New Laptop... What would you get?

As you can see by my signature I succumbed to the dark side on my lap top. LOL But not on my main tower. Thanks for the Easter Egg (link), thought I had found all the 2k tweak sites. But I`m afraid we are straying to far OT from the OPs` post.

 

You are not! I wanted to know what you would get, OS etc. I'm fascinated!

 

Thanks for the understanding. I am afraid you may be a little hard pressed to find a copy of 2k any longer available for retail sale. I was given a Corporate Lic. vers. several years ago and I guard it with my life. It dose lack the eye candy as mentioned by Ice_Czar, though it is some what obtainable with the right tweaks. If you want, IMO, an OS at least equal to stability as XP but can do with out the bells and whistles that come with XP out of the box then I recommend 2k. MS dose still support it, how ever that support will end for it sooner then it will for XP and of course Vista. Unfortunately, no one can make the final decision for you. Trial and error is the best way to find out, which is not always an option for some. If I had not been given an XP Pro lic. as well I would probably still be running 2k on all 3 PCs. I do know Vista is not in the near future as I plan on waiting at least until SP1 is released for it.....maybe not even then.

 

Main reason for using XP on a laptop is because the wireless networking support of 2K (and pre sp2 XP) is sub standard/problematic and was the sole reason I upgraded to XP.

When I looked for a laptop last year for my parents, I chose a Fujitsu Siemens, better built than the Acer/Dell/HP and even budget IBM's. They run XP, my friend bought the same Laptop and runs Linux fine.

We have loads of cheap Dell laptops at work and they are flakey dont last long, I have a Dell Latitude (at the time a premium model) sub-notebook thats 4 years old, brilliant build quality (wife has dropped it twice , cracked the case and it still runs fine).

 

Well, if I didn't have interoperability constraints with respect to work..., I'd pick up a nice jet black MacBook with OS X. Heck, I might even skip the constraint issue and go dual Win/OS X boot. They are a remarkablly well executed piece of hardware/software.

Blue

 

well VirtualPlastic (surgery for windows) is sort of a central repository of tweaks and tools and can provide you with hours of fun stuff. Most of it is applicable to XP as well as W2K
XP is based on W2K, as W2K was based on NT, they have more in common than they have differences. Those hacks combined with Samurize (freeware) and some creativity pretty much enables you to exercise total control of how things look (Samurize is basically the desktop, but webview is basically Windows Explorer) Of course system wide icon replacement is pretty easy and common (you dont really need third party programs to do it) but extracting and replacing images within applications is more advanced, then there is shell replacement (totally replacing Windows Explorer itself)


welcome to the wild world of customizing
have fun (and backup)

and I'll be avoiding Vista and its DRM altogether, migrating fully to Linux and using VMware* to virtualize W2K to run my windows applications

* step right this way, get your free VMware workstation Beta Test

 

Just look what I've found! OK so it's no notebook, but it's so exquisite it takes my breath away! Wanted to share! Each of these sport custom built hardwood cases that are liquid cooled. Each series is built in a limited run. If you've a January 2007 Wired there's a higher quality shot on page 83.


http://suissacomputers.com/images/galleryYasuko/yasukoGallery.htm


...Returning to reality shortly

 

beautiful indeed I hadnt seen those before
there are lots of modding sites
unfortunately the hardest boxes to mod are laptops,
though it can be done

 

Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. These "machines" did take my breath away but in my case it was because I couldn't stop laughing. Even in Canadian money they are just a little too exquisite for my taste. Thanks that link has really made my day.

 

Let me help you share my vision...
An objet d'art, Lalique, rests upon it's smooth glass top! For you Long View, "Tete De Paon" perhaps! Irresistable, no?


http://www.djltrading.com/car_mascots/

 

^ so simple to accomplish in a desktop and so hard to find in a laptop

http://www.envador.com/cases/InvisiblePC/

have you considered getting a plain jane laptop
(similar to say a Titanium Powerbook)
and simply attaching a multilevel sandblasted piece of lexan?
(design blasted or etched into the back and against the notebook, with a polishable flat top)
with care you might even be able to employ a Borosilicate glass

http://www.frabel.com/engravings/index.html

 

I wouldn't... http://secunia.com/advisories/23003
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/gromozon-is-back.html

 

I've got an Acer laptop. They are not the same Acer we remember from the 1990s. As for the launchAp, I don't use it. I pretty much wiped it clean of all proprietary software.

 

That was the basic premise I made my suggestion under. That she would either install the OS of her choice or gut her pre-loaded lap top down to the basic OS an install the apps. of her choice. I have not purchased an off the shelf PC in ages. But that would be the course I would follow and will follow when the time comes for me to purchase my Acer.

 

not a bad idea to hogtie IE and gut activeX anyway (IMO)

of course I havent tried to do that w\ IE7 yet, which it might (or eventually) have on a new XP install disk
(and almost certainly be shipped in a preinstalled laptop if your not reinstalling)

 

Thanks - I needed an avatar

 

We have three lappies on the go here. One is an older Averatec which has been great.
The other two were bought last Aug. and are cheaper models Compac and Acer.
The Acer has the new Turion processor and is the slower of the bunch. It is also the flimsiest. The keyboard caves in whilst typing. I have noticed this on Toshibas too.
My wife and I fight over the cheapest one - the Compac. Older, semptron processor and it flies along. The Compac is also built like a tank.
The Acer and Compac have good lcd displays.
Linux works good on all of them but best on the Compac due to the Ati model card which has linux drivers.
I had to take a Gateway back. It was really bad. Nothing worked right not even the touchpad.
If I wanted a high-end machine I would look closer at Eurocoms.
http://www.eurocom.ca/

 

you could always use window blinds to make it look better.
and think xp has to many bells and whistles.
vista is gonna be way bloated IMO.
lodore

 

Nice Ice

Almost Critical.

Me too.

See the trend ?

Have had three Tosh's: dropped one 2 metres onto concrete: no probs.
IMO the worstthing is that the little gear stick thingie in the center of the keyboard has gone from almost all LT now.
I really hate the guidepad thingys.

IBM: rock solid HW but lag a bit on configs.
Acer has had v.good reviews lately here in the deep south.

Get as many USB ports as possible.
Make sure there is good wifi options.
"Future Proof" as possible: 32 and 64 bit operability VISTA COMPATIBLE
Massive high speed RAM.

the comments about preinstalled crapola are very pertinent.
get the dealer to have a "clean slate" for you.

Maybe try and get Updated XP SP2 with all the patches preinstalled
Dont forget to install updated FW/AV b4 getting on the www.

Good Luck.
Send some pictures.

HehHeh: get a Mac

 

I occasionally have to work on\with laptops
and its a pain to go from dual 21" monitors (w\ dual KVM) to an ittsy bittsy screen, but using those damn trackball\touchpads arrrggggg!!!!

I bring my own USB 5 button mouse thank you very much