I hope kpluggers haven't gotten tired of the subject. > > ..so I think I'm finally going to break down and get a laptop. > > My wife, Barbara, is going on a genealogy trip next month and wishes to > take some notes on the go. She's made a suggestion that is hard to > resist. She thinks she could share one of these things with me, since > typically either of us needs the portability at different times. She > even thinks she might use this opportunity to jump into a Linux > environment -- no dual boot needed, even! Sorry for burdening you all > with my personal life, but I just had to tell someone! :-) Anyway, Karen > should get a kick out of it -- K: you out there? > > I'm going to have to make a decision and actually get a laptop ready to > go by June 11. > > About budget: > > I'm thinking that the $400 kind would probably be rather disappointing,
You might be surprised. We're going through one of those shifts in bang for the buck, and rather nice laptops are coming down in price as they dump them. $400 is a good buy (but possible), but the $500 and $600 area is well populated with credible machines that simply have smaller HDs (40 G instead of ~100G) and perhaps slightly slower CPUs (in the 1.6 gHz area which is quite acceptible, at least for me). > and the $2000 kind seem pretty excessive. But I don't mind something in > the $1200 range, and maybe even a bit more. > For those prices I would expect security and physical hardening, an extended P&L warranty, unbelievable battery life, and maybe a massage in the showroom. > > Some general questions: > > Does anyone have a wide-screen (16:9, 10:6, ..) format and regret it? > Not me. Regret it, that is. I think letterbox is where everything is going. It's the way people look at things. Sabertooth tigers were always in the plane but frequently on the periphery. > I see resolutions like 1280x800 and 1680x1050. The latter sounds > especially nice to me -- I tend to use multiple windows and like the > real estate. Anybody have negative experiences with such res? > Just in trying to read it. But I find the trade off between resolution and readability kicks in much earlier, and TV/Movies thrive in way low resolutions -- 640x480 for example. > I would prefer not to pay any Microsoft tax, of course. > Good luck on that. > Anybody want to tell me I would be happy spending $900 rather than > 1200-1400, please feel free. > I can't tell you where you'd be happy. I already told you the price point where I can be happy. Your specs above sound like way-overkill to me. Remember where you'll be using it -- airports, on vacation, hotels. If those are places where you do CAD/CAM or Mandlebrots, go for it. Otherwise, recognize that a laptop has a much shorter life cycle than a desktop and is much more expensive to repair or upgrade. Some people like to put their whole budget in their laptop and then use it as their primary or only machine. I can respect that, but it's not my philosophy. If you do that, then if anything needs repairs; if you want to try dropping a new card in; or if you decide to upgrade a component; in all those cases, you're potentially screwed. > Alright. What should I consider that I can get into my hands and working > with (say) Ubuntu or Fedora in 10 days or so. I fear Compaq because of a history of not installing Linux cleanly at least for me. Other than that, putting Linux on a laptop is really routine now, not the adventure it once was. And that's a Good Thing. > > Other general advice also welcomed. > I would never walk out the door without at least a 2-year parts and labor contract. Without that, any repairs may cost almost as much as a new machine. I have had terrible luck with laptop CD/DVD readers/writers as the technology advanced, so being able to get that replaced free is critical. (Manufacturere tend to use their own HW and squeezing the new technology down into half height encourages poor quality, I guess.) Such contracts can run as little as $50 (2-yr at Fry's on Alex's graduation present, one of their no-name $400 jobs) to $300 (3-yr on the Toshiba, but the contract paid for itself before it expired). NOTE: If you (or your wife) keep a daytimer like a Franklin Covey, put a note to yourself a month before the service contract expires reminding you to get a free whatever if you've been putting up with something, not getting around to it. I missed out on a battery replacement on the Toshiba by going in 8 DAYS after the contract expired <gnashing of teeth>. Laptops are one thing I would only buy new and from a dealer, no ebay. But as their available spectrum of price/performance broadens, I think I'll be buying on the cheaper end in the future with the understanding that each will have a 2 - 3 year lifespan. Oh, and it's for a wife, so I highly recommend getting her fingerprints on the decision. And Vista sucks rabid rat dicks (you heard it here first), so if she's a M$ gal, roll it back to XP. -- Lan Barnes SCM Analyst Linux Guy Tcl/Tk Enthusiast Biodiesel Brewer -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
