Favorite Laptop Brand?

T61! That titanium case will come in handy if you carry it, and thus drop it as many times a day as I do.
Even if the name says Lenovo, it's still IBM in my head.

 

I run a MacBook Pro with OSX and WinXP on it. I WOULD use it for everything except my wife thinks its hers (something about buying it for her)...

I use HP for work, and since I am on-call 24/7 my HP laptop is with me 24/7.

 

+1 i love my vaio, ive had it for 4 years and still runs like a champ

 

IBM thinkpad. simple and tough

 

That's false security.

 

+1

 

U will find SMOKIN' deals soon with school going back in session.


~Awesome Site to find rock bottom prices
http://www.pricewatch.com/

~Sweet deals at:
http://www.outpost.com
http://www.ibuypower.com


~Alienware is AWESOME (get 1 of these)
http://www.alienware.com/

 

Isocoee, I've had three Dell's in row since about 1998, a Thnkpad before that, back when it was an IBM. All good reliable machines--Dell with better customer support now, I think.

My main advice is that if you can make the transition full time to a laptop like I did about 5 years ago, your life will be SOOOOO much simpler. Having things on two machines, never the one you want, is just too frustrating.

I'm using Dell 420 (3 lbs) that I hook up to a large monitor at home and at the office.

 

I have an OLD black Mac PowerBook....works pretty good for being so old...it was free so who cares

 

I have an Dell XPS1220 that is my most favorite travel laptop ever. My last assignment in the service was at a Network Ops Center & I had the opportunity to use practically every manufacturer. Dell was tops especially in warranty service. I got to do a on-site visit/conference with the the federal sales team too. The place is freakin huge!

My latest laptop technology intrigue is a company called Zonbu which markets an open source based software architecture on a linux os platform. Its Microsoft-free & an affordable alternative for web service. A couple of friends have em. I'm pretty impressed with their systems so far.

 

I've got a gateway that gets me by and does it's job, but I'd go with either an Acer or a Dell if I had to choose.

 

I had a toshiba in college, I loved it, but it was a lease from college
bought a gateway, it was junk, crashed all the time.

now i have an cheap Acer 3680, works fine for travel
and being kicked around, it was an open box item and
then set on shelf as demo.
(Best Buy has 10 to 50 percent off on opened or returned items)
$200 , restored drive never had any problems.

also check around local pawn shops

 

Another vote for Dell, I bought a 1720 about 4 months ago. It's replaced my desktop machine.

 

I'm on my dell 1520 right now and I love it. One of my favorite things is the keyboard and the way it feels while typing. The only thing I miss is the number keypad on the right, but that's a space issue and you get used to it.

 

I too was an Applephobe for quite some time. I swore I would never switch. After OS X Tiger was released I made the jump. Haven't looked back since. I have used Mac's at home for about 5 years now and it been a real easy transition. Stumbled the first few days but it didn't take long to pick up. I have never had any problems crashing or virus issues. As was stated above Mac's aren't impervious to attack but are not the higher priority target. All I say is, if you have the time to go to Baton Rouge you should go up and check one out in person. I promise you won't be disappointed. Although you can run XP/Vista on an Apple if needed you probably won't unless it is absolutely necessary. Apple has come a long way since the the days of OS9 and even earlier versions of OS X.

 

Whatever you get, if you run vista i would upgrade the memory to whatever it will hold.


Also if you don't plan to be away from a power outlet get a fast processor..

I'm running a 3.2ghz mobile pentium 4. Its fast, but it drains the battery quick.

I have that with 2gb of DDR PC3200 memory and it runs XP pretty darn fast.

 

There isn't a "priority list" for hackers. It's just that it's easier to get inside of DOS vs *nix. Plus, about 91% of computers run windows. Obviously the point of a virus is to mess people up, so making something for 8% of computer users vs 91% is stupid.


Wait till Apple gets more popular. You'll start to get them, dont worry

Make sure whatever computer you get is offered with XP. Reason for that is because it makes finding drivers MUCH easier. The problem with many laptop manufactures are that they stopped offering XP, so you can't go to their website and just download drivers.

Whenever I got my ThinkPad, I had vista on for about 2 months. It really isnt bad (especially since they have SP1 out now, I'm sure it's better than when I last used it), but I just liked XP better. If I didn't know how to install an OS, I'd still be using vista.

I'm able to get Vista for free (MSDNAA FTW!) so I may try it out again since I'm going to do a clean install before I go back to school in a month.

 

Absolutely! I have a well set up Dell 410 desktop machine that came with Vista on it, and also a slightly older Dell 1705 laptop. The FIRST thing I do with a machine that comes with Vista preinstalled is scrub it clean and install XP Pro.

Dell for one offers a preinstalled version of XP on any machine purchased directly from them. However better buys can often be made on the same machine from vendors other than Dell, so being able to transition a machine from Vista to XP is important, at least in my book.

As far as XP being vulnerable to attack, yes it can be IF it's not set up and taken care of properly - meaning that keeping it clean and virus/malware free is a priority. But that's certainly doable if a person puts a bit of thought into it!

If someone wants relatively trouble free computing in a simple "appliance operator" mode, where thought about what's going on under the surface is the furthest thing away from their mind, then Apple and its high dollar hardware and OS will do the job for you, ..or you can install one of the latest versions of Linux on a good x86 machine and accomplish much the same thing on the cheap! No one is truly focused on writing viruses or malware for these niche systems, so running them in "appliance operator" mode is not much of an issue these days.