What laptop to buy?

[JTB]

Lenovo is a Chinese company that bought the IBM Laptop business a few years ago.

[CH53Driver]

I agree with the posters on here about the Mac's. I recently switched to a MacBook and it is heads and shoulders better than any PC I have ever owned. However, I understand your constraints. Of all the PC's I have owned, the Toshiba was the best. Gatway and Dell sucked. Of course, those are my opinions alone.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by CH53Driver

I agree with the posters on here about the Mac's. I recently switched to a MacBook and it is heads and shoulders better than any PC I have ever owned. However, I understand your constraints. Of all the PC's I have owned, the Toshiba was the best. Gatway and Dell sucked. Of course, those are my opinions alone.

Macs are good if you only need to do basic stuff. My wife taught school in a computer lab in MA and they bought a new computer - a Macintosh 512K. We spent about $3500 buying a Mac Plus. Wow. At that time they used a Motorola 68000 (later a 68020) processor. I bought a Mac C compiler and developed the drive firmware for the DEC DSP3105 on the Mac.

Now I'm dependent on a whole bunch of cross compilers for ARM that only are Windows or Linux. I could run Windows under Mac on one of the virtual machine systems, but they're not fast enough. I'm stuck. But that's just what I have to work in.

[JTB]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Macs are good if you only need to do basic stuff. My wife taught school in a computer lab in MA and they bought a new computer - a Macintosh 512K. We spent about $3500 buying a Mac Plus. Wow. At that time they used a Motorola 68000 (later a 68020) processor. I bought a Mac C compiler and developed the drive firmware for the DEC DSP3105 on the Mac.

Now I'm dependent on a whole bunch of cross compilers for ARM that only are Windows or Linux. I could run Windows under Mac on one of the virtual machine systems, but they're not fast enough. I'm stuck. But that's just what I have to work in.

Mac only do basic stuff?

Some of the most memory intensive, complicated programs for film editing, music re-mastering and photo editing run the fastest on Mac, in fact an overwhelming number of Hollywood movies, TV shows and most recent CD's in your collection were edited and mastered on Macs.

More info here Product reviews and prices, software downloads, and tech news - CNET
or Apple post their own speed data @ Apple

It misleading to indicate Macs are only for basic computing.

That said, Linux is great and that is a valid reason to have a PC.

[TOMMY GUN]

You can try the Big Mac, but I prefer the Whopper.




.

[HSURB]

So what did you end up buying?

HSURB®

[JonW]

I ended up with a Dell. It fit the budget (a little over, actually, after I added what I wanted) and it came with the XP downgrade. I couldn't find the XP downgrade on any other brand, and the number of machines that Dell was offering with that were shrinking.

I've had 3 Dells at work and 3 at home, no problems with any of them. Maybe in a few years when I won't be doing the company's work, an Apple will be in my future.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by JTB Consulting

Mac only do basic stuff?

Some of the most memory intensive, complicated programs for film editing, music re-mastering and photo editing run the fastest on Mac, in fact an overwhelming number of Hollywood movies, TV shows and most recent CD's in your collection were edited and mastered on Macs.

More info here Product reviews and prices, software downloads, and tech news - CNET
or Apple post their own speed data @ Apple

It misleading to indicate Macs are only for basic computing.

That said, Linux is great and that is a valid reason to have a PC.

Regrettably most of the data base applications we use are not available on Macs. None of my firmware cross compilers work. Some people use them here but only for basic stuff. When they want to do other things they boot windows into a virtual machine.

[Spring Lil Cobra]

Toshiba, Sony or Samsung. Working in the high tech industry for 10 years, these folks have the highest quality hardware.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by JonW

I ended up with a Dell. It fit the budget (a little over, actually, after I added what I wanted) and it came with the XP downgrade. I couldn't find the XP downgrade on any other brand, and the number of machines that Dell was offering with that were shrinking.

I've had 3 Dells at work and 3 at home, no problems with any of them. Maybe in a few years when I won't be doing the company's work, an Apple will be in my future.

Priced another Thinkpad yesterday. Lenovo T-series still have the XP downgrade available.

[TOMMY GUN]

Whoppers are 1/2 the size they use to be.




.

[Shlbylvr]

Originally Posted by Spring Lil Cobra

Toshiba, Sony or Samsung. Working in the high tech industry for 10 years, these folks have the highest quality hardware.

Toshiba's are awesome laptops..

[JTB]

Originally Posted by TOMMY GUN

You can try the Big Mac, but I prefer the Whopper.




.

Big Mac, Please...

[Joe G]

I like pizza.




-

[TOMMY GUN]

Originally Posted by Joe G

I like TG.

-

WHAT??



.

[HSURB]

Here is a fairly informative article.

HUSRB®

Mac vs. PC: What You Don't Get for $699 - BusinessWeek

[SLB8SNK]

Always love reading these PC and Laptop threads. Mac versus PC is like Ford versus Chevy. Each side has a strong hold. Being in the industry for nearly 20 years and being one of the pioneers in installing some of the first PC's in the US, I seen and heard it all.

Bottom line, both have added values, but that falls in the software categories more than the technology. Dollar for dollar my standard answer is to always go with the PC over the MAC, unless you have a specific software need that MAC's handle better. Industry standards dictate you are better off with the PC over the MAC, simple math on that one. The technology is nearly the same and will last the same regardless of either unit. Or brand for that matter. Most boards, chip sets, hard drive, and other components are shared by nearly all the OEM builders. Having spent equal amounts of time on the service side, I can speak to parts all day long. It is sort of like the auto industry. Most major cars are built to the same standards when it come to quality of components, and most share many.

You made a good purchase, sleep well knowing you got the most bang for your buck.

[JTB]

Originally Posted by SLB8SNK

Always love reading these PC and Laptop threads. Mac versus PC is like Ford versus Chevy. Each side has a strong hold. Being in the industry for nearly 20 years and being one of the pioneers in installing some of the first PC's in the US, I seen and heard it all.

Bottom line, both have added values, but that falls in the software categories more than the technology. Dollar for dollar my standard answer is to always go with the PC over the MAC, unless you have a specific software need that MAC's handle better. Industry standards dictate you are better off with the PC over the MAC, simple math on that one. The technology is nearly the same and will last the same regardless of either unit. Or brand for that matter. Most boards, chip sets, hard drive, and other components are shared by nearly all the OEM builders. Having spent equal amounts of time on the service side, I can speak to parts all day long. It is sort of like the auto industry. Most major cars are built to the same standards when it come to quality of components, and most share many.

You made a good purchase, sleep well knowing you got the most bang for your buck.

Actually, Apple's (Mac's) hold on the market is miniscule, only a very small percentage of the computers on earth are Macs and there were consumer Macs long before there were consumer PCs. The open computing and adaptable hardware environment created by Microsoft allowed them to rule.

But Apple's (Mac) market share is growing because they are just flat out better albeit more expensive.