new computers

[beast5680]

I have been looking at getting a new pc, any suggestions as to what to go for? not really need any fancy gaming verions or such like as it will be mainly for using internet and for swmbo to do her work on .
should i go for something with vista on it and will it be compatible with stuff i have plugged in at the minute such as printers and the like or should i ask for xp  to be installed
i keep hearing rumours of vista having lots of issues with running stuff, is this true?

[richo]

get a dell.Go to there web site and have a look.

[Jake]

I have a new laptop with Vista home premium on it.
Every thing works fine, no issues at all
 :D

[300TDi Disco]

I have been looking at getting a new pc, any suggestions as to what to go for? not really need any fancy gaming verions or such like as it will be mainly for using internet and for swmbo to do her work on .
should i go for something with vista on it and will it be compatible with stuff i have plugged in at the minute such as printers and the like or should i ask for xp  to be installed
i keep hearing rumours of vista having lots of issues with running stuff, is this true?

Vista is improving, Personally i keep with XP as they have just released the sevicepack3 which has cleared a few more problems. Unless you have a powerful computer it will run slow. I would recommend either:

Dell: - www.dell.com
Ebuyer: - www.ebuyer.com

[thermidorthelobster]

Get a Mac.

More reliable, far fewer security issues, it's stable, it does what you want and you don't have to spend your whole life trying to make it work.

I run both - 2 Macs at home and a Vista laptop at work.  I spend far more time struggling with the inadequacies of Vista than I ever do with OS X on the Macs.  Apple's slogan should be "it just works".  My main Mac has the exact same OS X install as I put on it 5 years ago when I first got one - it's been updated to new versions and even ported to a whole new machine and I've never had to do a reinstall or any major work on the O/S.  It's just as uncluttered and quick as it was when I first installed it.  By contrast, my 2-year-old Vista machine is creaking at the seams.  The bottom line is that I can use the machine productively and effectively without having to worry about viruses, worms, spyware, trojan horses etc.  The number wild in the Mac world is absolutely minimal.

I can run all the software I need to on the Mac - including MS Office or OpenOffice 3 - and if I ever need to run a Windows-only product I can run it under VMWare Fusion which gives me a full MS Windows installation in a window on my Mac desktop (last time I needed to do this was about 3 months ago).

I paid a bit more for my Mac than I would have done for a PC, but I have a machine that will save me no end of headaches, will last a lot longer before it gets clogged up and has to be replaced, and comes with a lot more useful software as standard that I'd have had to have found separately for a PC.  In terms of total cost of ownership it's a no-brainer.

This is no doubt the cue for several people who have not used Macs for years to chime in with some ill-informed rubbish about them not being up to much;  at least that's what normally happens on the Internet :)

[beast5680]

thats interesting david will it run all the office stuff ok and is it as easy to use with online stuff, the wife regularly has to download alot of forms and paperwork from government websites and send stuff the other way as well, i take it if you send something off a mac it is ok for other people to view that recieve it?
we had an issue with one set of information that someone had written on a mac and our pc couldnt read it, do you get round these issues ok?
are mac,s popular? when you talk to people they give you a quizzical look when you mention mac

[DoubleTop]

I've been recently impressed with the service from Dell and Novatech.  Depending on where you are, try finding a Novatech shop and having a chat with one of the advisors.

with regards to the Mac and cross platform compatibility.  Openoffice does convert most now, I have used macs at work for the past two years, and was relieved to be able to go back to windows with my new projects I'm working on.  I found myself trying to find ways to use the mac and macosx to make it more like windows to make it easier to use!!

DT.

[thermidorthelobster]

thats interesting david will it run all the office stuff ok and is it as easy to use with online stuff, the wife regularly has to download alot of forms and paperwork from government websites and send stuff the other way as well, i take it if you send something off a mac it is ok for other people to view that recieve it?
we had an issue with one set of information that someone had written on a mac and our pc couldnt read it, do you get round these issues ok?
are mac,s popular? when you talk to people they give you a quizzical look when you mention mac

MS Office files will be no problem - either use MS Office or OpenOffice.  Anything you send / receive is interchangeable.  The Mac uses Safari rather than Internet Explorer (you can get IE but only a rubbish old version), but you can also run FireFox if you prefer.  OS X also has PDF writing capability built-in which may help with sending files.  I'm not sure why you couldn't read Mac files on a PC;  if they are written to CD there is the option of making the discs Mac-formatted but IIRC they are PC compatible by default.  I've never had any problems moving files between the two, apart from when Windows decides it won't play nicely on the network and I have to use a memory stick instead.

Macs are very popular with those who use them;  they have a dedicated fan base.  They are not nearly as common as PCs, largely due to inertia and closed minds, but also because they are more expensive to buy in the first place.  The market share is growing fairly strongly due to the iPhone / iPod pull-through.  In my experience, most people who have used a Mac for any reasonable amount of time never buy a PC again.  The only drawback I can think of is that if anything does go wrong, your typical computer geek who uses Windows / Linux won't know what to do, but you have to offset that against the fact that things tend not to go wrong, because the hardware is well-built and the operating system is very stable.

Anybody going from PC to Mac needs to bear in mind that things are done differently, and that's generally for a good reason;  if you try to make your Mac like a PC you'll be fighting with it and making life harder.  Just go with the flow and you'll find out why Apple chose to do things the way they did.  OS X certainly isn't more difficult to use - just different.  Anybody who had learned on a Mac would find it far harder to convert to Windows than the other way round.

Example:  say I want to email a Word document.

Windows:  in Word, save the file.  Start up email client.  Open up a new email message and go to "Attach".  Try to remember where the file is saved.  Navigate through several levels of directory tree to find file.  Attach file to email.  If sending several files, repeat several times.  Then type email and send.

Mac:  drag the icon in the title bar of the Word document (representing a little document) on to the Mail icon in the dock.  Up pops a window with the document already embedded in it.  If sending several files just drag and drop them straight into the mail from the application, or from Finder.  Type email and send.

I'm pretty handy with keyboard shortcuts, so the Windows version would probably take me 15-20 seconds for 2 attachments in different places.  The Mac way takes me about 3-5 seconds.  Go figure.

[andrew2986]

Just my 2 penneth, I run MAC's and PC's (although the PC's are tablets where I am using them wirelessly to control equipment )
One of my Mac's hardrives broke the other day  (it happens, all things can break )! However I took it to the apple store in Lakeside and they fixed it there and then (took them 45 mins) and they also replaced my battery FOC as it was not up to spec. they also helped me out with some I pod syncing issues I was having and all for £130.00... Apple have a great after sale service run by possibly the most helpful staff you could ever want to meet. And I was only without my laptop for 2 hrs !! (that includes driving to the store and having lunch)

Andy

[Manicminer]

Example:  say I want to email a Word document.

Windows:  in Word, save the file.  Start up email client.  Open up a new email message and go to "Attach".  Try to remember where the file is saved.  Navigate through several levels of directory tree to find file.  Attach file to email.  If sending several files, repeat several times.  Then type email and send.

Mac:  drag the icon in the title bar of the Word document (representing a little document) on to the Mail icon in the dock.  Up pops a window with the document already embedded in it.  If sending several files just drag and drop them straight into the mail from the application, or from Finder.  Type email and send.

In Windows you just click the email icon and it does the same.

[strapping young lad]

you will get the mac vs windows discussion till the proverbial cows go wandering and at the end of the day its down to personal preference..

i would like a mac but ive used windows for donkeys and its like teaching an old dog new tricks whatever you do on the mac you cannot stop but think.. but you do it like this on windows..

i find the irony of the sys admins in work who harp on about linux being the holy grail of operating systems yet they have xp on their laptops.. cos they cant work out how to access exchange properly..

:)

stick with what you know or push the boat out and get a mac book air they look mint!

tbh ALL i do these days is browse, check email which is gmail anyway, and msn

these can be done on a mobile phone! but even so my computer preference had i have a blank cheque and nothing to start from i would possibly push for a mac.

[thermidorthelobster]

In Windows you just click the email icon and it does the same.

You do for the first attachment.  Then Outlook locks down so you can't do anything else until you've sent that one message, or (totally logically) saved it as a draft.  Great design.

[TechnoTurkey]

Buy a Dell and enjoy the security of a big brand.

I hate to say this, after working for a UK PC Manufacturer for 7 years before they went bust, but don't buy anything from a uk company - especially in this current economic climate.  Also make sure you purchase on your credit card if you can, as this gives you extra protection.

[Disco Matt]

I'll put a vote in for the little Eee PCs. I've had an Eee 900 for a few months now and it's great. Mine came with Linux and for most people it would be perfect. It'll browse the web, connect to your email account, write documents, etc. It also boots in about thirty seconds!

[TechnoTurkey]

I've got an EEE as well, just the old 701 but running Ubuntu instead of Xandros, love the thing.  However not practical to use it as a 'main' pc.  I am also tempted by the Samsung NC10 and may get one soon if I can find the funds..

[Bob696]

Macs have 2 problems.

1) they are damned expensive for what you get (although for the extra you do get some very nice cases :shock: :roll:)

2) Software availability. All of the Mac owners I know end up running a PC emulator for somethings if not most things.

[thermidorthelobster]

2) Software availability. All of the Mac owners I know end up running a PC emulator for somethings if not most things.

Really?  Such as?  I've found I can do pretty much anything I want with open source software or cheap payable software.  The only thing I run in Windows is an obscure photo stitching program and Memory Map.  I use it about every three months or so.

[marjan]

Buy a Dell and enjoy the security of a big brand.

I hate to say this, after working for a UK PC Manufacturer for 7 years before they went bust, but don't buy anything from a uk company - especially in this current economic climate.  Also make sure you purchase on your credit card if you can, as this gives you extra protection.

Yep, gotta agree on this one, go for a Dell. After all the BBC use them so they must be pretty good  :)

[carbore]

Two weeks ago I had to re deploy 2 PC as we de downscaling our business and re allocating laptops

Both needed total restore but both were missing original vendor disks (bud did have WIN OEM licence)

Dell: Installed generic windows, entered service tag on Dell website, presented with EXACT list of drivers needed for that specific laptop (no need to enter any other info like SN or my name/email etc), Installed drivers. Worked as good as new and all hardware working fine.

Acer. Nearly Installed generic windows but wanted to check I had all the drivers went to acer, couldnt find the model, tried about six different support site sites from Acer (not 3rd parties, just various EMEA/World etc sites). Finally found a 3rd party site after about 30mins of googling. Gave up and just built a new user profile as it was not that old anyway and I had more important work to do.


I diddnt like dell becuase they once annoyed we with dissapearing special offers and foreign call centers (and they have now closed the Ireland one), but based on the above if you are not inclined to have to become an IT expert to recover the most basic of issue, then Dell are quite convincing.

I have not used a mac since they were all in one boxes with a screen, but remember them being fairly easy to support, not they they ever needed much as they never seemed to go wrong.

Also re Macs and Govt. IF they send you forms that dont work, complain the Govt are supposed to be vendor neutral so should really use RTF not DOC

[thermidorthelobster]

I've noticed the disappearing offers thing with Dell too.  In the past I've twice tried to buy "offers" from the paper (on behalf of other people) and found that when you go through to the checkout you mysteriously can't buy what they said at the price they were offering.  You'd have thought this was false advertising but no doubt they have some get-out clause.  It annoyed me enough that I bought from HP instead though.

[SimonHarwood]

Also re Macs and Govt. IF they send you forms that dont work, complain the Govt are supposed to be vendor neutral so should really use RTF not DOC

RTF is another MicroS**t format.

An increasing number of the world's governments are now requiring all documents to be in Open Document Format (ODF) since that is not vendor specific (and especially since it is not a secret specification that has been patented by MicroS**t). Though it is not yet supported as a "native format" by MicroS**t (AFAIK), they have produced a patch that will allow ODF to be used as an alternative format (Save As). Most of the other Office Suite vendors have adopted ODF as a native format, even though it may not be their default format - but can easily be selected as such in the configuration. (Open Office and Star Office support ODF as their default Native Format already.)

Some people send you PDF forms that you can fill in the blanks and then print out the completed versions (but cannot save them). They are only any good if you send them back by post... otherwise you need to fill them in, print them out, scan them in again (probably in True Colour, or with them being automatically OCR's by the scanning software) and attach the scans to an e-mail.

[ian_s]

i'd go for a dell over a mac. in fact i did
now macs run the same hardware architecture as normal computers, there isnt much to choose between them, only software.
and you can if you want run microsoft windows on a mac.

to get a mac of the same hardware spec as the Dell XPS laptop i bought i would have had to pay about 1400 quid, not 700.
just a slight difference there

[Bob696]

2) Software availability. All of the Mac owners I know end up running a PC emulator for somethings if not most things.

Really?  Such as?  I've found I can do pretty much anything I want with open source software or cheap payable software.  The only thing I run in Windows is an obscure photo stitching program and Memory Map.  I use it about every three months or so.

Well you have answered your own question really. You know something? I have NEVER run a Mac emulator (even if one exists).

[zulublue]

Hi  Neil, I have worked for a couple of large PC vendors, Acer and Fujitsu Siemens I also know Ebuyer, Laptops Direct and so on, a few things to consider are as follows. for a branded unit you can use www.pricerunner.co.uk


Do you need a desktop PC, will a laptop do the job - the prices have come down greatly over the last 12 months
Piece of mind, as mentioned go for someone you know
After sales support - I have never owned a Mac, but I do hear their support is very good
Dell, I have 4 PC's at home one is a Dell, and I must admit the build quality is really good, it is a business PC but the cables are all tied away very neatly
May you want to upgrade in the future, this may answer point one as Desktop units are more flexible to upgrade
Are you green and interested in the environment outlook of the company you are buying from, if so buy the good shopping guide, it will give you all the companies outlook on the green and ethical message.
Vista or XP if your peripheral products, I.E. printer is not too old then I would go with Vista, I am still on XP myself, but will migrate when needed.
Price, you tend to get what you pay for, look out for the deals, I know some of the on line sellers make about £10 per unit sold, so not much room to haggle.
Finally, if you are not to Tech savvy, go and support you highstreet shop they will look after you when you need them.

Hope this helps

Mark