Need Laptop Advice

[IrishGodfather]

OK guys,

My Dell Inspiron died this year and it would cot me $500 to get it repaired, so I said screw that I'll just buy a new laptop, since that one had soooo many problems over a 2 1/2 year period, and now I'm looking for a new laptop, and I need some advice...

I want something with at least 3MB of Ram, and at least a 2.0 GHZ processor and a good video card, so any thoughts???

I won't lie, I'm leaning towards a Macbook or Macbook Pro...Any thoughts on those? I have never been a Mac guy, but with how much trouble myself and my friends are having with PC these days, I just don't want to spend that kind of money on another lemon. I love Windows, so I know I can run Windows on a Mac if I so choose, so I'm leaning that way.

Feel free to make any comments or suggestions to help me in my search for a new laptop.

-Chris

[Rex_Tremende]

I faced that decision about a year ago. I went with an iMac and an iPhone (for internet access away from home - I would carry my office laptop if I was ever traveling on business). I'm running the Office applications on the MAC OS X - not using Boot Camp - and while it took a little getting used to, I have never looked back.

Since I lost a lot of data when my last laptop crashed, I really appreciate how easy it is to configure and use the back-up system on the Macs. I'm using a Time Capsule which also creates my wireless network in the house for playing iTunes through wireless speakers connected through AirPort.

Regards,
Rex.

[Tattoo Bradley]

I'm another who has joined the Mac crowd recently. I purchased the new aluminum MacBook in February. I had wanted one for some time, and I finally convinced the wife that I would not be able to continue breathing were I not allowed to buy one. After turning "XMTS Blue" in the face from lack of oxygen, she allowed me to buy. Well... it was something like that.

Anyway, like so many others, I have not looked back. I use mine for a bit of this and a bit of that. I don't have much need for the MS Office suite on my personal machine. I have a Dell notebook issued by my employer when I need to compose spreadsheets, reports, and presentations. I use my MacBook for school and bought the iWork suite. The only portion I really needed was the word processor (Pages.) It allows me to export my page into word, pdf etc. iWork also has Keynote (Powerpoint) and Numbers (Excel) both of which are exportable to their MS counterparts formats. I mention iWork as it's priced around the 70 dollar mark, and can generally do whatever you may need MS Office for.

I'm Bradley, and I'm a Mac.

[Canuck]

I've had a macbook for a year and a half. My parents switched about 5 years ago(they're in their 80's) I truly enjoy it. There isn't any down time. If you run Windows you will need to have an antivirus program. I'm not running windows.
I took the old hard drive from my old PC laptop and put it in a box which allows me to access most of my old files. I believe the macbook pro is a better machine. You can get a refurbished unit for a good price. They have a full years warranty and before that expires you have an option to extend it another two years.
I've visited the apple store a number of times and you can get tech support one on one.....very good.
here is a link for refurbished http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac
it changes weekly I've seen savings up to 40%
Also you can save if you attend school, teach or someone in your houshold does. they have an educational price.
Good luck

[KFCarter]

I've been a macuser at home for years and a PC user at work. No question that Mac has always been easier to configure and use. Now that macbooks are intel based, it's very easy to run windows or vista based programs on them. That's a factor for many who are worried about letting go of the Microsoft paradigm... but you'll discover that you probably will leave Windows on the shelf once you've adjusted to the mac.

[Rob Wright]

I have an Ibook and a 15" Macbook Pro. I don't run any windows applications. I have iwork 09 and for the very few Microsoft formats that doesn't support I use Neooffice (you can also use Open Office, both are freeware). Look for refurbished machines, sometimes you can get some really good deals on them.

Rob

[Bob C]

I have a Macbook Pro at work and I hate it. It freezes up for no apparent reason and leaves me wondering what's going on while the pinwheel of death spins. My boss has the same model and it crashed, destroying all of his data.

My home machine is an HP Pavilion dv4-1220us with 4 GB RAM and a 250 GB HD. I'm running Vista Home Premium. I LOVE this thing. Cost was $549 at Circuit City last winter. I've seen the same price at other outlets.

Half the price. Better performance. No brainer.

[ccga3359]

I've been considering buying my kid a mac, would my pc programs run on it? Or would need to spend $1000's on new programs? And how can i possibly live without my right mouse button?

[Rex_Tremende]

I've been considering buying my kid a mac, would my pc programs run on it? Or would need to spend $1000's on new programs? And how can i possibly live without my right mouse button?

Boot Camp will let you run MS Windows on your Mac, rather than Leopard (though I have not tried it myself. I was tempted at first, but found I didn't need it after all). Also, I can't live without my marble mouse for PCs, so I just plugged it in the USB port and guess what? I have a right button that brings up context menus, just like old times.

Regards,
Rex.

[Santa Wally]

My son-in-law convinced me to go with a MacBook Pro in May of '06 after I retired and no longer had a work notebook. Took a little to get used to, but I wouldn't want anything else now. I'm not a computer geek, so I just follow directions of my son-in-law, and away I go.