Re: OT: Laptop for College Bound Student?
On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 08:58:53AM -0400, Thomas H. George wrote:
> The college is offering packages starting at $1,399 (Dell Latitude D630)
> and $1,499 (Lenoveo ThinkPad T61) all with 2GB memory, 10/100/1000
> Ethernet, Wireless, 1394 Port, Bluetooth, Vista 32Bit Business OS,
> SmartCare/4in1 Media Card Reader and Microsoft Office 2007 Professional
> pre-installed by certified technicians located on campus. Three year
> warranty and 1GB Flash Drive thrown in.
>
> Money is tight, of course. If I were the student and there is a
> modest-priced laptop with Debian and OpenOffice I'd take it in a flash.
> I'm not the student, I'm his 79 year old grandfather and I don't want
> him to start off at a disadvantage. There are certainly many college
> students and recent grads that subscribe to this list. I would value
> your insights.
I love Debian, but for a laptop I'd go Mac and MacOS X every time. I'd even
lean Mac for a desktop.
At this point in time, unless money is *really* tight, I'd get a MacBook.
$1199 gets you 2G memory, 1 year warranty, 802.11a/b/g/n, 1394 port,
10/100/1000 Ethernet, Bluetooth, etc. Add $249 for 3 years of AppleCare &
warranty (definitely worth it, and many credit cards will actually double
or add a year to the warranty period). NeoOffice (MacOS port of OpenOffice)
is free and works well, or you can install Debian side-by-side and use
OpenOfficee.
That's without the student discount, by the way. The student discount
brings it down to $1089, or $1272 with AppleCare. It also comes with a free
iPod (8GB iPod Touch or 8GB iPod Nano or you can pay an extra $100 for the
16GB iPod Touch or $200 for the 32GB) when you buy it as a student. The
free iPod is an online rebate thing. The student discount is available
online, of course (look for the Education link at store.apple.com).
(I do not work for Apple. I do not own Apple stock, but my wife does.)
> Tom
--Greg
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