Thanks for all the advice! My take away so far:
1. Buy a Mac - all problems solved, but I have no idea how to use it or support it, and probably the most expensive choice.
2. Get a dual boot system - inconvenient, but I can support it for her long distance
3. Netbook vs laptop - I agree the portability is important, but a comfortable keyboard is a necessity. Definitely worth looking into. CNET picked the Eee PC 1000HE as the top netbook....but it is black! (See #4 below).
4. Have her pick a different major.....I am not overly worried as she is smart and has a year or two to explore before she chooses something..;-) She is a whiz at math and science, so maybe she will return from the dark side (her mom was poly sci/journalism major) before she graduates...;-)
4. Lisa picked up on a good point - my daughter is deathly afraid I will get her a "black box" computer for college. I mean a real black box - square corners, matte black. We don't agree on shoes, and we don't agree on the need for a fashionable laptop....so I have to through in that as a requirement as well....no square corners and matte/shiny black finish. Must have color...I suggested spray paint, but didn't get very far.;-)
No one mentioned a VM solution - boot Linux and run Windows with some form of vmware for ITunes. Am I looking at yet more expense for high end hardware (lots of RAM and dual core)? I have tried vmware on my P4 2 GHz laptop and it works but a little too slow. Also, the fan sounds like a blender on max, so it kind of defeats the quiet aspect of a laptop.
I have also had great experiences with older Dell hardware, but I have heard that their quality is falling.
Thanks for all the input - any vmware/other vm solutions on Linux fans out there with recommendations for good laptop hardware?
Mark
On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 9:33 AM, Eric Cope
<eric.cope@gmail.com> wrote:
thats a good point. Let your kid buy themselves something so they value it enough not to close a lid on a pen.
I bought my own IBM laptop and never closed the lid on a pen because I knew I counldn't afford to replace it!
AppleCare doesn't replace broken LCDs (know from experience). And this
often happens with students, usually from having a pen laying on the
keyboard and closing the lid....*crunch* :-)
-Charles
Eric Cope wrote:
Get her an Apple (with AppleCare if you want the 2 years
of extended warranty).
Great hardware. Its light, it works with iTunes, Office or OpenOffice.
The best deal is refurbed from Apple's site.
13.3" Macbook white - $849.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FB402LL/A?mco=MjE0NDk5Mw
Don't curse her with Windows...
Eric
On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 9:09 AM, Charles
Jones
<charles.jones@ciscolearning.org>
wrote:
If
you never want to have to worry about problems with it. Get a Dell
and the "Complete Care" warranty. You can literally throw your laptop
against a wall and they will fix it good as new. Things I have seen them
fix, while having to support some employee laptops.
* Replaced shattered LCD - multiple times
* Replaced smashed keyboard from someone pounding it with their fist,
multiple times
* Replaced outer casing to fix drop damage
* Replace hard disk
* Replace motherboard
* Replace onboard trackpad and/or mouse buttons
* Replace broken USB ports
Basically they fix anything wrong with it, and they come to wherever
you/she is to do it. All of the damage above was from abuse, and they
still made it just like new.
-Charles
Mark Phillips wrote:
> My oldest is heading off to college in the Fall, and she needs to
take
> a laptop with her. She has used Linux all her life, but only from
> Gnome, so Windows, Mac, Linux are all "the same" to her. She is a
> journalist, not a computer geek. Anyway, one significant
requirement
> is for iTunes to work with her iTouch (i.e. buy music and download
to
> her iTouch). I have not been able to get Wine/iTunes to work with
> Debian, so I have resorted to a single Windows computer just for a
few
> games and iTunes at home.
>
> Any recommendations (1) for laptops and (2) how to keep her using
> Linux and not shelling out extra bucks for a Mac, or heaven
forbid, a
> Windows machine?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mark
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss