So the wife wants a new laptop.....

[Roo]

I agree. I would not have suggested a Mac for PP either, and I too detest the ceaseless "mine is superior" debate. It's useless. I stepped in here because 1) I was bored at work and 2) you called me a drooling moron lol then charged head first into criticizing Mac users and suggesting that instead of spending a few hundred more on a product we like, we should take a fckn weekend tutorial to learn to use the one that you like. lol I'm just having fun, not taking this seriously at all. Cheers brother Shikitohno.

[Mdisch]

I gave my mother my Vista laptop(Lenovo)... I guess it was about 3 years ago now, and she's had zero problems with it that weren't her doing. It's been rock stable, and has had no viruses. The biggest issue I deal with is her somehow turing the main menu off in Thunderbird, and telling me her email is broken :^D I still haven't figured out how she does it. I'm guess she's fat fingering keys somehow, and turning it off, but I haven't been able to replicate it. That's what they make LogMeIn for anyway :^)

Cheers for LogMein.
And personally I wouldn't want to get into the whole Windows vs. Mac thing, since I'm a lover of Windows and like the lack of limitations. I find a mac harder to navigate and just resetting your internet can be a hassle.

But nor am I a big fan of Dell, heh. I personally use an Acer, and it isn't all that good, but it was cheap and has very few problems. I guess I paid around 600$ for it 2 years ago, and the price has actually remained the same in these two years. Not something you usually see.

But to return to the actual issue here ; Lighted keyboard. It can be quite hard to find a laptop with lighted keyboard that isn't a gamer laptop - and gamer laptops cost about the same as an used car.
Honestly I don't really have a problem with seeing the keyboard - the light from my screen is by far sufficient. And if it isn't enough get a USB-light those things are pretty good.

[Ainkor]

PP, let me ask a quick question....

What do you use your laptop for? The reason I ask is that there are some very nifty tablets out there (Yes, iPads, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab is pretty awesome too).

For "belly computing" there just isn't much better than a tablet!

Oh, and they sell for quite a bit less than a lighted keyboard notebook and the keyboard is all lit up

And if your sold on a laptop, what size range are you looking for? I have a very nice Dell Alienware m11x with a backlit keyboard I'd let go for around $550 or so.

[shikitohno]

I agree. I would not have suggested a Mac for PP either, and I too detest the ceaseless "mine is superior" debate. It's useless. I stepped in here because 1) I was bored at work and 2) you called me a drooling moron lol then charged head first into criticizing Mac users and suggesting that instead of spending a few hundred more on a product we like, we should take a fckn weekend tutorial to learn to use the one that you like. lol I'm just having fun, not taking this seriously at all. Cheers brother Shikitohno.

Sorry it came off that way, although you and internope both read that first post wrong. I never called Mac users drooling morons, I just said that with the arguments they use to justify what essentially boils down to personal preference, they make themselves sound that way. It's one thing to say you like something that makes life easier. I just see so many people complaining about how difficult something is on Windows, when it's really pretty simple. My relatives told me how difficult it was to update windows XP, and that it was much easier on Mac. Arguments like that (I can't figure out how to click a popup button, too hard) sound to me like you're putting yourself down. And you can never really take this argument too seriously, since all sides of it are pretty flawed.

[lxskllr]

Sorry it came off that way, although you and internope both read that first post wrong. I never called Mac users drooling morons, I just said that with the arguments they use to justify what essentially boils down to personal preference, they make themselves sound that way. It's one thing to say you like something that makes life easier. I just see so many people complaining about how difficult something is on Windows, when it's really pretty simple. My relatives told me how difficult it was to update windows XP, and that it was much easier on Mac. Arguments like that (I can't figure out how to click a popup button, too hard) sound to me like you're putting yourself down. And you can never really take this argument too seriously, since all sides of it are pretty flawed.

That's been my take on it too. When people say Windows is hard, I think WTF?! It just about runs itself. It's not quite as easy as Linux. but they're trying :^D

That brings up another point. Linux isn't the 1337 hacker O/S it used to be. It can be as easy, or hard as you want it to be. Something like Ubuntu is dead nuts easy to install, and run. All updates come through a central package manager, and things just work. Once you get used to the inherent differences(same as any O/S), it's just a computer that works. You /can/ do Linux the hard way if desired. Arch, and Gentoo have a dedicated following, but it isn't essential.

[Frosted]

Whatever weirdo said a few posts back don't look at porn obviously hasn't been married with kids. Don't you know what the internet is for?

[Ainkor]

Whatever weirdo said a few posts back don't look at porn obviously hasn't been married with kids. Don't you know what the internet is for?

Isn't that all the internet is for? I thought everything else is just icing on the cake.

[shikitohno]

Said don't download porn, there's a difference. One of my less bright friends asked us to fix his computer. We determined he'd bricked it with the 30GB+ of porn he'd download off Limewire. —_—

[Premium Parrots]

That dell alienware is way too bulky. its a nice computer but really thick.

I'm looking for a 13" or 14" and now that I know the Dell 14Z with a lighted keyboard will be released soon in the USA I'll be happy to wait. Might even find a refurbished one at dell. I buy the longest extended warranty anyway so why not save the coin.

Theres no porn on my computer. If I happen to end up on a porn site by mistake I get off the site pretty dam quick. My wife and I own a preschool. If there were porn on our computers it wouldn't be cool if someone gets a wild hare up their butt and wants to make trouble for us by making false claims. The authorities would be checking our computers first thing I imagine. Being a sworn mandated reporter for the state I am legally bound to report any type of abuse, neglect or what not. The longest I feel safe on a porn site is like 90 seconds. I figure thats ok because its easy to just "end up" on a porn site by mistake without even trying.

besides....porn never interested me much.

[shikitohno]

Glad to hear that you've found something that'll work for you.

[Premium Parrots]

Thanks to all of you. Tho, I was expecting [actually kind of looking forward to] a PC v Mac war here.

I did take a quick look at the apples but I am just getting my wife to learn the PC and if I got an apple I could never get her to understand how to use it.

You guays don't know what I have to deal with here in regards to the wife. For instance....When its naptime here for the children Rose puts up a sign on the screan door saying not to ring the doorbell when someone comes to the door, so the kids don't wake up. Visitors need to knock on the door instead. Pretty easy to hang the notice on the glass, huh? Well, yesterday I walk up to the front door and the sign is hanging there. The only problem is that the writing on the notice is facing inside the building and a blank sign is facing outside.

Need I say more?

[CoderGuy]

Thanks to all of you. Tho, I was expecting [actually kind of looking forward to] a PC v Mac war here.

I did take a quick look at the apples but I am just getting my wife to learn the PC and if I got an apple I could never get her to understand how to use it.

You guays don't know what I have to deal with here in regards to the wife. For instance....When its naptime here for the children Rose puts up a sign on the screan door saying not to ring the doorbell when someone comes to the door, so the kids don't wake up. Visitors need to knock on the door instead. Pretty easy to hang the notice on the glass, huh? Well, yesterday I walk up to the front door and the sign is hanging there. The only problem is that the writing on the notice is facing inside the building and a blank sign is facing outside.

Need I say more?

But I bet she didn't ring the doorbell :P

PC vs Mac is so 2000's, now that Windows 7 is going strong, they are a lot more alike than they used to be.

[shikitohno]

But I bet she didn't ring the doorbell :P

PC vs Mac is so 2000's, now that Windows 7 is going strong, they are a lot more alike than they used to be.

I'm waiting for the iOS versus Android mobile flame wars to spring up. Besides, a good rant between fanboys never really dies out. You can still find people carrying on about which was better, Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis, in the dark depths of the internet.

[Ainkor]

I'm waiting for the iOS versus Android mobile flame wars to spring up. Besides, a good rant between fanboys never really dies out. You can still find people carrying on about which was better, Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis, in the dark depths of the internet.

That's actually kinda fun

Although, I am breaking out of the "tablet" OS game. Just ordered an Acer Iconia W500 windows tablet. Windows 8 is that good.

[devilock76]

How's the customer support on refurb ones? Customer support is where Apple really excels, lately, as far as polls show. A refurbished computer could work nicely for PP's wife. Also, PP, what exactly are you planning on using this new laptop for? Despite what your Mac fanboys or Dell reps may tell you, you might not really need a very good laptop that'll run you tons of money. If your wife just listens to music and browses the internet on her laptop, a dual-core processor at around 2.2GHz with 6-8GB of RAM could likely fit her needs. If she wants to watch HD video, you'll want something with an appropriate graphics card. Hell, if internet, movies, and music is all she'll do with it, you could probably get by fine with a $300 netbook, and still have it remain functional for several years. A lot of people don't seem to consider what a computer is going to be used for before they shout out, "Oh buy a Mac!" "Shut up Macfag, he wants Windows." "Screw both of you, he should get Linux." Similarly, no one seems to give consideration to the notion that if you're only doing a couple simple things, springing for a powerhouse of a computer is kind of silly. Is the new laptop going to be used for anything particularly intense, like playing games, doing heavy audio/visual editing, compiling a lot of software, or regularly running a large number of programs at once? If you can say yes to one of those things, it makes sense for you to aim high with this. If not, you can probably go for a $500-$650 laptop and be more than adequately satisfied with it. Also, does you wife really take advantage of a laptop's portability on a regular basis? If she's using it in the same part of the house 90% of the time, you can likely just get a desktop for her. At around the same cost, they're typically more powerful than laptops in the same price range. It's worth stopping to consider how you'll be using it before you buy it.

It used to be that refurb's got the same support as new computers, however I remember hearing a couple months back that Apple changed that policy and the refurb warranty and service coverage is now slightly less than new. Best bet check the apple store fine print, it should be in there.

I get great result from "under spec'd" machines daily. I mean what I am calling a server is a weak desktop at best for most, but a well done FreeBSD install and I am golden. My laptop that I use as a mobile recording station I can get down to 2 and 4 ms latency running 8 track recording over firewire at 24 bit, 48 khz no problem. It is an older toshiba with 2 gigs of ram and a 1.8 ghz dual core. That is it. Granted I am using Fedora plus the planet CCRMA repos for a realtime kernel.

Then we get to the newly revised machine I am typing this very post on. Was a meager 3 ghz Pentium-D with 1 gig of ram this morning. Now it is 3gig of ram, 500 extra gb in a new SATA HD, installed Arch linux on it. Granted just started installing things but it is blazing. This is a desktop machine but it is about to handle in house recording and media duties and the Arch install notes and experience will become the template to converting the afore mentioned Fedora laptop to Arch.

Ken