Laptop purchase

[comrade]

Sorry for another laptop thread but I'm heading to South Korea soon and am looking to buy a laptop for my travels. My needs will be fairly standard, no video editing or game playing. I wouldn't mind putting Linux on it as well.

I've been looking at macbooks but they seem to be quite expensive for what you get in terms of hardware. Is their software really worth the extra money? I don't think I can justify spending more than $1200 (and I'm hoping to spend less) and I think disk space will be important to me. Does anyone have experience with bootcamp and Linux? Any big issues?

On the flip side the pc laptops seem to have more memory and disk space, but I'm leery of Vista. How is it to deal with? Will I find it hard to put Linux on with it, however I decide to do that? Will I need to shell out dough for commercial security software?

I guess the basic questions are: Is the extra money spent on a Macbook worth it? Is Vista a pain in the rear to use?

Thanks for your time.

[Rathji]

Vista is fine to use on a new computer assuming it has 2 gigs of RAM. Unless it is an entry level notebook with 1 gig ram or a netbook, you will be fine with it. Netbooks tend to come with Linux or XP installed though, so you would never have that trouble.

You can upgrade the RAM on a Mac, but it will add to the cost which you are mentioning is prohibitive. My opinion on Macs is they are a good value for what they provide. The problem is if you are looking for something that doesn't need to play game or do any sort of intensive editting, they are probably providing you with stuff you don't need. If you are looking at a high end PC vs Mac then there is not alot of difference aside from the OS.

For travelling you need to consider other factors as well other than performance.

How heavy/large is it? 2lb netbook compared to a 17 inch gaming monster. Need to know how much you are willing to carry.

Travelling can lead to theft/loss of valuables. The cheapest laptop you can get that does what you need it to is reducing the amount of loss you suffer if that happens.

Anyway. If it was me, I would buy a netbook or an entry level Dell.

[JerzeeGirl]

Just to add one small item into the debate, Macs are great to use (apparently - I prefer PCs) but my friend bought one when she moved to NYC last year and used it extensively but recently, the Mac just shut down (blue screen of death) and she couldn't figure out what caused it. Apparently it was a processor/hard drive issue that isn't uncommon in Macs and now she's spending approx $1400 to retrieve the files off her hard drive (yes she was an idiot who never backed up her files...).

[Flash]

I don't think you'd have too many issues with Vista, I don't find it a pain at all. I was used to XP and figured I'd hate Vista, but after a few days, it seemed like second nature to me. Now when I use a computer with anything but Vista it seems strange to me.

[photon]

The guy beside me at work is very anti-Microsoft, and his new laptop has Vista on it.. I know he tried to get it back to XP, but now that he's lived with it for a bit he doesn't complain much.

Bootcamp and Parallels are awesome IMO, work very well. Bootcamp is a bit annoying because you have to switch back and forth where with Parallels you can run your Windows software in a window in OSX.

The cost is more, but if you look around you can find some good deals on Apple stuff, check the refurb store frequently they save quite a bit, and they still come with a full warranty. Or buy a lightly used one (that's what I did) and I saved quite a bit, then just buy an extended warranty.

With the new stuff released there should be more used ones for sale at the moment.

[llama64]

For your needs, I'd suggest something in the 700-1000$ range from Dell. Their studio line looks really sweet. Try to find something with a relatively strong case though, since you'll be doing some traveling.

Vista's great actually. I'm mostly an Apple guy, but I've been loving Vista on my desktop at home (it's mostly a gaming machine though). As long as you have at least 2GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive, you'll be fine with Vista. The people who are determined to stick with XP are either luddites or crazy gamer types who want to squeeze as many FPS out of their computers.

Just a bit of caution:
If you're considering Linux, do your homework on the wireless card support for a laptop. All distributions of linux struggle with wireless cards so be sure you can get some drivers for your chosen laptop before you go that route.

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by llama64

Just a bit of caution:
If you're considering Linux, do your homework on the wireless card support for a laptop. All distributions of linux struggle with wireless cards so be sure you can get some drivers for your chosen laptop before you go that route.

That's a fairly outdated issue now. Wireless used to be a problem on Linux, but not so much anymore, especially with all brand new hardware. I've installed Ubuntu on a bunch of laptops lately and the wireless card has never been an issue.

And on the Linux topic, if you don't need Windows at all you can consider buying a laptop with Linux pre-loaded. You'll save a hundred bucks on the windows "tax" (ie the cost of the operating system).

I run several Linux only machines, and haven't had much of a problem living without Windows. But I don't play any PC games either. And its not like Vista is horrible (provided you have good hardware), I'd just don't find the cost of it worthwhile for my needs.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by BlackEleven

That's a fairly outdated issue now. Wireless used to be a problem on Linux, but not so much anymore, especially with all brand new hardware. I've installed Ubuntu on a bunch of laptops lately and the wireless card has never been an issue.

Yeah, the last issue I had with a wireless card was just that Ubuntu wasn't supporting WPA-PSK on the router. Which is since no longer an issue.