Question

My birthday is coming up and I wanted to see what you think about laptops
My budget is $1500 and I thought about getting a Mac just because I never had one
Are they reliable machines? or should I just spend that money on PC and get Vista ( that has a lot of problems lately)
Another thing is that Pc laptops loose their values pretty quick and macs look stable why is that any idea?
Thanks

Sorry if posted in wrong forum

 

Personally, I'd have a serious look into Macs and make sure it's at least an OSX, which if you buy it new, it should be.

I'm still trying to find my way around Macs but they are a lot more secure and stable than Windows machines from all I'm hearing and seeing, especially OSX, although we only have an OS9 machine. (Saying "I have OSwhatever" is like saying "I have Windows 2000" and OS is short for Operating System.)

On the other hand, you could try getting a laptop and loading a version of Linux onto it - depends how geeky you want to get. Linux can be more or less geeky, depending on which Linux you get.

But my strong recommendation if you get a Windows laptop is to think seriously about buying a copy of XP to use instead of or as well as the Vista you'll be forced to have with it. It's quite possible to have two operating systems on the same computer, possibly even three - Vista, XP, your preferred Linux! Although if you have to buy XP as well, you're starting to push up how much it will cost all up. Linux won't set you back a lot, if at all - depends what you get.

Newer Macs can be networked with Windows machines fairly easily - our OS9 is hooked up to our otherwise-all-Windows network. Still haven't figured out the file sharing but I think that's possible.

I seem to recall reading that you can have Windows and Mac on the same computer but someone else will have to fill in the details on that.

Macs are normally cheaper than Windows computers in the first place, which may have something to do with why they keep their value better.

 

Remember if you run both a MAC and a PC it can get very costly for software as you have to double up for most things.

 

My personal opinion is stick with Windows. Make sure it's windows xp though and not vista. Vista runs really poorly on lap......well anything really. I just think it would suck paying $1,099 or even $1,999 on something I have to learn how to use.

 

Maybe my memory of figures I got from the Apple shop here is wrong. But I was fairly sure the OS is cheaper than Windows OS - is that correct?

I'm not 100% on this, but I think if you buy a new laptop with an OS, you have no choice but to buy it with Vista. If that's the case, then a Windows laptop will mean paying for the OS to come with the laptop and also shelling out for a second OS to replace or dual-install with the Vista that came with the laptop if dmsee wants something other than Vista. I don't know if it's possible to buy a new laptop without any OS on it.

Also, if you do go for a new Windows laptop with Vista on it, you want to ask about the different types of Vista that are available and make sure you get one that will suit your needs. A friend said that the problem a lot of people have with Vista of not being able to play their games is that they bought the wrong version of Vista. It would pay to ask about that before buying.

 

Well in your previous post you were talking about the computers not the operating systems themselves.

 

I've been running Vista for 6 months with no problems. Its stable.

1gb of ram can run Vista allright, but 2gb is much more effective.

if you have a grand and a half to spend, the most bang for your buck is building your own rig.

even if you are a complete rookie to computers, its a relatively simple process, there are some great walkthroughs, and there is a great community here to help you along the way.