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We had a disagreement some time ago about trees. A subject which remains a sore problem for me and I think I got rather hot under the collar! I hope the problem is now sorted.
That aside I've gone back to the beginning of this thread and reviewed your original requirements. The advice that followed seems to have persuaded you to consider seriously buying a Mac even though the one you seem to favour has a 13" screen..
There is nothing wrong with Mac's. In fact quite the opposite. But it seems to me that you started off shopping for a Ford Mondeo and you are being persuaded to seriously consider a Jaguar. For more money Mac offers you a smaller screen and the headache of re-learning how to use a computer. No problem for some but for others like some in my family (mentioning no names) a real challenge.
Given your requirements (ie 2 machines) it would in my view be sensible to go for 2 PCs. Personally I would go for Dell but I agree with you that their website is less than helpful and very very confusing.
Some people are not over complimentary about PC World but their computers and service is pretty good in my experience. Perhaps I was lucky! But the advantage is that there is somewhere to go if things go wrong. There's also an excellent free hot line in the first year.
PCW have a good range of machines including Dell. For a desktop their E Machines are very good value made by Gateway. There are several of these in my family. In terms of a laptop Acer are good machines as long as you specify the Crystal screen but of course Toshiba are probably more robust. But for mainly home use Acer are fine and offer a good spec for the money. PCW's Advent machines are badged computers. My Advent laptop now ancient is a Hi Grade which at the time I bought it was the major computer seller in the USA.
Why not take advice from the people instore? They are more knowledgable than some give them credit for. Visit the store on a quiet day and you will be given good treatment in my opinion.
One other issue to consider - and I know nothing about this - is whether the Vista operating system in a PC will support your printer. I know of a few people who have experienced some difficulty linking Vista to older printers but perhaps this is an issue you can incorporate into your research.
Let us know how you get on.
The following members of MHF thanked gelathae for this posting
I am OS/Hardware blind to be honest. I have been around computers since the Commodore Pet and have used many different makes and OS's.
The Mac in my opinion is a very nice OS it is based on the Mach MicroKernel BSD and Nextstep as it was. So has a very good foundation. As usual with all Apple products it is very nicely packaged and the user interface is slick. I personally have problems with them from a usability point of view because it is too helpful at times and makes assumptions that in my experience were illogical. But that aside they are extremely good machines if a little overpriced for what they are.
I would avoid Windows Vista like the plague if I were you. It is not stable or supported enough yet. You may have a great experience with it or you may have a lousy experience with it and there is no way to tell until you try it on your particular hardware configuration. Some older software won't work reliably or at all. Even though your particular hardware is supported it may not work in certain combinations with other hardware.
I say avoid PC World/Dixons/Curries etc due to many bad experiences with them. I had a business account and spent many thousands of pounds with them each year. Their after sales service was poor to non existent. I now refuse to spend any money with the DSG group of companies.
I am currently running 4 desktop systems and 3 laptops with a combination of Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. For the last three years I have not been using MS Office, IE or Outlook having moved over to OpenSource alternatives. Open Office is a full office suite that is totally free and works on Linux, Macs and Windows. It reads and writes MS office format files and its file format has just gained ISO standard status
http://www.openoffice.org/press/iso_pr.html
Mozilla firefox and Thunderbird are excellent replacements for the browser and the email client. Moving over to an alternative OS has proven to be a fairly trivial process due to standardising on these packages.
I do like the Mac look and feel (I have lots of iPods and an iPhone) so I made my linux boxen look the same as a Mac. So I get something that doesn't crash, was cheaper to buy, the OS is faster and requires less resources to run and looks pretty
If reliability/stability is what you are after go either Mac or Linux
If price is what you are after go with windows or Linux
If performance is what you are after go linux or mac
If ease of use out of the box then Mac
If you want the coolest OS/Hardware combination then Mac is the easy winner.
With you wanting two systems, I would be tempted to go with the EeePC running linux and then a reasonable spec desktop system that you can dual boot between XP/Linux or a reasonable spec Mac that can run all three OS's. This would give you the best of all worlds
Karl
______________________________________________________________ Black holes are where God divided by zero.
I have a quantum car. Every time I look at the speedometer I get lost.
My mechanic told me, “I couldn’t repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.”
The following members of MHF thanked gromett for this posting
I have read it twice and still not understood half of it
I think my daughter is a fan of Linux so will ask her to interpret your response for me.
If I could perhaps summarise my needs/preferences which may have moved on a bit from original post then they would be (not in order of priority):
1. Ease of use/stable and reliable.
2. Two PC's or One Mac and 1 PC - which can be linked.
3. Norton Free (not sure how to achieve this as my ISP is BT and they incorporate it in the Broadband package )
4. Software - Not fussed if MS Office or Open Office - either will do but must be able to transfer all existing files and data across.
5. E-Mails at present are routed via BT Yahoo into Outlook Express but have no idea how else to manage them - want to retain present addresses
6. OS - whatever least trouble
7. Supplier - The Jury still out on this one. PC World seems to have 50/50 love hate reputation going on.
8. Budget can't exceed £950 (to include any routers or extras etc)
9. Must be easy to install, set up, maintain and upgrade if required.
10. Will no doubt think of this as soon as I have posted this reply
I recently purchased a Seagate Free Agent external hard drive but have not connected it yet as have no idea if my PC (with Windows 2000) will be able to connect to it or not. I have heaps of stuff on this PC - Word and Excel files, photos, emails and dont want to lose them so will need to be able to transfer them to new systems "easily"
That old saying "The more I learn the less I know" is so true in my case. Just when I think I am getting to grips with things along comes someone and starts talking a different language altogether.
No offence Karl as you seem to be talking a great deal of sense but a lot of the stuff you mention I have never heard of and wouldn't know where to start with.
Bluewater is now on for tomorrow afternoon (my vegetable plot is in dire need of attention this afternoon) so will let you all know what I think of the MAC after the visit.
Cheers
Maura
______________________________________________________________ Never do today what can be put off till tomorrow
The following members of MHF thanked mauramac for this posting
______________________________________________________________ When the world is looking bad and the future is unclear, dont worry about a thing mate, go out and have a beer )
The following members of MHF thanked nickoff for this posting
Sorry for any confusion I have caused I think I may have got a little carried away >.<
Ok with a budget of £950 I am guessing including VAT. My personal choice would be the following setup.
1) Mac Mini at £399 for your desktop. You will need to buy a monitor KB and mouse
2) A EeePc the 901 Linux has a 20GB SSD drive and costs £319.00
3) A netgear DG834G wireless router.
The Mac can run XP (Boot Camp) as can the EeePC. So if you find you can't get on with either linux or the Mac OS-X you can always fall back to familiar territory.
The router listed above has good security and a built in firewall. All software on the eeepc is free. Not sure what the best AV package is for the Mac however.
This is just my personal preference if I was in your situation and I am sure there are other opinions on it
______________________________________________________________ Black holes are where God divided by zero.
I have a quantum car. Every time I look at the speedometer I get lost.
My mechanic told me, “I couldn’t repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.”
The following members of MHF thanked gromett for this posting
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