Mac Laptop or IBM Laptop

I need to purchase some new "hardware" this year. I am needing something mostly for my MOD duties on ECCIE and general browsing, bill paying etc. I prefer at least a 15 inch monitor.

I want to buy a MAC but the prices are outrageous!!? Is the hardware reliable!? So....:

1 - MacBook

2 - MacBook Pro

3 - IBM Compatible Laptop

4 - IPad

Please give me some feedback? What are you using? Ike, I already know your opinion!! Does anyone sell "used MACS"??

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/hom...mco=OTY2ODY3Nw

Refurbished Macs

Tell you this, if I could afford it I would buy a Mac over anything out there. I've got an old Mac laptop I bought at a pawn shop and have yet to have a single problem othr than having no more room on it. The customer service it top notch. The best I've dealt with hands down....

I went through the same soul searching before I made my recent purchase for a blazing fast, but light-weight laptop.

I did look at the Macs and while they are cool, fast and light they are also very expensive.

I also considered the iPads and they are super lightweight, they are more for content consumption than content creation.

After months of deliberation, I decided to go with a Toshiba i5 which has all the muscle I need for serious work and comes with a lighted keyboard to use in low light areas like planes. This little jewel is more powerful than the desktop computer they gave me at work and I love it.

However, I also decided to buy an iPad to carry around conveniently and serve as a compliment to the workhorse laptop.

The Apple stores were chaotic with throngs of people and so I decided to avoid that madhouse and buy my ipad online and it's due to arrive next week.

I think I have the best of all worlds now with a desk top that has a terabyte of storage plus a powerful laptop to take with me for business, and then also an iPad to knock around and access the web and read my email.

The new iPad is like the icing on my cake!

The choice should be made on what your day job uses. There will be technical support to whatever your problems could be.

Darth, same thing here. I just recently bought a new laptop at BestBuy as the old Dell was crapping out. Pretty much my ECCIE laptop!

Gateway NV51B08u $349.99
3GB DDR# memory
320GB HDD
15.6 HD LED screen
AMD Dual Core C50
DVD SuperMulti DL drive
1.3 webcam
Windows7
I really like the HDMI port to hook up to my HD TV for DVD movies so I don't need a separate player.

Having never used a MAC, I can't comment on the pro/cons

I bought both my iMac and Mac Book used on ebay. The Mac Book three years ago and the iMac two years ago. So far both working great and no problems. They were old enough to have the old processor, so I can't upgrade to OSX Snow Leopard. The only downside.

I need to purchase some new "hardware" this year. I am needing something mostly for my MOD duties on ECCIE and general browsing, bill paying etc. I prefer at least a 15 inch monitor.

I want to buy a MAC but the prices are outrageous!!? Is the hardware reliable!? So....:

1 - MacBook

2 - MacBook Pro

3 - IBM Compatible Laptop

4 - IPad

Please give me some feedback? What are you using? Ike, I already know your opinion!! Does anyone sell "used MACS"??
Originally Posted by DarthMaul

I use a Dell D830 lattitude 4 gigs ram 2 gig dual core, 17 inch screen 100 gig hd with b/g wifi, 1 gig onboard nic, and Bluetooth, has s video out.
I got it for free, but let me ask around to see what I can find


RIghtPrice computers or rpcglobal.net .. they on Harwin near Gessner. They sell used/refurbished pc's, workstations, servers etc.. cheap

You might have to install your OS (windows or Linux) but the hardware has been checked out.

However in the Frys sales paper today they have some new laptops for about 350-400 and it has windows 7 on it so if you like that great, if not wipe it and side grade to XP or something different. check THIS link for the one I am mentioning

I do this sort of stuff all the time so I am no stranger to this sort of thing.

..,

I need to purchase some new "hardware" this year. I am needing something mostly for my MOD duties on ECCIE and general browsing, bill paying etc. I prefer at least a 15 inch monitor.

I want to buy a MAC but the prices are outrageous!!? Is the hardware reliable!? So....:

1 - MacBook

2 - MacBook Pro

3 - IBM Compatible Laptop

4 - IPad

Please give me some feedback? What are you using? Ike, I already know your opinion!! Does anyone sell "used MACS"??
Originally Posted by DarthMaul

Yeah, don't want to beat an old horse.........but............. .Get the Macbook Pro.

Use an Operating system that works..is reliable and isn't windows......I'm just saying.

http://www.macmall.com/n/MacBook-Pro...acNavLinks.222

I just got a iPad it is awesomeness.

Yeah, don't want to beat an old horse.........but............. .Get the Macbook Pro.

Use an Operating system that works..is reliable and isn't windows......I'm just saying.

http://www.macmall.com/n/MacBook-Pro...acNavLinks.222 Originally Posted by SOULMANIKE

Buy that new Lenova, let me install Ubuntu Linux on it and watch it run smoother than the Mac which is based on FREEBSD and NETBSD, which is just as stable as Linux since it is Unix.

Difference is why pay the high price for Mac hardware and run a snazzy GUI on top of Unix when you can get a lesser priced hardware platform, slap Ubuntu Linux on it which is FREE and save a few bucks?

Darth, before you make a move try to link up with me next weekend on saturday and let me show you ubuntu. If you do not want to buy a new machine, check out used laptop dealers and as long as the CPU speed is 1.8 gigs +, it has 2 gigs ram or more and uses sata hard drives (in case its current drive is old and starting to go out, in which case 50-60 bucks at Frys and a 500 gig will replace) you can have a SCREAMING machine

I will list what programs I use that you might be curious about needing
Open Office 3.2 (office program that can create, read/write etc any MS office 2010 file)

Pidgin - Instant messenger that supports multiple accounts for YIM, AOL, Gtalk, ICQ MSN, IRC and tons more chat /instant messaging systems

FireFox and Chrome (both are browsers, Chrome has a Sync feature where your favs,history, etc from 1 pc can be synced to another just by signing into the same account on both pc's great for the desktop/laptop deal.)

Evolution - Email - Supports Exchange, POP3, IMAP plus you can set it up to use Gmail which is IMAP. With the exception of the Exchange protocol you can have multiples of each.

Media players... too many to name but ALL will play .flv formats natively which means any saved Youtube or YouPorn movies in that format do not need any special converter.

Burning software for DVD/CD... again too many to name.

Skype - yup we have it too.

TweetDeck for Twitter as well..


Mac's are nice and if you could install the Mac OS/X onto an INTEL or AMD chip desktop or laptop then that would be great! But you are paying for "special hardware" with a "tweaked GUI" on top of 2 FREE OS's (FREEBSD and NETBSD)

Yeah, don't want to beat an old horse.........but............. .Get the Macbook Pro.

Use an Operating system that works..is reliable and isn't windows......I'm just saying.

http://www.macmall.com/n/MacBook-Pro...acNavLinks.222 Originally Posted by SOULMANIKE

http://www.microcenter.com/storefronts/apple/index.html I like mine

Buy that new Lenova, let me install Ubuntu Linux on it and watch it run smoother than the Mac which is based on FREEBSD and NETBSD, which is just as stable as Linux since it is Unix.

Difference is why pay the high price for Mac hardware and run a snazzy GUI on top of Unix when you can get a lesser priced hardware platform, slap Ubuntu Linux on it which is FREE and save a few bucks?

Darth, before you make a move try to link up with me next weekend on saturday and let me show you ubuntu. If you do not want to buy a new machine, check out used laptop dealers and as long as the CPU speed is 1.8 gigs +, it has 2 gigs ram or more and uses sata hard drives (in case its current drive is old and starting to go out, in which case 50-60 bucks at Frys and a 500 gig will replace) you can have a SCREAMING machine

I will list what programs I use that you might be curious about needing
Open Office 3.2 (office program that can create, read/write etc any MS office 2010 file)

Pidgin - Instant messenger that supports multiple accounts for YIM, AOL, Gtalk, ICQ MSN, IRC and tons more chat /instant messaging systems

FireFox and Chrome (both are browsers, Chrome has a Sync feature where your favs,history, etc from 1 pc can be synced to another just by signing into the same account on both pc's great for the desktop/laptop deal.)

Evolution - Email - Supports Exchange, POP3, IMAP plus you can set it up to use Gmail which is IMAP. With the exception of the Exchange protocol you can have multiples of each.

Media players... too many to name but ALL will play .flv formats natively which means any saved Youtube or YouPorn movies in that format do not need any special converter.

Burning software for DVD/CD... again too many to name.

Skype - yup we have it too.

TweetDeck for Twitter as well..


Mac's are nice and if you could install the Mac OS/X onto an INTEL or AMD chip desktop or laptop then that would be great! But you are paying for "special hardware" with a "tweaked GUI" on top of 2 FREE OS's (FREEBSD and NETBSD) Originally Posted by Spirit13

You are right about all you mentioned here. For someone that enjoys computers and likes to build them and play around with them, Linux is the way to go and has been for years. It is the "gadget:" factor that has increased the popularity of Mac products in the past few years and the reliability of how it works. There can be problems. But, viruses and blues screens common using windows/Dos is not the problem.

I think your suggestion of him getting an old used system and allowing you to install Linux on it to give him a view of how well the system works is a great idea. It will definitely give him a birdseye view on the stability and functionality of the system and how it works.

He has been giving much to consider in this thread and all points of view have been valid.

Ike

Soulman, with the new 10.10 kernel in Ubuntu boot times are faster as is shut downs.

I have a friend who has a Dell Vostro with 4 gigs ram, 1.8 gig dual core cpu running an Solid state drive...
boot time for him is 40 seconds, shut down is 5

I have normal drives on a similar machine and boot is around 1 minute and shut down is 10-15 seconds

Oh and there are "lite" versions of ubuntu ( I run the Ultimate Edition distros and there are 3 versions, Normal which is more application targeted and is 2.9 gig in distro size
Gamers, has less core apps but more games and is a 4 gig distro
Lite which works GREAT on legacy hardware and is a CDROM install

all the above except Lite come in X86 (32 bit) and X64 (64 bit) versions.

I run Lite on a Piii Dell CPX with 512 megs ram on a 20 gig hd, its clean simple and I can install all the things the bigger ones have, just the Lite is a basic foundation.