laptop musings

[minervasolo]

A quick search reveals that Vista looks a lot like a Mac, especially if you get the premium version. It also looks deeply irritating, but so are most versions of windows. Apple does student deals, and Office for only £99, but the laptops themselves are very expensive. There comes a point when either I fork out a lot of money, and get a really good laptop that will hopefully last, or I get a cheaper desktop. Or I suck it up and deal with Vista, because this seems to give me everything I currently want, including a DVD-RW drive, plenty of USB ports and fairly good mobility. There's a slightly more expensive version that comes with Vista Premium and three years free warranty. I'd like to get a legal copy of Office, but I'd rather get something like 2003 (which is still going for £150). To be honest, I'm not very keen on hte Mac OS, but if Vista has that many simularities, it doesn't really make a difference, does it?

So, little cheap skinny laptop with Vista to last me a few more years, very expensive desktop-replacement macbook with cheap MS Office to last me a long time, or reasonably priced desktop to last a reasonable amount of time (either PC or Mac)?

Requirements (presuming laptop):
DVD ReWriter
3+ USB Ports
80GB+ hardrive
2hr+ battery time
4kg or less
less than £700 in total

I'm going to have to compromise on at least one thing (for example,the laptop linked above only has 1hr battery time), but that's a rough gide to what I want. Any reccomendations?

Comments

[cupati.livejournal.com]

Watch out, because Vista uses a lot of RAM. Or so I've heard moans.

[ultharkitty.livejournal.com]

Might be worth checking out this site: http://www.student-laptops.co.uk/?gclid=CLmzwsz-mYsCFRU9EAodjWdgxg

But apart from that, I have no reccommendations. I know very little about computers past what I actually want! Good luck finding one :)

[causticangel.livejournal.com]

I've been using a Mac at work this week, and although the OS is quite similar to Windows, it's not the same, and is driving me crazy. I seem to have to click everything, which is driving me a bit nuts. I guess I might get used to it, but it might be worth trying to type an essay on a mac, if you can borrow one, to see how you get on.

I'm sure I'll get used to somethings - they keyboard shortcuts are basically the same, with apple (where alt is on a PC - harder to hit than ctrl) replacing ctrl, but the keyboard doesn't have delete, home, or end keys (that I can find!) which makes editing text slow for me, and the "dock" (start bar type thing) only has the programmes you have opened AND have minimized, while the alt + tab cycle only goes through the ones you have opened and HAVEN'T minimized.

[minervasolo.livejournal.com]

sounds like I ought to borrow one to experiment for a bit before I commit. thanks for the heads up

[zombie-thing.livejournal.com]

Obviously you should get a mac. There is simply no comparison.

[jossish.livejournal.com]

I have a Mac if you want to play with it at some point. I have only heard bad things about Vista thus far so would suggest a different version of Windows if you go the Windows route.