Upgrade to Vista ??

[MrDan]

If you're looking for a laptop to downgrade to XP stay away from the new HP laptops that are all glossy with quickplay keys and etc ( I can't remember their model number and am too lazy to lookup them up).  The new hardware in the machine will not work with xp installs discs since they requre special drivers.  I work at a teech support company for our college and we had to create a custom XP install disc by slipstreaming some of our own drivers onto the iso and modifying the xp install process to install them.

Good to know - thanks

Microcenter is having a sale this weekend .. maybe I'll pick something up.  As much as I want a good Dell .. they're just too much $$$ ...

[sys49152]

anyone ever considered Linux for there OS?

Do it if you can.  But there are situations where it won't make much sense.  For example..

1. if you purchase iTunes
2. if you do much in the way of editing movies of your kids, or whatever
3. if you use MS Money or Quicken for your home or business accounting
4. if you're an encoding perfectionist and refuse to use anything other than CCE

Um.. I can't think of anything else, but I'm sure there's more.  If you're worried about any of the following... DON'T  BE! :

1. need to edit documents using MS Office
2. need a way of retrieving email to my local machine
3. need to make sure I  can browse all web sites (**caveat here I guess)
4. watch divx/xvid/wmv/vcd/svcd/ogg/whatever movies

I really believe it's worth trying.  Especially if you're legitimately paying for your copy of windows and MS office. 

I'd suggest running the ubuntu live CD.  If it does everything you need, install it side-by-side windows.  If you can stop booting into windows, remove it all together.

[Egaeus]

I wouldn't install Vista if it was free and came with a blow job.  I told my thesis advisor that if he wanted to install Vista in our lab, then he'd have to find someone else to be the administrator. 

There is only one legitimate reason to run Windows: playing games.  There are still problems with Linux that require some computer knowledge above point and click, even with Ubuntu.  I had to edit fstab the other day to properly mount a disk in my "new" DVD burner, so it's still not quite to the point of plug and play.  However, Mac OS X doesn't have those problems, nor does it have the problems that sys49512 mentions about Linux.  There are alternatives to putting up with Microsoft's BS. 

[MrDan]

I actuall picked up an Acer this weekend.  Running Vista Home Premium ... looks "interesting" so far .. and isn't compatible with Citrix (need for work) ... we shall see how it goes.  Trying to find a new laptop that runs XP is near impossible .. stores I asked at (BB, CC) can't even sell their old XP machines ....

Guess I'll see how this works out .... Vista looks like it could be cool ... and might be decent from a DVR perspective .. i'll report back after more than a few hours use

[Susuki_Jah]

anyone ever considered Linux for there OS?

Do it if you can.  But there are situations where it won't make much sense.  For example..

1. if you purchase iTunes
2. if you do much in the way of editing movies of your kids, or whatever
3. if you use MS Money or Quicken for your home or business accounting
4. if you're an encoding perfectionist and refuse to use anything other than CCE

Um.. I can't think of anything else, but I'm sure there's more.  If you're worried about any of the following... DON'T  BE! :

1. need to edit documents using MS Office
2. need a way of retrieving email to my local machine
3. need to make sure I  can browse all web sites (**caveat here I guess)
4. watch divx/xvid/wmv/vcd/svcd/ogg/whatever movies

I really believe it's worth trying.  Especially if you're legitimately paying for your copy of windows and MS office. 

I'd suggest running the ubuntu live CD.  If it does everything you need, install it side-by-side windows.  If you can stop booting into windows, remove it all together.

I had my PC dual boot with windows XP pro and Ubuntu. I enjoy Linux!  all my PC's have crashed and I just got sick of fixing them. I just let them stay fried this time.
I am a MAC user and have been since 2000 when I started working with os9. then when OSX came out !!!! WOW I was amazed and fell in love. when is the rest of the world going to learn that  microsoft OS's just dont work that well in the long run.

[calamari]

assuming you have a... let's say, 2+ GHz processor and 1GB of RAM...

Vista will use 50% your processor and 540+MB of ram JUST TO RUN THE OPERATING SYSTEM

not to mention there are no drivers for most of the not-so-older hardware (sound/video cards, etc)

but if you like eyecandy, then get a mac instead.

[sys49152]

I had my PC dual boot with windows XP pro and Ubuntu. I enjoy Linux!  all my PC's have crashed and I just got sick of fixing them. I just let them stay fried this time.

I was dual booting linux and windows for a long long time.  When I finally stopped gaming on my PC  the need to run windows disappeared (as Egaeus mentions in his post).  I've been running Debian since and works for me.  But my wife can't deal with it, so she has her windows xp laptop. 

I need to purchase another laptop (for myself) and I'm really digging the macbooks.  I think it might be time to give OS X a spin, especially because it's impossible for me to edit video of the kids (miniDV -> editing -> mpeg2/DVD) with free or paid linux packages. 

[Susuki_Jah]

I had my PC dual boot with windows XP pro and Ubuntu. I enjoy Linux!  all my PC's have crashed and I just got sick of fixing them. I just let them stay fried this time.

I was dual booting linux and windows for a long long time.  When I finally stopped gaming on my PC  the need to run windows disappeared (as Egaeus mentions in his post).  I've been running Debian since and works for me.  But my wife can't deal with it, so she has her windows xp laptop. 

I need to purchase another laptop (for myself) and I'm really digging the macbooks.  I think it might be time to give OS X a spin, especially because it's impossible for me to edit video of the kids (miniDV -> editing -> mpeg2/DVD) with free or paid linux packages. 

man you will love it. if you have an apple store around check them out. if you want any software or advice about OSX hit me up. I would be glad to slip you some programs or some of my experience with OSX.   when you have a 667mhz processor powerbook with 1gb of ram that runs faster than a brand new PC... yea that tells you somthing about mac .  I also own a brand new imac and they are amazing aswell. 

and you can run virtual PC on the mac's even dos .

[sys49152]

Thanks - much appreciated! 

I'm actually looking at them right now and they're not nearly as expensive as I thought.  I think I'd go for the MacBook 2GHz, but not sure if I should spring for the 120 GB drive, or stick with the 80.  Since I do plan to do video editing, I'm thinking the 120 makes more sense. 

I would need to connect to work using it, and would need to run remote desktop and a cisco vpn client.  I think they're both available -- yup, just checked... MS offers a remote desktop client and Parallels sounds like it would do the trick for virtualization and a cisco vpn client is available.  So far so good.

Question : if I hooked up the mac to an external LCD, is it able to run at a resolution higher than 1280x800?

[Susuki_Jah]

Thanks - much appreciated! 

I'm actually looking at them right now and they're not nearly as expensive as I thought.  I think I'd go for the MacBook 2GHz, but not sure if I should spring for the 120 GB drive, or stick with the 80.  Since I do plan to do video editing, I'm thinking the 120 makes more sense. 

I would need to connect to work using it, and would need to run remote desktop and a cisco vpn client.  I think they're both available -- yup, just checked... MS offers a remote desktop client and Parallels sounds like it would do the trick for virtualization and a cisco vpn client is available.  So far so good.

Question : if I hooked up the mac to an external LCD, is it able to run at a resolution higher than 1280x800?

that is a good question. I know my old powerbook has a DVI output like most all the mac's do. I can run dual screens at 1280x854.  the newer ones blow mine out of the water though lol.  looks like the new IMAC is pushing 1440x900 . but I know there are crazy options out there. best bet is a free call to 1-800-my-apple.  I do a lot of video with my mini DV cam and it never skips a beat.

[natedawg120]

Yeah i have Vista and office 2007 on my work laptop. 

Lets start with Vista, what everyone has said is correct - its a hog and driver/application support sucks.  now while i assume driver support will get better, cause it kind of has to, I don't really foresee application support getting any better because of the stick in microsoft's ass that says programmers need to make it functional with vista, screw backwards compatibility right.  Just for the record Vista is a tad more compatible with XP software than a mac .  50% of the things i tried to install will install but not run.  40% will install and run but some aspects of the program aren't functional and/or will crash.  10% of software install and run but might crash periodically.

now for office 2007,  .  If they were trying to confuse the hell out of the average user i think that microsoft has succeeded.  No file menu at the top, instead you get a windows button and a bunch of editing tabs.  And it appears that fisher price is still working for microsoft, and they obviously love to smoke crack.  Now if you look for what you need you probably will find it, its just completely different than previous office suites.

Short version - Don't upgrade yet.  Just like when XP was released Vista is buggy, not very compatible, and much more of a hog than it should be.

[MrDan]

Short version - Don't upgrade yet.  Just like when XP was released Vista is buggy, not very compatible, and much more of a hog than it should be.

I wish I'd had that option ... just no new laptops without Vista that I could find ... guess I'll just have to deal with the resource hog aspect ... doesn't seem to be an issue yet