Re: OT: Laptop for College Bound Student?
> On Thu, 2008-06-12 at 13:13 -0400, Gregory Seidman wrote:
>
>> It's clear to me that you are arguing this from a position of dedicated
>> ignorance. When was the last time you tried to use a Mac?
>
> About a year ago, though I had the misfortune of managing a sizable
> network of Apples about 10 years ago for a few years.
>
>> Perhaps a trip to
>> an Apple store would give you some experience on which you could base
>> your
>> end of this discussion.
>
> If only. The Apple Store folks know approximately what's in the online
> help, the marketing brochures and nothing more (if they do know more,
> they're entirely unwilling to share).
>
>> Don't forget to ask the employees at the store to
>> help you out. If you tell them you want to see how to use the Mighty
>> Mouse
>> as a two-button mouse, they'll be happy to help set the appropriate
>> preference.
>
> Last time I brought this up at the Apple Store in Portland, Ore., they
> were more concerned about trying to convince me that 1 button was the
> way to go and that the Mighty Mouse was far more mouse than anyone would
> ever need than how to use the damn thing. I gave up and left.
>
> The mouse is all fine and dandy, a mouse is a mouse. But start asking
> them about running something other than OSX on an Apple and they start
> treating you like a pariah. They seem to not realize that ostricizing
> people for wanting form /and/ function is part of what's keeping them a
> marginal player in computer hardware and third on the desktop after free
> OSs and Windows.
>
> --
> Paul Johnson
> baloo@ursine.ca
Pardon in advance for jumping back into a thread but I would like to see
if the OP thinks he got the advice he sought. As I recall he was asking
about a laptop for his college-bound student and, in particular, an offer
(Lenovo I believe). What I believe I heard from the list is:
1. The Lenovo isn't that good of a deal, strictly from a monetary point
of view.
2. There is no consensus as to which is the "best" laptop. There seemed
to be almost as many opinions as there were posters.
3. The most important issue (as voiced I believe from someone from
Dartmouth) was to find out what the campus infrastructure looks like
(wired and/or wireless, blutooth?, Windoze and/or Linux, etc.) and select
a laptop that matches those specs. (best from a vendor with a good service
record). In particular a visit to the campus to speak with one of the
professors in the target department about requirements (and the apps. the
student will most likely encounter) is probably in order.
Larry
Now back to the mice!
>
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