Laptop computer recommendations

[EveryHour]

Hi ya'll~

I am interested in getting a laptop, but I know nothing about computers so it's so overwhelming! I mainly just want to be able to surf the web at a good speed, have email, Word (all that basic stuff), and burn CDs. My boyfriend also has an iPod, so he was considering an Apple computer, but I've heard there can be some compatability problems with Apples? I have no idea what I'm talking about or doing...please help (and use English, please )!

Thanks!

[EnchantedSLN]

Originally Posted by EveryHour

Hi ya'll~

I am interested in getting a laptop, but I know nothing about computers so it's so overwhelming! I mainly just want to be able to surf the web at a good speed, have email, Word (all that basic stuff), and burn CDs. My boyfriend also has an iPod, so he was considering an Apple computer, but I've heard there can be some compatability problems with Apples? I have no idea what I'm talking about or doing...please help (and use English, please )!

Thanks!

I'm no help as far as advice on specs go, but an iPod works great with a regular Windows PC, so don't let that be a limiting factor for you. A lot of Mac owners swear they will never go back to a PC, and probably with good reason, but it's true that Macs are sometimes confining because Windows is the more dominant platform. I think that's changing with the boom in Mac popularity lately, but a Mac user would probably be able to answer that better for you... I've only used one for word processing and research and stuff in computer labs. The nice thing is that they don't crash all the time like Windows is prone to do, and viruses are mainly created to infect the Windows platform, so you don't have to worry about that as much.

If you go PC, Dell seems to be the most well regarded by consumer reports.

Kortni (pianogirl04) has had both and recently had some major problems with her Mac, so maybe she can give you a better perspective on the good and bad of each.

[SuzeQuze]

For work I have used both a PC and a Mac. If you will be doing a lot of multimedia then a Mac is probably a good choice because digital artists always use them, although I don't know all the specifics about why. Also the interface of the Mac seems a bit more intuitive and easier to use, especially if you are not a techie. Also, Word and all other Office programs have Mac versions. Sometimes there are weird issues if these files are emailed to a PC user but I have noticed less and less of that recently as I think those problems have mostly been ironed out. What Tiff said about the lower risk of viruses should be really appealing because they just get worse and worse and are such a nuisance!

So if you fancy yourself an artist, probably the Mac is your best bet, and a technical person, a PC. That is oversimplifying of course but it is what I was told by my graphic designer friend who uses a Mac and swears that they rule. Good luck with your search!

[xxxmx]

as stated, if you're into the digital media then go mac.

i have an HP and i love it. i'm one of those 'anti-mac' kids. i'm also very resistant to change. never can remember that the top bar controls the front window, WTF is it like that anyways? also, the non-right-click-ability sucks. try not using your right click for a day.

oh, and if for no other reason, don't get a mac because of the annoying blinking light on the front of it. i made my college roomie tape over it because it would light up the room.

i had an IBM thinkpad and loved it, though vaios are the way to go.

[tynan88]

I have a Dell and it's great!

[EveryHour]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

Also, Word and all other Office programs have Mac versions.

So if I went with a Mac, I assume this means I would have to buy all new programs (I currently have a a Dell PC with Windows XP), or make sure it was already loaded with the Mac versions?

Can someone also explain to me what the basic difference between a Mac and a PC is? Not necessarily the pros and cons of what they can and cannot do, but I don't evn get why a Mac isn't a PC! And what does it use if not Windows...what does it look like and is it as easy to use?

Thanks!

[hayley]

Originally Posted by EveryHour

So if I went with a Mac, I assume this means I would have to buy all new programs (I currently have a a Dell PC with Windows XP), or make sure it was already loaded with the Mac versions?

Can someone also explain to me what the basic difference between a Mac and a PC is? Not necessarily the pros and cons of what they can and cannot do, but I don't evn get why a Mac isn't a PC! And what does it use if not Windows...what does it look like and is it as easy to use?

Thanks!

Macs do not use Windows. Apple has its own operating system, OS X, the current version of which is called Tiger. It's a BEAUTIFUL operating system. It's so intuitive and easy to use. It sounds silly, but if you have an aesthetic sensibility, you will die and go to heaven with OS X. It's just beautiful. And aside from looks, it's an absolutely excellent system.

If you bought an Apple, their current suite of programs would be loaded on the computer. You'd have a ton of programs, including a word processor that works just as well as Word without being as *annoying*.

The Internet is great on the Mac, anything with digital media is fantastic, and the security of it is a million times better than with a Windows PC. You pretty much can't get a virus with a Mac.

The main difference (and drawback) between a PC and a Mac is that Microsoft opened up the PC as an open format and allowed companies to design Windows based products (software and hardware). Apple, on the other hand, is incredibly picky when it comes to allowing companies to license the software to create hardware or new software. So it used to be that stuff like printers, scanners, etc. were more expensive for the Mac than for the PC, but with USB and Firewire compatability, that's not an issue anymore. Some software can be more expensive for the Mac, but that's about it.

Go to an Apple Store if there's one near you, or a CompUSA or Best Buy and play around with the Macs and see if you like it. They're beautiful machines.

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by hayley

Macs do not use Windows. Apple has its own operating system, OS X, the current version of which is called Tiger. It's a BEAUTIFUL operating system. It's so intuitive and easy to use. It sounds silly, but if you have an aesthetic sensibility, you will die and go to heaven with OS X. It's just beautiful. And aside from looks, it's an absolutely excellent system.

If you bought an Apple, their current suite of programs would be loaded on the computer. You'd have a ton of programs, including a word processor that works just as well as Word without being as *annoying*.

The Internet is great on the Mac, anything with digital media is fantastic, and the security of it is a million times better than with a Windows PC. You pretty much can't get a virus with a Mac.

The main difference (and drawback) between a PC and a Mac is that Microsoft opened up the PC as an open format and allowed companies to design Windows based products (software and hardware). Apple, on the other hand, is incredibly picky when it comes to allowing companies to license the software to create hardware or new software. So it used to be that stuff like printers, scanners, etc. were more expensive for the Mac than for the PC, but with USB and Firewire compatability, that's not an issue anymore. Some software can be more expensive for the Mac, but that's about it.

Go to an Apple Store if there's one near you, or a CompUSA or Best Buy and play around with the Macs and see if you like it. They're beautiful machines.

I agree with Hayley in that the Mac is pretty! Even the way it renders type is different and pretty. Someone else mentioned a difference, there is no right-clicking. The Mac mouse has no right button, so whenever you would have right-clicked you now press the control key and click. It is a bit annoying at first but when you get used to it it is fine. Also, when you open a program on the Mac, your menu bar is at the very top of your screen instead of confined within a program window. There is also a new menu with the application's name on it that doesn't appear on the PC. It takes a little getting used to and it does have an advantage in that you can still see your desktop and do stuff with it while the application is open. Also, there is no Start menu on the Mac so it takes a little getting used to to find your applications. Lastly, I like the way it's Finder program works better than Microsoft's Explorer, it is easier and more intuitive, IMO to find stuff once you get the hang of it.

I guess if I were buying a laptop I personally would lean toward a Mac since I do a lot of stuff with Photoshop and MP3s (plus I think MS is the devil ). But I currently have a PC, a Sony Vaio which was designed as a multimedia computer and I love it. It is a desktop though. If you were to go the PC route I would also recommend that machine. Good luck!

[pianogirl04]

Originally Posted by EnchantedSLN

Kortni (pianogirl04) has had both and recently had some major problems with her Mac, so maybe she can give you a better perspective on the good and bad of each.

I bought an iBook G4 a little over a year ago and two weeks ago I had a hard drive crash. I can't really compare hard drive crashes in a PC vs. Mac sense because this is the first one I've crashed but I can tell you that hard drive crashes can happen to anybody anywhere at anytime, it doesn't necessarily occur more often in Macs. And since this is the first one I've crashed, I can't tell you that the warning signs of an impending crash are different or not because I don't know, but it should go without saying that if you have any important or irreplacable information on your computer, regardless of the operating system you use, you owe it to yourself to back it up somehow. I was able to upload music to my iPod one last time before it crashed completely, but I lost hundreds of photos and files that can never be replaced. But keep in mind the same thing could happen to a PC at anytime. My exboyfriend bought a high-end customized Dell laptop and two months later his hard drive crashed.

If you are seriously considering a Mac, I would encourage you to get AppleCare, which is Apple's extended warranty plan. It extends your one year warranty to three years and even though it's a bit pricey, I cannot emphasize enough that it is worth it. For any problem you have with the computer, including hard drive crashes, you can send your computer to Apple and they'll fix it free of charge and you'll have it back within a week. My iBook was a month out of warranty when the hard drive went down and it took me a week to find somebody in the state of Louisiana who would work on an Apple laptop. I get to drive back to Baton Rouge next week to pick it up and it's going to cost me a small fortune, but if I had AppleCare I could have just called Apple, told them what the problem was, they'd send me a box, I'd FedEx it back to them, and I could have had it back and running last week. I guess what I'm saying here is that AppleCare will more than likely pay for itself if you have any problems with your computer. It's not particularly difficult to repair an Apple yourself, but it's not something that a casual user or someone who's unfamiliar with Macs should get involved in.

As for the operating system itself, it runs on the Macintosh platform, which is similar to Windows 3.x in my opinion (but with lots of beautiful colors and amazing graphics -- trust me, wait 'til you see one). There's a bar at the bottom of your screen called the dock with shortcuts to programs that you'll most likely use more than others (your mail program, your browser, your AIM client, your word processor, etc, and it's customizable so you can put whatever you want down there). The operating system itself is very visually-oriented -- lots of pictures, lots of symbols, and you can drag and drop anything to anywhere to accomplish whatever you're doing. If you have a new song to put in iTunes, drag it from the desktop to the iTunes icon on the dock and you're done. As for having no right click button on the trackpad? You don't need one! You can do everything with one button. In a lot of instances what you would do with a right click in Windows can be accomplished with a drag and drop in Mac. It sounds cumbersome, but it helps me keep track of where my files are -- I didn't just tell it to move, I moved it myself. It sounds weird, but in the visual-spatial scheme of things, it's very friendly and intuitive.

In a way Mac is more friendly to external hardware like printers than Windows is -- when I first got mine and wanted to print something, I plugged the USB cable in and printed. I didn't install the printer drivers until six months later when I was home from school and bored out of my mind, and the same thing goes for my digital camera. This kind of "plug and play" technology is the exact reason I got a Mac. I wanted to start recording some demos and learn how to manipulate sound on a computer and in terms of handling sound Mac is far superior to Windows. With a PC, if I wanted to use any of my music equipment, I'd have to install the drivers, tweak the settings, troubleshoot something, and then probably call tech support for help. I'm tired of dealing with that. I got a Mac and when I plug it in, it works. No questions asked. This isn't to say that installing drivers is unnecessary, but in a lot of cases whatever you plug in works just as well without the drivers as it does with them.

Speaking of "plug and play," the same thing applies to the internet. Plug in a network cable and you're on the web. There might be some settings you have to change depending on your ISP, but I don't think that's very likely. Also, if you have a wireless router or you're on a trip somewhere and the hotel or the mall has wifi, you can turn on AirPort, which is wifi -- instant wireless internet. Believe me when I say nothing can be cooler than turning on your computer and surfing the web without wires or some obnoxious card sticking out of the side of your laptop with a plastic antenna sticking up. It just rocks.

As for programs and finding Mac versions, the assumption that Mac is automatically inferior because it's not as widely used as Windows is completely false. You may not find the exact same program for Mac that you had with Windows, but unless you're dealing with something very specialized (high end science or math), you most likely won't have that problem. Finding games that are Mac format isn't very easy and they tend not to run very well, but Macs aren't built to be gaming machines -- they're optimally built for graphics and sound. (I do know there's a Sims Mac version out there, though.) As for your programs, ones similar to the ones you probably use (like Photoshop, for example) are available for Mac with the majority of the same features, if not more features, so the programs are out there but they may not be under the same names. Unless I knew exactly what programs you were interested in running I couldn't really tell you about the availability of them, but in large part you'll be able to find something in a Mac version to get the job done as you would on Windows. In some cases, such as graphic design and music, the high end programs people use run ONLY on Mac. This is why so many graphic designers, musicians, and producers run completely on Macs. As a musician, if I had gotten a PC, I could have still gotten the job done, but I have a feeling I would have hit a brick wall sooner than I wanted to in terms of expandability. Apples also come with their suite of media programs, so you have a word processor, a mail application much like Outlook, an address book, at least three browsers to choose from (including IE and Netscape), iTunes, an AIM client called iChat (you can install your own AIM if you hate it lol), GarageBand (I'm not sure if this is coming with the most recent version of OS X or not), and a bunch of other nifty goodies -- you really don't need to add anything to be ready to type up papers, surf the web, burn CDs, and check email, which is what you said you were interested in doing. It's all there when you turn it on the first time.

Another thing -- the Mac platform is incredibly stable. No more blue screen of death. I have had a couple freezes and what they call "kernel panics" but to my understanding that only happens when the system gets completely overwhelmed. And like someone else said, there are no viruses in Mac -- there is no need to invest in antivirus software, especially the stuff Norton makes. I know several people who have installed that on their computer and it actually caused it to crash. If there's any particular diagnostic utility that's worth looking at, it's some kind of disk utility like DiskWarrior because it can catch hard drive problems before Mac's built-in utility can. In terms of self-diagnostics and catching their own problems, I will say that Macs aren't exactly the creme de la creme, but the rest of the system and the interface completely make up for it. My hard drive problem is the only one I've ever had with my Mac and I tend to have very bad luck with computers.

I apologize for getting so longwinded , but if you have any specific questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

[EveryHour]

WOW! Thanks, everybody! (Per-ticularly pianogirl04! )

It never ceases to amaze me that The Ledge is not only THE place for FM fans, but also a consumer resource, counseling service.........

[SuzeQuze]

Windows XP also has this functionality and it has worked really well for me.

I would say that the Mac coming with the office type programs is a huge plus because MS Office is expensive! I am running an old copy on my home machine because I am too cheap to buy it!

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

Windows XP also has this functionality and it has worked really well for me.

I would say that the Mac coming with the office type programs is a huge plus because MS Office is expensive! I am running an old copy on my home machine because I am too cheap to buy it!

At some point, the upgrades are so lackluster that they are not worth it. My Word 97 is just as good as the new version

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

At some point, the upgrades are so lackluster that they are not worth it. My Word 97 is just as good as the new version

This is true. The newer versions look much nicer but that's about it. They also have better tracking for serial numbers so you can't leverage other people's copies.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

At some point, the upgrades are so lackluster that they are not worth it. My Word 97 is just as good as the new version

I MUCH prefer MAC for word processing. Although I'm surfing with PC only now, I have an old MAC that I keep just for word processing. It's so much more user friendly!

[pianogirl04]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

Windows XP also has this functionality and it has worked really well for me.

Windows claims to be plug and play and has since what, the 95 version came out? and it is to a degree, but there's still a lot of 'finding drivers' involved. The only reason I call Mac plug and play (I've never heard the term used in Mac circles) is because it literally is. You plug it in and more than likely it will work, to some degree, without drivers being installed. I'd have more trouble with drivers and devices, particularly with music, on Windows than I would with Mac, which is why I went Mac. I've noticed that MS has also launched a "plays for sure" ad campaign and the motives behind that give me the giggles... "are you SURE it's going to play?"

As for the word processing end of Mac, I'm not really familiar with it. I started working on Word in high school and it's weird to have to relearn the menus and functions, so sometimes I still revert to PC to type something up real quick and have to change margins, centering, etc. simply because it's familiar, but it's not too hard to figure out how to do it on Mac. Anything you can do in MS Works can be done in AppleWorks. I don't know much about Apple's office suite since the Tiger upgrade, but I do believe they updated it... there's also an iWork suite (??) available that includes something for presentations/publications? I'm not sure, I'll have to look it up. I'm kind of eyeballling iLife '05 myself if for the only reason that GarageBand 2 now has MIDI capability and multitrack simultaneous recording, which is pretty much unheard of in low-end recording software. But as far as media and office suites go, every Mac comes loaded.

Glad I could help, EveryHour... actually, I just got a call on my cellphone this morning that my computer's fixed, so I'm going to pick it up next week. So excited!! I get my baby back!